Chicago White Sox: September was a glimpse of 2020 team

The Chicago White Sox had a pretty good September. They were an improved team in 2019, and they showed how good they can be in 2020.

The Chicago White Sox had a 10 game improvement over where they were in 2018. It was a year that had mixed expectations, but in reality, nobody thought that they would be much better than they ended up being. Maybe when they were close to .500 at the All-Star Break some people may have gotten a little too excited, but it was still an overall good season with all things considered.

They came in third place in the American League Central Divison. A 10 game improvement in a year that the right players took major steps forward is why this season was a major success. The month of September is when everyone seemed to get healthy at the same time and show exactly how good they can become in 2020. That is the year that lots of people have pegged as the season that the White Sox turn the corner in the rebuild and those people could be right.

The best player on the White Sox that month was Yoan Moncada. He was so good at the dish that he climbed all the way up to third place in the American League batting title race. He slashed .412/.455/.647 with a 1.102 OPS over the course of the month. That is a major improvement over where he was last season and he showed everyone exactly why he was the number one prospect in all of baseball just a few short years ago. He has the ceiling to be one of the best players in all of baseball if he isn’t already there. Being on a good White Sox team would help that fact get more nationally recognized.

Then there was Tim Anderson. Anderson was so good that he emerged as the Major League batting title favorite and he won it. Not only for the American League either, but he also had the highest batting average in all of baseball. Anderson hit .374 in September and that had a lot to do with him keeping up with the best players in the league and now he is an MLB batting champion. The future needs Tim Anderson to play well and he has shown that he can do just that.

Eloy Jimenez struggled a little bit out of the gate as most rookies do. He was one of the best two prospects in all of baseball last season and everyone had high hopes for his arrival this year. He struggled at first because pitchers knew how to attack him. He quickly found what he needed to do to mash baseballs and once he figured it out it was off to the races. He was the rookie of the month for September with his .340/.383/.710 slash line and nine home runs. He had over 30 home runs in his rookie season and nine of them came in September. This great month for Eloy has asserted him into the rookie of the year conversation and in 2020 you should expect a full year of September Eloy.

Next year, they should have Jose Abreu signed long term, Luis Robert and Nick Madrigal in the Majors, some improved depth via free agency, and much healthier pitching rotation. All of those things are what will make them successful in 2020 and beyond.