3 Things To Improve All 30 Teams — The Chicago White Sox
It is official. The league and the MLBPA have agreed on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement and we will be getting baseball. Opening Day is scheduled for April 7th, and they say we’re getting a full 162 games. What a time to be alive!
That’s not why we’re here today, however. Today, we continue our alphabetical trip through the League and see what 3 things we can pin point that the Chicago White Sox can do to improve upon their 2021 campaign. Finishing the year with a record of 93–69, the ChiSox won the AL Central but were quickly eliminated from the playoffs in the Divisional round by the Houston Astros 3 games to 1. Their record and a quick exit from the playoffs could be a sign of coming out of one of the weakest divisions in baseball, but don’t count these guys out. They’re still a force to be reckoned with. That is, if they can keep their star youngsters on the field..
1. Keep Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert On The Field For 150+
Eloy Jimenez has only been in the league since 2019 and Luis Robert since 2020, so it is not that huge of an issue. Yet. The White Sox did the unthinkable and had Eloy make his Major League debut on Opening Day of 2019. He had a solid rookie season slashing .267/.315/.513 with 31 homeruns, an OPS+ of 116, and a 4th place finish in AL RotY voting over only 122 games. He followed that up with an even better season in the shortened 2020 with a slash of .296/.332/.559, 14 homeruns, an OPS+ of 139, and a Silver Slugger award. 2021 was not as good to Eloy. Only slashing .249/.303/.437 with 10 homeruns, and an OPS+ of 100 in the same amount of games he played in 2020, 55.
Since Eloy’s debut in 2019, he has had an opportunity to play in 384 games. He has, however, only played in 232 games or 60.4% of potential games. Over a 162 game season, that comes out to 97.875 games. Not even 100. Coming into his age 25 season, he needs to get that average up by proving that he can play 150+ which should lead to an easy 40 homerun season for the slugger.
Luis Robert debuted on 2020’s Opening Day in a season that only had 60 regular season games. He scuffled here and there putting up a slash of .233/.302/.436 with 11 homeruns, an OPS+ of 100, a runner up finish for the 2020 AL RotY, and a Gold Glove award over 56 games. Luis seemed to have turned it around in 2021 putting up a slash of .338/.378/.567 with 13 homeruns and a 155 OPS+ over only 68 games.
Luis has had an opportunity to play in 222 games, but has only played in 124 or 55.85% of potential games. Over a full season, that comes out to 90.486 games. Also not even 100. Luis will turn 25 in August and he too needs to show the White Sox that he can withstand a full 162 game season by playing at least 150 games for the first time in his young career.
Both of these guys are still very young and it is still early in their careers so this isn’t a huge deal yet. But if Eloy doesn’t make 150 games this year, he will have the fragile tag applied. Luis at least has a couple more years before it really becomes an issue with him. If both these guys can play 150+ this year, they could both eclipse 40 homeruns and clinch another AL Central title for the White Sox.
2. Re-sign Carlos Rodon
Now that the lockout is over and trading and free agent signing can begin again, the first task on the White Sox agenda should be to sign Carlos Rodon. Carlos has spent the first 7 years of his Major League career with the team and the White Sox should want him to spend the next 7 years there too.
A career 3.79 ERA guy, Rodon seemed to find the missing ingredient to pitching before having his season cut short due to injury last year. Over 24 starts, Rodon pitched 132.2 innings, struck out 185 batters for a K/9 of 12.6 (strikeouts per 9 innings pitched), had an ERA of 2.37, a WHIP (walks + hits divided by innings pitched) of .957, an ERA+ of 183, and threw a no hitter! He was elected to his first career All Star game for his performance and still finished 5th in Cy Young voting despite his shortened season.
With an already top heavy rotation of Lucas Giolito and Dylan Cease, placing Carlos Rodon in the 2 hole in the rotation would be scary. Their rotation would then include 3 guys coming off of 10+ K/9 seasons. The ChiSox need to do whatever they can to lock this guy up long term. Somewhere in the 7 year, $240 million range should cut it.
3. Find A Solid 5th Starter In Free Agency
As noted just above, the 2021 ChiSox had a 1–2–3 punch of Lucas Giolito, Carlos Rodon, and Dylan Cease. After Cease, Lance Lynn had a very good year making 28 starts for 157 innings and an ERA of 2.69. At his age, he will make a very solid 4, if not the best 4 in the league. Then comes Dallas Keuchel. The 2015 AL Cy Young award winner imploded over 162 innings putting up an ERA of 5.28, his career full season worst K/9 numbers of 5.3, most HR/9 ever given up over a full season with 1.4, second most H/9 over a full season with 10.5, and second highest WHIP over a full season at 1.531. All of this added up for an ERA+ of 82. It’s time to move Keuchel to the pen or move on from him all together.
Having Keuchel in the pen as a long reliever/(extreme) emergency starter would give the White Sox pen a little more of a break and free up another rotation spot. Having the already solid rotation that they do (assuming they do re-sign Rodon), they would not need to go out and spend an insane amount of money on a top tier guy, but could pick up a solid back of the rotation guy on the cheap.
Julio Teheran would be the perfect low risk-high reward option for the White Sox to turn to. Coming off a 2021 where he only made 1 start and had his season shut down due to injury, the White Sox should be able to pick him up on a 1 year deal for league minimum or at most $1.5 million. He’s only 31, and should he be fine to pitch this year, you can count on the 2 time all star to give you 25–30 solid starts and could turn out to be the best 5 hole pitcher in baseball.
With the off-season now quickly coming to a close and Spring Training starting any day now, these teams need to start thinking about ways they can improve. These guides would be a great place for them to start!
This has been part 5 in our pre-season series deep diving into teams and finding 3 ways they can improve upon their 2021 seasons. Our previous entries include the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Atlanta Braves, the Baltimore Orioles, and the Boston Red Sox. Next up, we’ll go just across town and cover the Chicago Cubs!
