MLB Offseason Preview - Chicago White Sox

Chicago White Sox

American League	Central Division
78-84	16.5 GB of Division Lead
Manager: Robin Ventura (stepped down) New Manager: Rick Renteria	GM: Rick Hahn
AAA Affiliate Charlotte Knights	AA Affiliate Birmingham Barons

2016 Rankings

Hitting	AVG – 12th	OPS – 21st	Runs – 20th	HR – 22nd	SB – 15th
Starting Pitching	ERA – 13th	K/9 – 15th	H/9 – 13th
Relief Pitching	ERA – 17th	K/9 – 21st	H/9 – 17th

Top Hitters

POS.	Name	AVG	OBP	Slug	HR	RBIs	WAR	SB
RF	Adam Eaton	.284	.362	.428	14	59	6.2	14
3B	Todd Frazier	.225	.302	.464	40	90	3.4	15
1B	Jose Abreu	.293	.353	.468	25	100	2.8

Top Pitchers

POS.	Name	G/GS	Record	ERA	IP/Saves	K	BB	ERA+	WAR
SP	Jose Quintana	32 GS	13-12	3.20	208.0 IP	181	50	125	5.2
SP	Chris Sale	32 GS	17-10	3.34	226.2 IP	233	45	120	4.9
RP	Nate Jones	71 G	5-3	2.29	70.2 IP	80	15	175	2.3

Trades That Occurred During Season

• Traded P Zach Duke to St Louis for OF Charlie Tilson
• Traded P Erik Johnson and infielder Fernando Tatis Jr to San Diego for SP James Shields

Impending Free Agents

• CF Austin Jackson
• C Alex Avila
• RP Matt Albers
• 1B Justin Morneau
• RP Daniel Webb
• SS Chris Volstad

Top Prospects

POS.	Name	Level
SS	Tim Anderson	MLB
SP	Carson Fulmer	AAA

Team MVP

• For the White Sox, I feel the need to go with Co-MVPs even though this is something that I try to avoid.  I'm picking starting pitchers Chris Sale and Jose Quintana, numbers one and two in the White Sox rotation.  Both pitchers made 32 starters, had similar ERAs and FIPs, while Sale had the greater number of strikeouts.  It's become pretty obvious that the way these two pitchers go is how the White Sox go because the back end of their rotation has been rough in recent seasons and their line up is often unreliable.

Success/Failure

• Failure - Chicago's southside team came into 2016 with internal expectations of making the playoffs, despite playing in one of the most difficult divisions in baseball, the AL Central. This was proven when the White Sox front office went out and acquired starting pitcher James Shields, even with Shields' massive contract.  This is a move that wouldn't have happened had they weren't trying for 2016.  They also failed this season because they didn't try selling off players after they realized that this year was a lost cause.  The team had plenty of players that would have yielded the team a great return of prospects had they decided to re-tool their farm system.  The back end of their rotation, a combination of Mat Latos and James Shields was really bad this season, having ERAs of 4.62 and 6.77, respectively, which is just not good enough.  

Offseason Outlook

• The White Sox are in a rough spot currently because their major league roster may be good enough to make the playoffs if they add to their starting rotation, strengthen their bullpen, and upgrade some of their positions in the field - catcher, second base, and outfield - by signing free agents this offseason.  At the same time, however, the White Sox play in one of the most competitive divisions in baseball and the Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals, and Detroit Tigers are all good right now and the Minnesota Twins will be better in the future.  They also have one of the worst farm systems in baseball and only pitching prospect Carson Fullmer is a top 100 prospect.  They do have several highly marketable players that would fetch a big return on the trade market if they wanted to go that route.  There have been discussions this season that maybe the White Sox will trade Chris Sale and probably every other team would be interested in acquiring him.  If the White Sox were to trade him, they would get a return of numerous top prospects from another team, especially considering he is a perennial Cy Young candidate who has a team-friendly contract and he won't be a free agent until after the 2019 season, assuming his team options are picked up in '18 and '19.  By trading Sale and another player, maybe outfielder Adam Eaton, the White Sox could completely revamp their farm system, turning it from the bottom-ten system it currently is into a top-ten system.  I'm not sure this is the path that the team will choose, however, as the team has been pushing for the future for years now and their fans have been patient.  But I just don't know if their current roster is good enough to compete with the rest of their division, much less the rest of the American League.

*All stats and information come from baseball-reference.com, fangraphs.com, rosterresource.com, baseballamerica.com, and spotrac.com