Is a Sox Machine subscription worth it? It depends on what you value in life.
If unplugging from the internet and shedding a sedentary lifestyle is a priority in this feckless digital age, perhaps not. But if you're incurably the type of person who cannot handle the emotional shock of waking up before 8 a.m. on a Monday and seeing a Jon Heyman report that Austin Slater has a major league deal with the White Sox without prior warning, we here at Sox Machine can both confirm that the agreement with Slater is pending a physical, and remind that we took great efforts to prepare our audience for this reality.
From a month ago:
Because of the crucial possession of a disappointing and injury-marred 2024 to tank his market price, Austin Slater looks more plausible, as the 31-year-old had a four-year run of killing major league lefties before a concussion took him out of the Giants plans and saw him bounce around to two other teams by years end.
Exactly a month later, the Sox 40-man roster outfield mix is still all left-handed outside of Luis Robert Jr. and Corey Julks. And the calendar has swung around to that crucial part of the offseason where an early major league offer can cut through the noise for a player like Slater, who otherwise might have faced a lengthy discernment on where's the best chance for a bounce-back season after a down season as a 31-year-old.
Paul DeJong signed in November last year, and we're a year and two days removed from the Aaron Bummer trade. To hell with Thanksgiving, White Sox veteran bounce-back acquisitions are the reason for the season.
From 2019-2023, Slater had a much more unambiguous case to be a valuable addition to any roster, hitting a combined .256/.349/.421, with a nutty COVID-year performance spiking the overall line. More specifically, Slater hit .284/.378/.484 with 24 homers in 663 plate appearances against left-handed pitching over that span, providing a clear path to how he could co-exist with Dominic Fletcher, Zach DeLoach, or even Oscar Colás playing well enough to stake a larger claim to right field plate appearances. Slater is even represented by the same agency as Fletcher and Gavin Sheets, so it's pretty unlikely he'll walk in without a healthy knowledge of how the workload might be divided.
Between attending Stanford and being drafted by the Giants, Slater had spent over a decade in the Bay Area before he was traded twice this July, to Cincinnati and eventually Baltimore. Coming off elbow surgery last offseason, the already tricky task of staying in rhythm as a platoon bat was further challenged by a concussion in early May that put Slater on the IL for nearly a month. Such a disjointed year of misfortune would already make Slater a reclamation project for someone coming off a .209/.321/.266 campaign at the plate, but further sealing the fit for the White Sox is they recently brought on some of the personnel that has been working to get Slater back on track since August.
Playing in San Francisco didn't do him any favors, but Slater's success against left-handers has been defined a bit more by on-base ability than elite power. So his one kernel of optimism in an otherwise lost 2024 was hitting .246/.342/.333 in 33 games with Baltimore after a small trade with the Reds brought him over at the end of July. At that point, White Sox director of hitting Ryan Fuller, who just spoke to reporters last week about trying to make his new organization a landing spot for hitters seeking bounce-back seasons, was part of the effort to restore Slater's balance to a point where he could keep his weight back long enough to make good swing decisions.
"Meetings like these are common for new players to the organization, co-hitting coach Matt Borgschulte said, and they’re all “unique” for that specific player. Borgschulte and the rest of Baltimore’s hitting coaches eyed changes to Slater’s swing to keep his bat in the zone longer, allowing him to tap into his gap-to-gap power rather than pulling off the ball. They liked the recent change he made with the Reds to lower his bat angle in his stance. They also recommended he keep his front hip closed longer and shorten his load, allowing him to stay on his back side longer and avoid lunging forward."
Possibly my favorite old scouting sayings is "can't hit, can't play," but with past displays of above-average speed, efficient basestealing and well-rated corner defense that's even seen him mix at center field occasionally, league average defense at age 31 seems like a safe expectation for Slater, with fuel for ambition of a bit more. The baseline takeaway is that matching up Slater against a left-handed starting pitcher shouldn't involve any sort of defensive sacrifice unless you're giving Luis Robert Jr. a day off in center.
There's only so long you can talk through how sensible of a fit Slater is for an existing role before acknowledging that the White Sox position group performance of last year would have quickly had him batting middle of the order -- and for a couple months, maybe playing center -- on a daily basis. Slater's lefty-mashing seems ideal for a Sox offense that managed a league-worst 74 wRC+ against southpaws last season. But since Sox hitting also only scraped together a 75 wRC+ against righties, Slater's .229/.316/.333 career line against same-handed pitchers wouldn't look out of place either.
If first-year manager Will Venable finds himself scrounging for offense amid another Robert IL stint, the Fletcher/DeLoach/Colás mix doesn't perform any better than 2024 and Bryan Ramos and Miguel Vargas are too busy fighting with the Mendoza line to mix into DH reps, Slater could end up overextended on a roster that is more than an effective Austin Slater away from being a complete team. Just because the White Sox are shopping for role players rather than everyday stalwarts in free agency doesn't preclude circumstances from demanding more.
But as someone who shouted out his own right-handed, right field platoon partner in his introductory press conference, few managers should be as geared to appreciate Slater's skill set as acutely as Venable. Fuller shouldn't be too pressed in putting together a PowerPoint presentation for how Slater can be effective, since he was part of making one earlier this year. And while any free agent who comes to the White Sox after this past season is probably not at the height of their value, it's not hard to build a case that this is the right spot for Slater at this time.
