Chicago White Sox: Five players you forgot played for them

The Chicago White Sox have had some great players through the years but some people have come through at different times that you may not remember.

The Chicago White Sox have had some brilliant players play for them in their long history as an organization. Paul Konerko, Frank Thomas, Mark Buehrle, and Chris Sale are a few that come to mind as far as the 21st century but there have also been some players that have come through that are notable for their play away from the White Sox before they got there.

You see right now in the National Football League something happening with the league’s all-time greatest player. Tom Brady has left the New England Patriots to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Michael Jordan finished his career with the Washington Wizards despite becoming one of the greatest athletes in world history with the Chicago Bulls. In the NHL, Martin Brodeur finished his career with the St. Louis Blues despite becoming a hockey legend with the New Jersey Devils. Things like this happen all the time in sports. The White Sox have been involved.

The league has had some really good players over time. There are a few of them that you may have forgotten threw on a White Sox jersey for a little bit. Some of these guys are borderline Hall of Famers and others were just some really good players.

The White Sox are looking forward to a really good season whenever baseball comes back, but looking back on the past is fun sometimes too. Especially when the past reminds you of players who put on your teams’ jersey, even if it was for a short time. These are the five best players that played for the White Sox that you probably forgot about:

The Chicago White Sox had a really fun year in 2008. They won the American League Central Division after winning a game 163 against the Minnesota Twins. In that game, a Major League Baseball legend named Ken Griffey Jr. made a magnificent play. He threw out a player at the plate to keep the White Sox and Twins tied at zero. You never know how that game turns out if Griffey isn’t able to make that throw to allow A.J. Pierzynski to make the tag.

A lot of people might even forget that Ken Griffey Jr. ever played for the White Sox at all. He had a brilliant Hall of Fame-worthy career split between the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds before his trade to Chicago. He only played in 41 regular-season games with the club but he helped them to a division title which just so happens to be their most recent playoff appearance.

He played pretty well for them in a limited role as a 38-year-old ballplayer. He hit .260 for them and hit three of his 630 home runs as a member of the Chicago White Sox. His Hall of Fame career also included 1836 RBIs, 2781 hits, and a slash line of .284/.370/.538. He was a thirteen-time all-star, a ten-time Gold Glove winner, a seven-time Silver Slugger, and a one time MVP award winner. His 83.8 career WAR tells you everything you need to know. It was a brilliant career for the man known as “The Kid” and he got to spend some time on the south side.

Manny Ramirez started to develop into a pretty good player when he was a member of the Cleveland Indians early in his career. He had a couple of All-Star appearances, Silver Slugger awards, and some MVP votes while there. He is best known, however, for his play with the Boston Red Sox. He became a postseason legend and a two time World Series Champion there. He is a player whose numbers suggest that he should be in the Hall of Fame but we will see if the voters ever put him in for other reasons.

He was traded by Boston to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2008 where he would play for parts of three seasons. Los Angeles traded him to the White Sox in 2010 which a lot of people probably forget about. He didn’t play for the White Sox long but it did feel weird having him play for them at all. Seeing him in that uniform was something to behold for sure. It is always fun when players of his stature dawn the White Sox colors, even if they are way past their prime.

He only had 66 games played with the Dodgers in 2010 before his trade to the south side. He then played for the White Sox for 24 games.  He had 69 at-bats in 88 plate appearances with the Sox. He was a shell of his Red Sox self as far as his power numbers as well. He had one home run and two RBIs in those 24 games for Chicago. He did slash .261/.420/.319 over those 24 games which are not bad numbers at all. It was strange, yet fun, having one of the best right-handed hitters of the 21st-century play for them.

Of all of the players on this list, Justin Morneau was probably the weirdest to see in a Chicago White Sox uniform. He was an elite player on the hated Minnesota Twins for a long time. He had so many great years there and tormented the Chicago White Sox for a long time. He played a whopping 11 seasons with Minnesota before being shipped off to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He then went to the Colorado Rockies for two years before finishing his awesome career with the White Sox in 2016.

Morneau had an incredible career that saw him have so many individual accolades. He won an MVP, a batting title, two Silver Sluggers, and was a four-time all-star before he made his way to the south side of Chicago. Minnesota fans were largely disgusted by seeing one of the great pillars in their franchise’s history play for the hated White Sox.

They didn’t really have much to worry about in Minnesota in 2016, however. The White Sox had an amazing start to the season in 2016 but fell off quickly. Morneau wasn’t his old self. In 58 games of a limited role for the White Sox, Morneau had six home runs and 25 RBIs. He slashed .261/.303/.429. Those are okay numbers but it was another example of a time the White Sox brought in old players who used to be good.

Kevin Youkilis was a great player during his career for a very long time. He was one of the unsung heroes during the first half of the Boston Red Sox run of dominance since the turn of the century. He played with them for parts of 9 seasons from 2004 to 2012. The Red Sox were pretty bad, however, in 2012 so they traded him to the White Sox.

Youkilis is a three-time all-star, a gold glove winner,  and two-time World Series Champion. He brought all of that experience to a 2012 White Sox team that was pretty good. They were the very last White Sox team to finish a season over .500. They sort of fell off in September that year which forced them out of the playoffs but they were an okay team with Youkilis there.

The White Sox having Youkilis is something that not a lot of people remember. He was a great player for the Red Sox that doesn’t get the credit that Manny Ramirez or David Ortiz get but he was still an important player. The White Sox didn’t have him in his prime but they did have someone who was able to be an okay corner infielder. All of these players on this list were really good in their MLB careers but you might have forgotten they played for some time on the south side.