Chicago White Sox: Team preview and prediction for 2020 season
One of the quieter franchises in baseball spent their hearts out this offseason. Now it’s time to see what the Chicago White Sox are made of.
At the top of the list of “Most Improved Teams This Offseason,” we have to look at the Chicago White Sox as one of those teams after the Winter they had, and 2020 looks all the more promising for the South Side because of it. Is this going to be the year the White Sox breakthrough into the playoffs, or are they still too young and inexperienced?
For me, I’ve been eyeing the Sox for a number of years now with the amount of talent they possessed in their farm system, and that notion has only been enhanced with continuous success through the draft as well as the surprising surge of Lucas Giolito last season.
More from Call to the Pen
- Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
- Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals
I saw this team as a future powerhouse with the likes of Luis Robert, Dylan Cease, Eloy Jimenez, Dane Dunning, and Michael Kopech leading the charge once they broke into the league, but they’ve managed to add onto that core group with the drafting of Nick Madrigal and Andrew Vaughn in most recent years.
In addition to all the young talent the White Sox has accumulated, we also have the resurgence of Lucas Giolito who burst onto the scene last year to the tune of a 3.41 ERA, 228 Ks in 176.2 innings, 3 complete games, and 2 shutouts. On top of that, we must also remember just who this guy was in 2018 and how much he grew from that year to last.
Giolito led the American League in walks (90) as well as the entire league in earned runs (118) in 2018, but in 2019, he cut his walks almost in half and tweaked his mechanics to suit is motion and retain his velocity he came up with.
He shortened his arm motion which, in turn, allowed him to use his legs more and generate power to get added velocity. And as 2019 showed us, his adjustments did him wonders because he was in that CY Young conversation for most of the year, so I’m excited to see if he can repeat or improve upon what he did last year because if he can, the Chicago White Sox have themselves the ace that they’ll need going forward.
Chicago White Sox: Team preview, prediction for 2020 season
But unfortunately, I have a ton of questions about the Sox’s rotation and bullpen this year and if it can step up to the plate and keep pace with their offense that I expect to be pretty explosive. As far as the Chicago White Sox pitchers are concerned, I feel pretty good about Giolito having himself another great year and potentially winning the CY Young.
Aside from him, I really like Aaron Bummer and Jimmy Cordero in the bullpen. A lot of people don’t know either of these guys, but Cordero is an unbelievably-hard thrower who came aboard the Sox last year mid-year and pitched to a 2.75 ERA in 30 appearances. Bummer is an even more impressive reliever that pitched to a 2.13 ERA last year in 58 appearances with 60 Ks and 43 holds in 67.2 innings.
Alex Colome is solid as well and is probably the closer of this team, but I think the real show will be in the setup innings with both Cordero and Bummer. One big concern will be what will become of Kelvin Herrera because unfortunately, he has absolutely disappeared since leaving the Royals. They’ll need him to get back to his old self as well if they hope to have a strong overall bullpen.
Other than those guys, to me, it just seems like their pitching staff isn’t strong enough right now to win this division over two very good Twins and Indians teams. I love me some Dallas Keuchel. I think he moves the ball around the strike zone as well as anybody in the game and I’m still shocked to this day that it took a team until late June of last season to sign him.
But I worry he may have lost his momentum much like how Craig Kimbrel has lost his. Both guys were top of the line the year before they became free agents. Teams seemingly saw something they didn’t like in both, so neither were signed until mid-2019.
Gio Gonzalez is another guy in this White Sox rotation that I wonder about because he obviously isn’t the same pitcher he was a few years ago. The two veteran lefties the White Sox have brought on to go behind Giolito aren’t exactly in their primes anymore.
Chicago White Sox: The franchise all-time bracket. light. Related Story
That leaves the back end rotation guys to hopefully be the ones who spark this season, and I see two standout injuries that could prove to be big losses for the Sox in 2020.
Carlos Rodon is out after Tommy John last year, so I think if we see him at all, it will be at least sometime after the All-Star Break. And Michael Kopech, though he’s recovering from his Tommy John a bit ahead of schedule, is still a prized commodity for the White Sox, so they have to be really careful when he comes back that he’s fully healthy.
That leaves Dylan Cease and Reynaldo Lopez. Both guys have high ceilings. Cease got beat up a little bit in his rookie year (understandable) and Lopez has consistently had a problem with walks and losing command of the strike zone. So, with all of these questions around the White Sox rotation, who is going to step up behind Giolito? It cannot be a one-man show if they want to win the Central.
Chicago White Sox: Team preview, prediction for 2020 season
More from Chicago White Sox
- Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf finally cleans house, removing GM and EVP
- Chicago White Sox: Who belongs on the franchise’s Mt. Rushmore?
- Cleveland Guardians minor league affiliate hopping on the Tim Anderson fight aftermath
- MLB trade deadline: What comes next for Chicago White Sox?
- Chicago White Sox: Friday trades clearly point to future
What’s going to help the Chicago White Sox in 2020 is their offense with one of the better mixes of veterans and rooks in all of baseball. The Sox spent some big money this offseason on the offensive side bringing in Edwin Encarnacion for 1 year/$12 million and Yasmani Grandal for 4 years/$73 million, as well as Jose Abreu for 3 years/$50 million and Yoan Moncada for 5 years/$70 million via extensions, so the White Sox have clearly invested a lot into their lineup this offseason.
Will it pay off? I believe it will at least for this season because this White Sox lineup is littered with bona fide home run hitters in eight of their projected nine batting slots outside of Nick Madrigal who is a contact hitting machine, even as somebody who hasn’t broken into the big leagues yet.
With the potential of this White Sox lineup, and with the capability of the pitching staff to backup Lucas Giolito, I have to at least think the Sox will finish above .500, which would make it the first time since 2012. Pre-Coronavirus, I had the Sox at 83-79 to finish the year, but now who knows what the win total will be.
Next. Royals: Dairon Blanco wants to 'leave it all on the field'. dark
I have the White Sox finishing in third place in the AL Central, but I could very well be severely underrating them, especially if their pitching does indeed step up. I don’t have them making the playoffs this year, but who knows, we’re always entitled to a surprise or two in the standings.