Chicago White Sox: Braves are what they hope to become
The Chicago White Sox are very excited about where the franchise is heading with one of the best farm systems in baseball. The Atlanta Braves, who they are currently facing, are everything they should aspire to be.
The Chicago White Sox have an incredible situation ahead of them, with the ninth-best farm system in all of baseball according to Jim Callis of MLB.com to add to an incredibly talented core of Lucas Giolito, Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson, and Eloy Jimenez.
In the minors or with limited MLB experience, the team also has Dylan Cease, Luis Robert, Nick Madrigal, Andrew Vaughn, and Michael Kopech.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves are in some ways an established form of this current White Sox group with Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies, Freddie Freeman, and Mike Soroka.
In just that group of four players, the team has two MVP candidates and a Cy Young candidate.
They also have an impressive array of young talent surrounding them, with Dansby Swanson (who has not put it all together yet), Max Fried, and Austin Riley among the talent pieces that could become stars in this league.
Atlanta will also get more reinforcements when Kyle Wright, Ian Anderson, Cristian Pache, and Drew Waters make it to the bigs. Given their phenomenal 82-54 record without them, though, they will be in no rush to add them this season or even in 2020.
The key for the White Sox to compete next season, possibly, will be to have strong pieces around them.
Josh Donaldson, Julio Teheran, Dallas Keuchel would not necessarily be considered part of their true “core,” but they are pieces that either represent a familiar face (Teheran) or are established players (Donaldson and Keuchel) who can be relied on to take the pressure off younger players trying to find their niche in a new league.
Obviously, nobody can expect the White Sox to go from a 60-74 record in 2019 to clinching an over .500 record before the month of September.
That being said, the Atlanta Braves are the team their rebuild completion blueprint should be built around.
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Keeping Jose Abreu and maybe signing a top-tier starter like Gerrit Cole could help strengthen the Chicago White Sox and expedite the rebuild and get them much closer to Atlanta next season.