Houston Astros designate veteran outfielder for assignment on Wednesday. With a lack of outfield depth, the White Sox could pursue the outfielder, but with just 49 games remaining, should the team acquire him?
The Astros made a stunning move on Wednesday as they designated struggling center fielder Carlos Gomez for assignment. Gomez was hitting just .210 this season for the Astros and his defense was poor in center field.
With the White Sox currently suffering from a lack of depth in the outfield, would it make sense for the team claim Gomez? The White Sox could use Gomez as they’re down to Jason Coats being the team’s fourth outfielder after Avisail Garcia was placed on the 15 day disabled list on Tuesday. Garcia sprained his right knee and the injury came at an unfortunate time for him and the White Sox.
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Garcia was hitting .292 with three home runs in his last seven games before his knee injury. With the injury, the White Sox can’t afford another outfielder to be lost due to injury. The White Sox have lost Austin Jackson and Charlie Tilson to injuries, with Tilson being lost for the season. It would appear acquiring Gomez would be a logical choice for the team.
However, a closer look at Gomez’s numbers shows he wouldn’t be much help to the White Sox for the remainder of the season. After his 2014 All-Star with the Milwaukee Brewers where his slash line was .284/.356/.477, Gomez hasn’t been able to match those numbers offensively since. Gomez was acquired by the Houston Astros before the trading deadline last season in a trade with the Brewers. In 41 games with the Astros in 2015, Gomez hit .242 with four home runs and 12 runs batted in.
This season was much worse for Gomez in an Astros uniform. To go along with his putrid .210 batting average this season, Gomez has 100 strikeouts at the plate. Gomez’s offensive production truly declined this season, but his defense declined as well. After posting a dWAR of 4.6 for the Brewers in 2013, Gomez hasn’t posted a dWAR higher than 0.5. This season, Gomez’s dWAR is -0.4 according to baseball-reference.com.
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The White Sox certainly need more options in their outfield for the remainder of the season, but adding Gomez doesn’t appear to be necessary for this team. Although there aren’t many better internal options for the White Sox in the outfield, it doesn’t make much sense to add Gomez as he will be a free agent at the end of the season. Despite the franchise making a habit of dumpster diving with acquisitions, this time it would be wise if they strayed away from temptation.