Chicago White Sox: Three biggest weaknesses
3. Defense
This issue is a carryover from the 2019 season, but really wasn’t addressed too heavily this past offseason.
Chicago ranked among the worst in baseball in defensive metrics last season and there isn’t much reason to think that will change in 2020.
Replacing James McCann with Grandal behind the plate certainly helps, but the team didn’t really improve defensively anywhere else.
Nomar Mazara ranked slightly below average in right field last season (-4 DRS, -2.7 UZR over 878 1/3 innings), which isn’t necessarily a bad addition to the outfield.
Outside of Adam Engel and Grandal, the team, unfortunately, lacks plus defenders on the roster and getting rid of Yolmer Sanchez this offseason didn’t help either.
The team will hope to see some improvement defensively from Jimenez who has been looking to prove that he does not have to become a DH anytime soon.
If he can do that, the team’s outfield defense becomes much less of a liability for the team going forward.
Moncada and Anderson could also use some improvement on the left side of the infield, especially when you consider that the right side might not be pretty either as Abreu likely isn’t going to become a better first baseman as he ages.
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Robert and Madrigal will both, hopefully, help improve the defense as well, but the White Sox certainly have reasons to be concerned about it going into the 2020 season.