White Sox Veterans Who Can Lose Their Spots to Prospects
White Sox Spring Training should feature many position battles for the upcoming season. However, some veterans could lose their spots to top prospects.
The only people who can stand to wait on the White Sox rebuild might actually be a few guys on the team itself if they’re still on it. Everyone from Guaranteed Rate Field to Glendale, Ariz. is over the moon for the White Sox rebuild. The organization and the fans especially, cannot wait to see how the team grows and improves over the next two years. But the team’s success might come at the expense of a few veterans.
Players that currently find themselves in the minor league system seem to already have their spots on the White Sox reserved. Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert have two future spots in the outfield reserved. Michael Kopech and Dylan Cease could have two spots reserved in the starting rotation. Just like keeping Yoan Moncada’s spot at second warm and ready for when he was called up. However, because the Sox have placed so much value on these players and their positions, a few veterans have a chance to be pushed out the door just for these rookies to flourish.
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Leury Garcia/Yolmer Sanchez
Leury Garcia and Yolmer “Don’t Call Me Carlos” Sanchez are packaged into one entity for this exercise because they’re very similar players. They both contribute similar production and play the same versatile roles on the team. Both players fill in gaps in the outfield as well as the infield and play crucial roles for as pinch-hitters and pinch-runners.
It may be smart to keep both players on the roster just for depth. However, it’s hard to see both of them staying on the team with a bottomless pool of prospects waiting to get their call-ups and opportunities. Because their positions are not absolutely defined, their places on the teams are not absolutely guaranteed. They both started 2017 competing for second base, but that position is now taken. The outfield is also just about reserved while third base is looking more like their final stand for a starting spot.
For the last few seasons, they’ve been both used as rotation players, being constantly promoted and demoted from Triple-A Charlotte. With more prospects being called up and more prospects waiting behind them, they just haven’t reserved their spots for the future.
James Shields/Miguel Gonzalez
Very similar to Garcia and Sanchez, James Shields and Miguel Gonzalez are entering their final season with the White Sox. Unless they can pitch themselves into a contract extension. Shields is entering the final year of his very generous contract while Gonzalez is playing on a one-year deal signed this offseason.
Both pitchers have shown flashes of brilliance but underwhelmed much of last season. Gonzalez has been more successful with the ChiSox than the former World Series Champion Shields but both are likely to be left out of the rebuild. Shields, 36, and Gonzalez, 33, are the oldest pitchers in the rotation but that doesn’t have much to do with why they’re likely to be on their way out.
First off, they have not been lights out, but more importantly, they’re making way for one of the top pitching farm systems in baseball. The rotation is being headed by three young amazing pitchers in Carlos Rodon, Lucas Giolito, and Reynaldo Lopez. Waiting to be called up is Kopech (MLB Pipeline third-ranked prospect), Cease (Sox no.10 prospect according to Baseball America), Alec Hansen (Sox no.3 prospect), Dane Dunning (Sox no.5 prospect), Spencer Adams, Jordan Stephens, Ian Clarkin, and Carson Fulmer who finished 2017 very strongly.
In order for either Shields or Gonzalez to remain with the team as a starter, they would need to put up ridiculous numbers in 2018. At least the best or second-best numbers in the rotation. Another option to qualify for an extension would be to stay on as a middle reliever. Other than those two outcomes, it doesn’t seem likely that the two vets will be watching the rebuild’s success from the dugout.
Avisail Garcia
As crazy as it may seem, Avisail Garcia has a very contested spot in the outfield. His incredible 2017 season brought him enough claim for right field in 2018. But he needs another great season to keep his right field spot. As stated above, the White Sox have two flat-out studs waiting to play outfield in Robert and Jimenez. However, the Sox have other outfielders in the farm system that are looking for an opportunity to showcase their skills. The bad thing for Garcia is that those outfielders might be studs waiting for his spot to open up.
Garcia had a tremendous 2017, there’s no debating that, but if he has a down year, does he deserve to lose his spot in the outfield? The answer is no, but the Sox do have other options. The Sox no.8 prospect is Blake Rutherford. The Sox also have Micker Adolfo, Ryan Cordell, and Luis Alexander Basabe in the minor league system. All of who the White Sox are very high on. Garcia’s 2018 is another crucial year for his career, unfortunately, but another season even close to his 2017 should cement his spot in right field.
Most of these five veterans will probably not have to deal with competitions for their positions until further down the line, more so Avisail Garcia because of his 2017 and he’s only 26. It cannot be understated that they can be replaced by many prospects who are hungry and talented enough to have a ticket to ride the rebuild train. As of now, the only thing these players can be is to play well enough to be irreplaceable.