Cal Baseball: Andrew Vaughn Makes Progress in Year 2, But White Sox Miss Postseason

He had career-bests of 17 home runs and 76 RBI before fading late in the season.

The baseball playoffs begin Friday with Andrew Vaughn and his Chicago White Sox on the outside looking in.

The former Cal star made a substantial leap in performance this season from his rookie year in 2021. But the White Sox finished 12 games off their pace of a year ago and came nowhere near the postseason.

“The disappointing year we had, the players didn’t play to our potential,” Vaughn told the Chicago Sun-Times. “We have to go home hungrier and think about that.”

There will be changes on the White Sox before next season — manager Tony La Russa already is out after two years. Chicago won the AL Central title a year ago at 93-69, beating Cleveland by 13 games. This year, the Guardians won the division by 11 games over the 81-81 Sox.

Andrew Vaughn signs an autograph for a young fan.

Photo by Brian Sevald, USA Today

Injuries ravaged the roster this season and the White Sox battled hard just to stay around .500. They never got far over that plateau.

For Vaughn, 24, his sophomore MLB season was solid much of the year, very good at times. The White Sox suffered a serious power dip this season , but Vaughn led the team with 17 home runs and 76 RBIs. Both were improvements on his totals of 15 and 48 from the year before.

He was batting .333 on June 22, and still was at .300 on Aug. 15. But he hit just .200 over his final 41 games, and was completely out of gas his final 10 games, going 1-for-34.

The 2018 winner of the Golden Spikes Award as college baseball’s bet player, Vaughn told the Chicago Tribune he learned “a bunch of things” this season.

“Your body, how to take care of yourself,” he said. “Also getting to the league another year, you get to face pitchers again. Learn what they’ve got but they also learn what you have so you’ve got to do your homework.

“See what he’s done to you before and go to your strengths and see what you can do to beat him.”

A first baseman during his three seasons at Cal, Vaughn continued to be used heavily in the outfield by Chicago, playing 45 games in right and 43 in left.

While Vaughn’s physical ailments this season paled in comparison to those of some of his teammates, he didn’t get through the scheduled unscathed.

He had a hip pointer during spring training, spent a short stint in the injured list in May due to a bruised hand was hit by a pitch in an August game that deflected off his shoulder and hit him in the face.

Vaughn took it all in stride.

“That’s part of the game,” he said. “Stuff’s going to happen to you throughout the year. I’m glad nothing has happened that’s been injury of a muscle or something like that.

“I got hit in the wrist, I didn’t dive very well and hurt my hip. I got hit in the face. But I’ve been happy the way my body has been.”

Cover photo of Andrew Vaughn by Kamil Krzaczynsk, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo