Chicago White Sox: Jose Abreu is their active WAR leader
The Chicago White Sox are a vibrant young team looking to take the next step this season. Jose Abreu remains a key piece to the core as they move forward.
Major League Baseball put out a piece on each of its team’s active WAR leaders. To no one’s surprise, Jose Abreu is the active leader for the Chicago White Sox. He leads them with a 20.9 WAR right now. Some people take absolutely no stock in the WAR statistic but that shouldn’t really be the case anymore. Wins above replacement is a great way to determine a player’s value. It lines up almost perfectly with the best players that are also passing the eye test.
When you think of the best position players in baseball, you think of guys like Mike Trout, Christian Yelich, Cody Bellinger, and Mookie Betts. Well, when you look at the WAR leaders at the end of each season you almost always see those four names near the top. WAR is a great stat for evaluating players and over time, more and more people will realize it.
Jose Abreu being Chicago’s active WAR leader should be no surprise to anyone. He has been on the White Sox for a total of six seasons which makes him one of the longest-tenured players on the team. He made it through the rebuild without getting traded. He stayed loyal to the organization and they stayed loyal to him. Hopefully, that loyalty pans out for both sides. He is now a part of a very good core of players that can start to take over the American League.
Hot. The best catch in Chicago White Sox history. light
Abreu might not, however, be the White Sox WAR leader for long. There are plenty of other elite players around Abreu now. Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson, Eloy Jimenez, and Luis Robert are a few examples of players that could pass Abreu in career WAR in a few years. Abreu is just a part of the core now instead of being the only piece worth mentioning. It is really good to know that Abreu has been so good in the past and that he will continue to be there going forward.