MLB Team Roundup: Chicago White Sox
Fantasy Cy Young candidates 2023: Snell, Eflin
D.J. Short and Eric Samulski reveal their picks for this year's fantasy baseball Cy Young winner including Blake Snell and Zach Eflin.
Chicago White Sox
2023 record: 61-101 (.377)
Fourth Place, AL Central
Team ERA: 4.88 (26th)
Team OPS: .675 (29th)
What Went Right
Nothing?
Jake Burger was finally healthy and had a power breakout, but the White Sox traded him to Miami at the deadline. However, they did get back an exciting prospect in Jake Eder, so maybe that still counts as something going right?
Luis Robert did enjoy a bit of a breakout season before being shut down a few games early with an injury. The 26-year-old hit .264/.315/.542 with 38 home runs, 90 runs scored, 80 RBI, and 20 steals in 145 games. Considering he hadn't been able to play more than 100 games in each of his first three seasons, this was certainly a positive development for Chicago. He certainly traded some batting average for power as his 28.9% strikeout rate was easily the highest of his career, but he was a 5.0 WAR player, so the White Sox are not complaining.
Otherwise, really not much else went right. Elvis Andrus and Mike Clevinger proved to be solid depth free agent signings, but the problem is that they were tasked with being a lot more than depth. Gregory Santos emerged as a solid bullpen find for the late innings, pitching to a 3.39 ERA and showcasing a nasty slider; however, he couldn't capitalize on his chance at the closer's role late in the season and posted just a 22.8% strikeout rate, which is not great for a potential ninth inning man.
What Went Wrong
With Tony La Russa gone, this was supposed to be a fresh start for the White Sox, but apparently the issues in Chicago were deeper than just an out of touch manager. In addition to their atrocious OPS rank, the offense finished dead last in on-base percentage, 25th in batting average, 25th in ISO, 29th in wRC+, and 19th in strikeout rate. They were bottom third in runs scored, RBI, and steals which is the most basic way to suggest that they were not an offense that produced much of any fantasy value.
Perhaps the biggest story was Liam Hendriks, who battled back from cancer only to suffer an arm injury and have to undergo Tommy John surgery. There's no question that Hendriks is a leader on this team, and there's a good chance that watching him endure all he had to endure was tough on a lot of his teammates. In his absence, the bullpen ranked 26th in ERA and 22nd in strikeout rate. It wasn't much better for the starters, who posted a 4.88 ERA that was good for 23rd in baseball.
The struggles of the rotation were highlighted by a huge step back from Dylan Cease, who posted a 4.58 ERA (4.08 xFIP) and 15.4% walk rate. Co-ace Lance Lynn also had a 6.47 ERA (4.03 xFIP) and 2.11 HR/9 before being sent to the Dodgers at the trade deadline. Lucas Giolito was just, you know, fine with a 3.79 ERA and 17.6% K-BB% rate and then was traded to the Angels before the trade deadline. That left the rotation with Clevinger as their most reliable arm in the second half of the season, which is certainly not what they were hoping for.
Offensively, the biggest struggles were from Tim Anderson, and not for getting into an actual fist fight in the field but for hitting as many home runs on the season as times he got hit in the face in a brawl. In addition to his lack of power, Anderson batted just .245/.286/.296 which was easily the worst season of his career. Chicago also dealt with another injury-riddled season for Eloy Jimenez, who was held to 120 games while posting a solid but not spectacular .272/.317/.411 slash line with 18 home runs and 64 RBIs. The team also continued to see Yasmani Grandal decline across the board, didn't get anything from Cuban prospect Oscar Colas (.216/.257/.314), and saw their big free agent signing, Andrew Benintendi, hit .262/.326/.356 with five home runs, 75 runs scored, 45 RBI, and 13 steals in 151 games.
Fantasy Slants
** Luis Robert Jr. was one of just six hitters (Ronald Acuña Jr., Bobby Witt Jr., Shohei Ohtani, Julio Rodriguez, and Francisco Lindor) to eclipse 30 homers and 20 steals on the season. We already talked above about his breakout, but this season put him on the map as one of a truly special group of fantasy hitters. If he's able to stay healthy again next year, he should be one of the top 15 best fantasy hitters in the game.
