Chicago White Sox: A look at the A.L. Central’s first round
The Chicago White Sox and the rest of the A.L. Central could be very impacted by the results of this first round of the 2020 MLB Draft.
The 2020 MLB Draft was a success in the first round on Wednesday night. The Chicago White Sox and the rest of the league made selections in order to help boost their chances of winning in the long term. Players from high school to college were taken by the teams in the league and will now have a chance to live out their dreams of being Major League Baseball players.
The American League Central has been known to be one of the lousier divisions in the league over the past few seasons. There were (and still are) multiple teams rebuilding in the division. Well, now there are three solid teams and two teams that are very bad and will be bad for a few more years.
One of those bad teams is the Detroit Tigers. They were 47-114 in 2019 which was the worst record in all of baseball. It was tough for them but their constellation prize was the first overall pick in this draft. They got the night started with the obvious selection of Spencer Torkelson from Arizona State University.
He is going to be a stud hitter for the Tigers one day and him playing in this division is less than ideal. He could probably step onto the Tigers right now and hit 16 home runs in a full season by accident. That is significant because not a single player on the 2019 Detroit Tigers hit more than 15 home runs. They needed to add a player like this and he might be the face of their rebuild.
The Kansas City Royals were the next team in the AL Central to make a selection. They took Asa Lacy with the fourth overall pick out of Texas A&M University. He is a really good pitcher that the White Sox are probably going to have to face someday. They also selected Nick Loftin in the competitive balance round. The Royals are a long way away from contending again but this is a nice start for them.
The White Sox were the next AL Central team to pick. By now, you’ve heard about the fact that they selected Garrett Crochet. He is a left-handed pitcher from the University of Tennessee and one that the White Sox are hoping will grow into being a good starter for them one day. He has been getting some Chris Sale comparison hype which is very exciting. Hopefully, he ends up living up to the hype and helps the Sox win baseball games.
The Cleveland Indians are the hardest team in the division to read. They are probably close to needing to rebuild or retool after a run of dominance in the division but making a good selection here would really be nice for them. Well, they got to make two selections. They took Carson Tucker who is a high school shortstop. You might have heard of his older brother, Cole Tucker, who is now a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
In the competitive balance round, the Indians were able to select Tanner Burns out of Auburn. The Indians might be on the down right now but they are an organization that has shown that they can build it back up. It would be nice to see them take a few years off of being good to make way for the White Sox but don’t bank on them making it easy.
The last team in the division to make a pick in the non-competitive balance round was last year’s division winner in the Minnesota Twins. They selected Aaron Sabato out of the University of North Carolina. He was a first baseman for the Tar Heels and one that the Twins hope to develop into a really strong bat for them someday.
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Now that you know the names of these players, it is important to remember that every team is looking to improve their organizations with these drafts. Some of these division rivals are going to hit on these picks and some will not. Regardless, the White Sox just need to keep doing what they’re doing and everything will work out. There is no doubt that the division got a lot better during this round.