What happened to the Chicago White Sox dynasty?

If you are a fan of the Cleveland Guardians or the Minnesota Twins, the first three months of the 2022 season have gone about as well as could be expected … with the Chicago White Sox in the rearview mirror. The Twins got off to a roaring start and held the division lead for the bulk of the season thus far. Although injuries have brought them back to the pack, the Twins look far better than the .500 team that most projected them to be before the season.

Few predicted Cleveland, with the youngest roster in MLB, to even reach .500 this season. There was more talk of Jose Ramirez or Shane Bieber being traded than of contending for a playoff bid.  But the Guardians haven’t lost a series in June, Ramirez is playing like an MVP, and their bullpen has the third-best ERA in MLB.

But what about the Chicago White Sox, last year’s AL Central champion?

Minnesota and Cleveland have been so good that it’s easy to forget who was actually the heavy favorite to win the division. The Chicago White Sox are only 4.5 games out of first, but they have the run differential of a 70-win team. They are 22nd in runs scored, 18th in starter ERA, and 21st in bullpen ERA.The young phenoms that were supposed to get this team to the World Series are having blah seasons or worse.

Still, Cleveland and Minnesota are probably more worried about Chicago than they are about each other. Like we said, for all that has gone wrong for the White Sox this season, they are one hot week from being in first place. The White Sox have gotten just two starts from Lance Lynn, and Tim Anderson has missed nearly a month. There are those who think the White Sox will take off as soon as they make the inevitable managerial change, but that’s just a guess at this point.

Still, the array of problems in Chicago seems to run far deeper than the manager. Andrew Vaughn is probably the only hitter who is meeting expectations, and Johnny Cueto is their third-best starter. It wasn’t that long ago that guys like Luis Robert, Yoan Moncada, Eloy Jimenez, and Nick Madrigal were expected to be the core of a team that dominated the division for the next decade. Now, Madrigal plays for the Cubs, Jimenez can’t stay healthy, and Moncada has an OPS of .523.

Does this feel like a momentary glitch, or is all that potential short-circuiting before our eyes?  Robert and Vaughn are not yet 25, the two best pitchers (Dylan Cease and Michael Kopech) are 26, and Anderson, who seemingly has been around forever, is only 29. There are worse cores to build a contender around, and the front office has been aggressive about plugging holes.

But this wasn’t supposed to be a team with a nice core group. This was a team that was supposed to be loaded.  Not only are Cleveland and Minnesota ahead of the White Sox right now, but both are significantly younger than Chicago and have much lower payrolls. Those factors, along with the general vibe surrounding each team, indicate that the Guardians and Twins are still on the upswing while we might have already seen the best of this run from the White Sox.