Assuming Andrew Benintendi possessed the capability of starting this season like he finished last season, he gave the White Sox lineup the best chance at having something resembling a heart.
With a broken hand putting the Benintenaissance on hold for four to six weeks, you're now looking at Mike Tauchman setting the table for Luis Robert Jr. and Andrew Vaughn on Opening Day, followed by six worse bets.
There aren't many bigger blows to the White Sox's hopes of even mediocre run production, especially if the non-displaced fracture nags him the way his broken hamate did two years ago. Both involved his right hand. The hope is that the lack of surgery this time around will make a complete recovery far less complicated.
If there's any silver lining, Benintendi's injury loosens up the 26-man roster in a way few others could, due to his being limited to the least demanding outfield position and DH.
For starters, it makes the signing of Michael A. Taylor a little less confining. When the White Sox agreed to the one-year, $1.95 million contract with Taylor at the start of spring training, it locked in all five outfielders on guaranteed deals. Assuming a Robert trade will have to wait until midseason, it ran the risk of limiting the upside -- or at least the mobility -- of the roster for months. My misgivings became a little clearer when reading why David Stearns wanted to give Nick Madrigal lots of run with the Mets, at least before Madrigal's shoulder had other ideas:
Stearns prefers to not “freeze” his entire position-player group, as he put it, meaning he likes having the flexibility of utilizing minor-league options. [Jose] Iglesias no longer holds a minor-league option. Neither does anyone on the Mets’ projected lineup outside of catcher Francisco Alvarez, and it’s not like he’s going anywhere. Bench players like Luis Torrens, Tyrone Taylor and Starling Marte? Nope, no options, either. Hence the “freeze” situation Stearns referred to.
Madrigal, 27, holds minor-league options. He’s on a split contract (different salaries in the majors and minors), and there’s no guarantee that he will win a bench spot, but he’s firmly in the mix along with younger players such as Luisangel Acuña and Brett Baty.
Taylor can now fulfill the original plan of spelling Robert in center and closing out games defensively without locking out any more promising bats that could also end up in the mix. The outfield depth chart isn't awash in players who fit that description -- a Bryan Ramos with a healthy throwing arm would've been handy to have here -- but if Dominic Fletcher rounds into the form the White Sox hoped to see last year, he can earn the kind of playing time the White Sox hoped to give him in 2024. If he fails to distinguish himself, perhaps Brandon Drury becomes this year's Robbie Grossman, unless Joey Gallo somehow beats him to it.
Then there's the DH portion of Benintendi's projected playing time, which could be the more valuable part of the equation, depending on the state of Miguel Vargas' game at the end of the spring.
Vargas is off to an unremarkable start at the plate, although his eight plate appearances wouldn't stand out in any way were he not coming off a .387 OPS over his first 157 PAs with the Sox in 2024. The early stumbles at third base are the more troubling aspect, especially since Will Venable has more or less earmarked the position for him. A Vargas who can't contribute with the bat or glove hurts the White Sox two times over.
With the White Sox's most likely DH candidate temporarily out of the picture, third base is no longer the only place to give Vargas the long look his lack of options inspires. Vargas could slide over to DH, or play first base while Vaughn DHs. That would then open third base for Josh Rojas — whom Venable has praised for taking a leadership role in defensive drills — if the White Sox want a glove-first option on the left side, or the similarly out-of-options Lenyn Sosa if he continues to thump the door open. Neither Vargas nor Sosa is certain enough to start making plans around one month out, but we can at least start to chart the potential paths the White Sox can use to mitigate the downsides of their lesser options.
In a world where Vargas recovers to look suitable at third until his bat says otherwise, then Drury's history of high-powered utility work can ping-pong between second base, left field and DH. It's just probably best to hold off on the ramifications on the other side of the infield until there's more confidence that Colson Montgomery's back spasms aren't nearly as crippling as the back strain that cost him the first couple months of the 2023 season. The shortstop options who aren't Montgomery all reside on the 2B depth chart, meaning that any super-utility concepts could take a backseat to all of the playing time to cover on the infield.
