The White Sox could have used Jed Lowrie

The Chicago White Sox have been the surprise team of the 2014-2015 offseason, acquiring players such as Jeff Samardzija, David Robertson, Melky Cabrera, Adam LaRoche and Zach Duke. All of whom should help them compete in the 2015 and beyond, but with almost every team in the American League, sans the Houston Astros and Minnesota Twins, looking to be competitive next season, the White Sox on paper still do not look great. In fact, Fangraphs’ projected Depth Charts forecast the current White Sox to amass the second-least fWAR in the American League, edging only the Astros out and falling just behind the lowly-regarded Twins. Considering WAR has a pretty strong and irrefutable correlation to winning, this a tad disconcerting.

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While I do think these projections undersell the future value of relievers

and

, who posted a combined 1.4 fWAR in ’14 for the White Sox, by projecting the two to only be worth a combined 0.2 fWAR in 2015, I tend to agree with the rest of their assessment for each player’s value next season. Now, one can quibble with the accuracy of these projections as much as they like, but this is the reality: Chicago has conspicuous holes at second base, catcher, and in the back of the rotation. The free agent market is thinning with each passing day; meaning, it becomes more difficult to upgrade weaknesses as the calendar wears on.

, who reportedly just

signed a three-year deal to return to Houston

, would have been the perfect commodity for the team in the Windy City to improve their outlook at the second base position.

Here is Fangraphs’ Mike Petriello in an article earlier today (obviously before Lowrie signed).

"“If you’re still looking for offense on the free agent market, you’re basically out of luck, other than the still-available Chase Headley. Looking at our Free Agent Tracker, the only hitter left who projects to reach a realistic 2 WAR — i.e., league average — is Jed Lowrie, who is undeniably talented but rarely healthy and probably not a shortstop. (Ignore the overly optimistic outlook on Daric Barton, since this is using Steamer/600, and he’s had 600 plate appearances total over the last four seasons.)”"

Lowrie certainly has had some health issues over the last few years, but he did accumulate 566 plate appearances in 2014 and 662 plate appearances in 2013. His health, or lack thereof, that Petriello speaks of may effect him by stifling him from reaching his true potential; however, he is still on the field, for the most part, and this allows him to yield value. Over the span of three seasons (from 2012 to 2014), he has been the 12th-most valuable shortstop in terms of fWAR, providing above-average offense but shaky defense which subsequently has made it likely he will not play the most-skilled defensive position in baseball much longer. Thus, Lowrie would have been the absolute perfect candidate to play second for the competitive-aspiring White Sox.

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He is just 30 years of age, and would have served as an evident improvement over currently projected starter

at second. Sanchez is just a rookie, but his minor league track record from an offensive standpoint makes it look like he is not the long-term answer over there. There are, though, still options for the White Sox to choose from on the free agent market to upgrade the position such as

,

and

.

With that said, Lowrie was the biggest sure thing among those four, and in my opinion is far and away the best player in that group. They could also upgrade via the trade market, but they would have to give away someone to do so. Finally, maybe they are prepared to hand the position to one of their youngsters Sanchez or second base prospect Micah Johnson, who ranks as Chicago’s fourth-best prospect according to Baseball America. Handing the baton to one of these players is risky seeing as how both Johnson and Sanchez never lit it up with the stick in the minors.

They have options as to who will hold down the fort at second base in 2015, and that person’s success/failure will ultimately be imperative to the White Sox’ ’15 season. Things would have looked a lot better, however, if they had just signed Lowrie to be their second basemen for the next three years instead.