** Not a lot went right for Dylan Cease this year, but his 10.88 K/9 was 6th-best in all of baseball and his 27.3% strikeout rate was 9th-best. It just so happens that his 10.1% walk rate was 5th-worst among qualified starters and his swinging strike rate fell to 14.4%. For the second straight year, Cease's curve hasn't really missed bats and has performed poor metrically. He was able to overcome that in 2022 because his slider was so dominant, but with both his slider and four-seam a bit less effective this year, the lack of consistent third pitch became even more of an issue. If Cease is unable to find another offering to help keep the pressure off of his slider, he may remain a volatile SP3-4 level fantasy asset going forward.
** In the second half of the season, Yoán Moncada hit .281/.324/.464 in 53 games with eight home runs, 22 runs, and 27 RBI. He continues to strike out too much and no longer runs at all, which caps his fantasy upside pretty drastically. However, he did post a 10.1% barrel rate (second best of his career) and his highest ISO since 2019 so perhaps there is some deep league value in a version of Moncada that hits .260 with 25+ home runs. That would, of course, require him to stay healthy.
** The White Sox essentially bought Luis Patiño from the Rays, trading for him in exchange for cash on August 1st. The 23-year-old made five mediocre starts in Triple-A before the White Sox called him up to the big leagues in September. In 17.2 innings (six relief appearances and one start) Patiño had a 3.57 ERA with 16 hits allowed and 13 strikeouts. He also walked 12 batters. It also seems that the White Sox added a sinker as the right-hander's primary pitch, and he threw it 34% of the time with Chicago. Considering his four-seam has not been a good pitch for him so far, becoming more of a sinker/slider pitcher could be interesting. With all of the turnover in the rotation, there's a good chance Patino will be in the battle for a spot in 2024.
** 21-year-old Bryan Ramos began to put things together in Double-A this year, slashing .271/.369/.457 with 14 home runs and four steals in 77 games. There are many scouts who consider him a potential star, so if he's able to carry that momentum into a strong Arizona Fall League campaign, he could push for a spot on the active roster in Spring Training. That makes him a name to watch this offseason.
Your fantasy season doesn’t end after the draft. Dominate your fantasy football league with our new FREE Season Tools, including Weekly Expert Rankings, Targets Reports, Lineup Adviser, Trade Analyzer and more. Click here to get started.
Key Free Agents
Yasmani Grandal, Elvis Andrus, Alex Colome, Tim Anderson ($14 million club option), Liam Hendriks ($15 million club option), Mike Clevinger ($12 million mutual option).
Team Needs
Everything? Looking ahead to 2024, it seems that the only spots secured in the White Sox lineup are Luis Robert in center field, Eloy Jimenez at DH, and Andrew Vaughn at 1B. Yoan Moncada as the inside track at 3B, and I assume Andrew Benintendi will continue to start in LF because they gave him a lot of money to do that, but the rest of the lineup is wide open. Will they bring Anderson back? Does Oscar Colas get another chance? Will they turn second base over to 22-year-old speedster Jose Rodriguez?
Rotation spots are similarly up for grabs behind Cease and Michael Kopech. Will the team bring back Clevinger? Does Jesse Scholtens get another shot at the rotation? There are a handful of former top prospects like Patiño, Touki Toussaint, Jake Eder, and Deivi Garcia in the mix now. Will any of them crack the top five? Similarly, without Hendriks, the back end of the White Sox bullpen is full of question marks. Does Garrett Crochet get a chance to close if healthy next year?
Basically, the White Sox have a choice to make this offseason about how quickly they want to contend or how much they want to lean on youth in 2024. Considering MLB Pipeline ranks Chicago as the 20th best farm system and FanGraphs has them at 12th, they don't seem to have the MLB-ready talent to go young and still be a competitive team next year. Will they take some big swings or make a slew of one-year signings to try and get them to some of their more intriguing younger talent?
All that remains unclear, but what we do know is that this should be a nearly unrecognizable team come 2024.
