Chicago White Sox: Three options for James McCann

1. Keep McCann as a Backup

So, the first idea for James McCann‘s future with the organization would be to keep him as the team’s backup catcher.

By doing so, the White Sox would have a strong backup catcher for Yasmani Grandal, who with the quality of his bat, definitely could use some rest from time-to-time as the team’s DH or first baseman.

Zack Collins is another option to serve as the team’s backup catcher in 2020, but he had a lowly .656 OPS over 27 games this past season.

That makes him a relative unknown while Yemin Mercedes and Seby Zavala have a combined total of five games played at the major league level.

With all three options not appearing to be slam dunks, keeping McCann with the team would ensure that Grandal has a serviceable backup in case of injury.

However, Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors projects McCann to receive $4.9 million in his last year of arbitration which might be a little pricey for a backup catcher.

Is it insanely expensive? Absolutely not, and the only reason that getting rid of McCann as the backup would make sense is if they plan on going with an internal option.

Otherwise, they would likely reinvest a significant portion of that money in another backup catcher.