The Chicago White Sox are looking to be competitive in the AL Central in 2020 and the Minnesota Twins might be the biggest challenge.
The Chicago White Sox are headed into a big offseason. They want to do what they need to do to take the next step in 2020. The last time they made the playoffs was the 2008 season and they are hoping to end that long drought as early as this upcoming season. It is going to take a lot of work, but where do they stack up in the division going forward?
The Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals are both in the infant stages of long rebuilds. They are going to be bad for a long time, especially in Detroit. These are the two teams in the Division that the White Sox need to be beating every time. They aren’t going to sweep the season series against any division rival, obviously, but they should be winning each series they play against those two teams.
Next is the Cleveland Indians. Before 2019, they were the big bad bullies in the division but that isn’t the case anymore. They missed the playoffs in 2019 for the first time in a few seasons. Now, it looks like they may be on their way to trading Francisco Lindor, who is their best player. They might be going into a soft rebuild themselves after being one of the elite teams in the American League for a long time. The rise of the White Sox might literally line up with the fall of the Cleveland Indians.
That leaves the Minnesota Twins. The Twins relied heavily on the home run ball in 2019 and it showed once they arrived in the postseason. They might also be really hurt if the MLB decides to revert back to non-juiced baseballs. They won the 2019 American League Central title but that in no way means that they are going to repeat that performance again. They are largely going to be considered the favorite in the division by the experts going into next year, but that is where the White Sox come in.
If the White Sox can get the players who reached their potential in 2019 to replicate it in 2020, they would be well on their way. Winning the division is obviously the way to go because you never want to deal with that Wild Card Game. All of these teams deserve respect for different reasons but this is a winnable division for the 2020 White Sox,