What Has Happened to the Chicago White Sox?
Entering play on Monday, the Chicago White Sox are a Major League-worst 3-18, but just a few years ago, they looked like they were ready to take the league by storm. What's happened?
Entering play on Monday, the Chicago White Sox are a Major League-worst 3-18. They have hit the fewest home runs in baseball (11), have the fewest runs scored in baseball (45), have the worst batting average in baseball (.188) and have the lowest on-base percentage at .264.
What's hard to process though is how this happened, because just a few years ago, the White Sox looked like an organization ready to contend for years to come. And by all measures of team building, they did just about everything you could want to right. It just hasn't worked in the way that it worked for World Champion rebuild darlings Kansas City Royals (2015), Chicago Cubs (2016) and Houston Astros (2017), though it should be noted the White Sox made the playoffs in 2020 and 2021, though they lost in the first round each year.
Let's back up and re-visit some history:
1) After the 2016 season, the White Sox embarked on a rebuild. They traded ace Chris Sale to the Boston Red Sox for top overall prospect Yoan Moncada and top pitching prospect Michael Kopech. They also dealt reliable outfielder Adam Eaton to the Washington Nationals for prospects Lucas Giolito, Dane Dunning and Reynaldo Lopez. Furthermore, in the 2017 season, they traded away lefty Jose Quintana to the Cubs for prospects Dylan Cease, Eloy Jimenez and two others.
You've heard of most of those names, right? Cease became a Cy Young finalist in Chicago. Giolito became an All-Star. Jimenez became a 30-home run hitter, Kopech has had moments as both a starter and a reliever and Lopez became a valued bullpen arm. Moncada also had an excellent 2019 season eventually.
So, the White Sox acquired a number of players that ended up hitting for the organization. They went through some painful 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons, but heading into 2020, they were well positioned with a lot of that young talent matriculated to the Majors. They still had Jose Abreu. They had a young shortstop in Tim Anderson, who was a homegrown player, who won a batting title in 2019.
Furthermore, when teams rebuild, we ask them to not only play with prospects, we ask them to spend. The White Sox did, spending money on free agents Yasmani Grandal (an All-Star) and Dallas Keuchel (a Cy Young winner). They went and spent big on Liam Hendriks, an All-Star closer, before the 2021 season. They brought in Lance Lynn in a trade with the Rangers before the 2021 season, and then extended him. They added Joe Kelly before the 2022 season. They brought in Andrew Benintendi before 2023. They did everything that fans and pundits ask a team to do when they appear ready to win.
In addition to developing prospects and spending in free agency, we ask teams to take care of their own. They did that too, inking Jimenez, Luis Robert Jr. and Anderson to long-term deals at young ages. These deals all looked like wins for the organization at the time.
The question is what happened to this team full of potential that made two playoff appearances?
Well, let's just start here: Lynn was dreadful in the 2023 season, going 6-9 with a 6.47 ERA before being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He's now with the Cardinals. Keuchel was let go in the 2022 season and is currently in Triple-A. Kelly had an ERA over six in the 2022 season and had ERA near five in the 2023 season before also being dealt to the Dodgers.
Lopez and Giolito were traded also during the 2023 season while Abreu was allowed to walk in free agency after 2022. Moncada, Robert Jr. and Jimenez are all still in the organization but all of them have spent considerable times on the injured list over the last three years. Anderson's numbers plummeted in 2023 and his team option was declined, so he signed with the Marlins this past offseason. Cease was traded to the San Diego Padres.
There was also the stink of the Tony La Russa managerial tender, questions about in-fighting in the clubhouse, and GM Rick Hahn was fired.
The White Sox are once again in a rebuild. They did everything right the first time, will things work out better this time around?
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