White Sox: It is officially a successful offseason before January

The Chicago White Sox are officially having a strong offseason. They have addressed some needs and we still haven’t even hit January yet.

It is not even January yet and the Chicago White Sox is already the most improved team of the offseason. They were a third-place team that missed the playoffs in 2019 but 2020 now appears to be the year that the rebuild turns the corner. There have been some ugly times on the South Side during the whole rebuilding time but it could all be worth it really soon. They have made some really nice moves this winter that all fans should be excited about.

They made sure that two key pieces to the 2019 season are going to be there in 2020. They extended Jose Abreu and James McCann to remain a part of the team. These are two moves that should keep some good leadership in the room because it is a really young team. These two are sure to be a part of a 2020 team that is really good.

They surprised the baseball world when they signed Yasmani Grandal to a four year deal in November. He is one of the very best catchers in the league. He has a good frame rate behind the plate along with being a really good hitter. He will be a huge presence in the middle of an order filled with great hitters. Grandal was the first big free agent to chose the White Sox during this entire rebuild process.

The Winter Meetings were a little slow. Some of the other big free agents started to sign with other teams across Major League Baseball and it started to frustrate fans a little bit that the White Sox were doing nothing. All they did was make a trade for Nomar Mazara from the Texas Rangers. He should be a decent player for this team but he isn’t a guy that moves the needle by any means. It was really the only move that the Sox made during the Winter Meetings which was a bit frustrating.

Gio Gonzalez chose to come pitch for the Chicago White Sox not long after that. It was a weird move at first because they are a team that needed some pitching and Gonzalez was a very underwhelming move. Especially after seeing guys like Zack Wheeler, Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg, and Madison Bumgarner sign with other teams. It is a good signing in hindsight now though and he should be a good innings eater in 2020.

It looked even better when they signed Dallas Keuchel to a contract. This is the move that the White Sox needed to make this offseason. He isn’t the Cy Young award-winning pitcher that he once was but he is still very good. He also brings a lot of experience to a young pitching staff. This is a move that can help the team win a lot more baseball games in 2020.

Then the 2019 portion of the offseason came to a dramatic end on Christmas Day when it came out that Edwin Encarnacion was going to sign with the Chicago White Sox. That is another big bat that is going to be a part of a very dynamic starting lineup. If he can be his normal self in 2020 at the young age of 37 then this team could be even more exciting than we thought. This team still needs to go out there and perform, but there is no doubt that it is already a successful offseason and we aren’t even in 2020 yet.