Chicago White Sox: Predicting the 2020 Opening Day starting lineup

The Chicago White Sox are going to trot out an exciting starting lineup on Opening Day.

The Chicago White Sox are going to be a good baseball team in 2020. The only question is how good? Well, a lot of it depends on their pitching. They are going to have a bunch of different relievers that can get the job done ready to go and the starting rotation looks to be as deep as it has been in years. The pitchers hitting their stride as a unit is really important to the success of this team. Now, their starting lineup on the other hand? It is very good.

They made some key additions to the group in the offseason. Some of them are coming from within the organization and others were free agents that wanted to come to play on the South Side of Chicago. This is a lineup that no matter how it is constructed, it will score a lot of runs to support the pitchers.

The cool part about this lineup now is that it is mostly constructed of the young pieces the White Sox have added over the years. They declared a rebuild in 2016 and since then, the prospects have been the big story on this side of town. Well, a lot of those prospects are here and ready to make an impact in 2020. There are also a few great veterans there to help lead the youngsters. There is a perfect mix in this 2020 lineup and it is only going to get better.

Manager Rick Renteria has his hands full with so much talent here. There could be a bunch of different lineups that work for this team but they should probably find one good one and stick with it. The Opening Day lineup says a lot about a team so this is what it might look like on Friday night:

Leading off for your Chicago White Sox, the shortstop and number seven, Tim Anderson! Tim Anderson had a wonderful year in 2019. He needs to prove he can be better defensively but the offense is all the way there. He was the MLB batting champion in 2019 as he led the entire Major Leagues with his .335 average. It was an incredible breakout year for him.

Having a guy who can hit this effectively leading off is very good for your squad. He can produce offense in many different ways but being just a solid contact hitter is where his bread is buttered. Hitting at the top of the lineup this year might really help him in his RBI department if he gets more chances later in the game but he also has a chance to get the White Sox off to a good start offensively in the game.

If he is in fact in the leadoff spot for Rick Renteria and the White Sox, he will be better protected than he ever has with this team. He will have so many great hitters hitting behind him so when he finds himself on base he might really have an opportunity to score. It should be fun to see Anderson take on this role as the leadoff man if it happens.

Batting second and playing third base, number 10, Yoan Moncada! Moncada tested positive for COVID-19 a few weeks ago and was missing for the beginning of the White Sox summer camp. It was a question of whether he would be back in time for Opening Day but it looks like he is. He returned to camp this past week and is saying he is going to be ready to go. He is the best player as of right now on this team so you can’t put his importance into words.

Moncada came in and had himself a breakout year in 2019. The White Sox are going to have not one but two top-ten 2019 hitters (batting average) in their lineup and they are going to be the first two hitters in their lineup. Moncada was not great in his rookie year but he showed signs of brilliance because he has all the tools. Then in 2019, he put those tools together.

Moncada will turn the heads of MLB fans in 2020. He started to do that in 2019 but the White Sox were not a great team. If he was on the New York Yankees or Houston Astros with those numbers last year he would have had even more MVP votes than he had. Well, if the White Sox can elevate themselves to that status he will get even more noticed. This is going to be a huge year for him batting in the two-spot.

Batting third for Chicago, the first baseman and number 79, Jose Abreu! There hasn’t been a more impressive player on the White Sox over the past five years than Jose Abreu. He is no longer the best player on the team but he has been the most consistent on a team that wasn’t very good. He stayed loyal to the White Sox and hopefully, they are able to pay him back. This could be a fun 60 games for Abreu as he tries to play on a winning team.

Abreu has more talent around him than he ever has. He has two guys potentially hitting ahead of him that were top-3 in American League batting average. With all of his power that he has, he should be able to take advantage of those guys being on base when they are. He hits home runs with the best of them and having him in the middle of a lineup like this is going to be fun.

He won the American League RBI title in 2019. He had a decent amount of talent around him and it is going to be even more in 2020. That is something to be excited about because it is hard to imagine what he can do in a short season with even more around him. Hitting third for the White Sox should be a good time for Abreu this year.

Batting fourth, the catcher and number 24, Yasmani Grandal! The White Sox spent a lot of money during the 2019-20 offseason. They knew that they wanted to bring in plenty of help for their younger players so that they can turn the corner here in 2020. Yasmani Grandal was the first domino to fall in the White Sox free agency period and one of the first dominos to fall in free agency for anybody.

It was a bit of a surprise because nobody really saw it coming. The White Sox were the first to report the signing which is a bit odd in today’s baseball. Normally, one of the MLB’s top insiders has signings like that first but the White Sox kept it close to the vest. It was also a surprise because of the fact that they seemed to be pretty set at catcher before he arrived.

James McCann was an all-star catcher in 2019 so it seemed like he was going to be the main guy there for a while. There is also Zack Collins waiting in the wings but Yasmani Grandal is one of the best catchers in the world. We don’t know how often McCann will be used but there should be plenty of situations that he finds himself playing.

