Chicago White Sox
The Chicago White Sox are an interesting team. Before the 2017 season, the Sox dealt Chris Sale to the Red Sox and Adam Eaton to the Nationals for a flurry of prospects.
However, this rebuild did not seem like the White Sox were kicking the can down the road too far, as the prospects they acquired, like Yoan Moncada, Lucas Giolito, and Michael Kopech, didn’t seem too far from being big contributors at the major league level.
After losing 95 games in 2017, the Pale Hose looked to vastly improve in 2018 on the backs of their young studs, but that didn’t happen. Instead, the Sox lost 100 games, with Moncada leading the league in strikeouts, Giolito leading the league in earned runs (in the bad direction), and Kopech succumbing to a torn UCL after just four MLB starts. Adam Engel got most of the starts in center field and put up a meager 68 wRC+, meaning he was 32 percent worse than the average player on offense.
If the White Sox are looking to compete in the near future, they will obviously need their young players to step it up, but they will also need to be willing to supplant their young talent with veteran players on the free agent market, and A.J. Pollock seems like a great fit for them.