2 White Sox players from 2024 who will be missed, and 2 who won't be

After an historically poor 2024 season, the Chicago White Sox continued to lean into their rebuild this offseason. With every rebuild, there will always be a revolving door of faces coming and going as the team searches for the right core to eventually compete down the road.

In this case, the White Sox have seen a variety of new faces inserted into their lineup, but have said farewell some notable figures from the 2024 team. Understandably, based on how last year turned out, fans might have mixed feelings about those departures, but there are some obvious candidates who will garner some sort of reaction.

2 White Sox players from 2024 who will be missed

Garrett Crochet

It's no surprise that an ace-caliber pitcher will be missed now that he's gone. However, while the hole left by the departure of a 12.88 K/9 and 2.69 FIP arm is the obvious focus here, what should equally be the focus is how the team will fill that role.

In the White Sox case, now that Crochet is in Boston, it could be a very rough watch in 2025.

At the top of the rotation they'll resort to veteran Martín Pérez, who, in 13 MLB seasons, has just two sub-4.00 ERA campaigns under his belt.

Accompanying Pérez is a series of young and inexperienced arms like Jonathan Cannon, Sean Burke and Davis Martin. They could all have substantial roles within this rebuild in the future, but with inevitable growing pains in the early stages of their career, the loss of a consistent anchor in Crochet will be that much more noticeable.

Blue-chip prospects like Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith will eventually make Crochet's departure a lot easier swallow, however, in the meantime it'll be difficult to hide a missing ace.

Michael Soroka

After a series of injury-plagued seasons, Soroka found career revitalization in Chicago out of the 'pen, pitching to a 2.75 ERA and .189 BAA in 36 innings as a reliever.

Now, it's not difficult to see why Soroka took the opportunity to join the Nationals in free agency. A $9 million deal with the opportunity to start again, as per Jessica Camerato of MLB.com, is huge for someone who's faced the career hardships he has.

However, some White Sox fans might be puzzled as to why Chicago couldn't give him an opportunity like this. The lack of immediate big league quality and experience in the rotation has already been mentioned, both of which Soroka could've addressed.

And even if things didn't pan out in the rotation, they already saw first-hand the way his stuff played in relief. He could have easily been a high-leverage inning arm for them.

2 White Sox players from 2024 who won't be missed

Yoán Moncada

It's been a series of highs and lows for Moncada in his eight seasons in the South Side, with great seasons like 2019, when he posted a 139 wRC+, and incredibly poor seasons like 2022, when he posted a mere 76 wRC+.

The five-year deal he signed in 2020 looks like a disaster, though. While 2021 was a year to remember as the best year since his 2019 breakout, it was the only real highlight of the half-decade. The remaining seasons were either below average, plagued by injury, or both.

Just 208 combined games played over the past three seasons have to be the defining moment of this $70 million deal, as his departure to the Angels means the Sox now have the opportunity to allocate payroll to players with a better chance at remaining on the field.

Apart from financial commitments, Moncada leaving also now frees up infield space both now and in the future for a young core group that features Miguel Vargas, Colson Montgomery, Chase Meidroth and Bryan Ramos.

Gavin Sheets

Sheets has been chasing the 2021 version of himself, where in his debut season he posted an .830 OPS and 123 wRC+. However he's never come close to living up to those marks since, posting an OPS no higher than .706 and a wRC+ no higher than 99.

And then there's his poor defense, as he was a natural first baseman forced into the corner outfield, and it showed.

When he was able to play first, he was below average but looked passable, posting DRS individual season totals ranging from 1 to -2 and OAA totals ranging from 0 to -3. However, when he was in a corner outfield spot, his DRS totals ranged from -2 to -8 and his OAA marks ranged from -2 to -5.

It's no surprise that Chicago opted to keep just one poor defending OF/1B on their roster in Andrew Vaughn. Now that Sheets is in San Diego, the Sox can really prioritize defense and envision a future outfield centered around prospect Braden Montgomery.