You also have to wonder if McCann catches Giolito on Opening Day because of their bond or if this is one of the rare times he doesn’t so Grandal can make his White Sox debut in game one. Either way, Grandal is going to be a great big bat right in the middle of the White Sox order on most nights.

Batting fifth, the designated hitter, number 23, Edwin Encarnacion! When you think about how Yasmani Grandal was the first big domino to fall for the White Sox in free agency, think of Edwin Encarnacion as the last. He was signed by the White Sox and it was announced on Christmas Day. It took a literal Christmas miracle for the White Sox to find a designated hitter that can actually do what they need from that position.

The White Sox haven’t had a very good DH in a really long time. That is going to change here in 2020 with Encarnacion. He is 37 years old but he still has a lot left in the tank. He has hit 30 or more home runs in eight straight seasons going back to 2012 so you might be able to expect anywhere from 10-12 over this 60 game span. It should be a lot of fun having this guy and his pet parrot on the South Side.

A big reason this signing was so great is because of all the young talent that is there around Encarnacion. This is a guy who has been an all-star multiple times and has over 400 home runs in the best baseball league in the world. A guy with an experience like that can really help a young team get where it needs to go as far as development. Some of the young guys having a presence like this might really benefit. It is really good to have him here in the White Sox lineup and the five-spot should be a really good one for him.

Batting seventh and playing left field, number 88, Luis Robert! With a legend like Patrick Kane wearing 88 in Chicago for all these years, Luis Robert has a lot to live up to with that number. He has the makeup of a guy that looks like he can do just that. This kid has the same amount of hype that Moncada and Jimenez had but he seems to be a mix of both players. He is a true five-tool player that the White Sox should see become a legit superstar.

When you have a kid like this batting seventh, you have something great cooking. Everyone hitting ahead of him has proven that they can be elite hitters so he is going to have some tremendous opportunity to do some damage. There is also a good chance that he is in the middle of the order one day and it might not take that long. He has the potential to compete with Moncada and Jimenez as the best hitters on the team.

He also has a chance to be a premier defensive center fielder. This dude can cover 60 yards either way and makes it look easy. His right and left fielders are going to love having him out there because he is going to make things easy for them. There is no doubt that if he puts all of these things together once the games count for real, he will become one of the best players in the world.

Batting eighth for the White Sox and playing right field, number 30, Nomar Mazara! The White Sox took a chance when they traded for Nomar Mazara back in December. It was really the only news that the White Sox had during the Winter Meetings as Mazara is coming over from the Texas Rangers for Steele Walker. He isn’t the savior in right-field but he is an upgrade over what there has been in the past. They needed to try something new there and this is an experiment for now.

Mazara was a guy that was always considered to be very talented. He never truly tapped that high ceiling but he has been an okay player. He hit 20 home runs on the dot in the first three years of his career and then had 19 in 2019. This is a short season so if he hit that many this year it would be a wild success but they just need some good production from the position.

He might be platooned in right field with someone as the season goes along but he should be the eighth hitter and in right field on Friday night against the Twins. Hopefully, the White Sox are going to help him unlock his potential. He is going to be a part of one of the best lineups in his MLB career if not the definitive best.

Batting ninth and playing second base, number 28, Leury Garcia! The White Sox have a really nice piece to the puzzle here with Leury Garcia. He is the team’s ultimate secret weapon as he can play almost every position on the diamond and be a pretty sweet hitter. For now, it seems like the nine-spot is perfect for him and he might see the most time at second base in 2020. He should certainly be there at second on Opening Day.

Garcia could very well be a guy who comes in and plays for guys on their off days at different positions as well. In baseball, the teams that are the deepest in their organizations go the farthest in the playoffs on most occasions. You need to be able to deal with injuries or any sort of adversity and Garcia could be the key to that.

It is assumed that Nick Madrigal is going to be the second baseman of the future so that would bump out Leury Garcia. It might not happen in time for Opening Day but it is certainly going to happen at some point. Garcia probably knows that but he does have a very important place on this team. That job is to play where he is needed on any given day and hit as well as he can. You should be confident that he will do just that. This isn’t a bad spot to have him with that lethal top of the order following right behind.

Pitching for your Chicago White Sox, number 27, Lucas Giolito! The White Sox named Lucas Gioltio as their Opening Day starter on Sunday night. We knew it was coming but it is a huge deal for someone to be your Opening Day starter. That seems to be the consensus announcement that you are going into the season as the ace of the staff. We know Giolito is the ace of this staff that hopes to be pretty good.

2018 was a nightmare for Giolito as he was statistically the worst pitcher in baseball. Despite that fact, he was the only pitcher on the White Sox to reach 10 wins. In 2019, he came out and had a bigger turnaround than any player in the Major Leagues. He was so good that he came in sixth place for the American League Cy Young Award. He was brilliant in a year that saw him represent the White Sox as an American League all-star.

Giolito repeating what he did in 2019 this year is very important to the White Sox potential success. If they make the playoffs, he is going to take the ball in game one. This is an exciting time for Gioltio and everyone else on the roster. The hype is real, go White Sox.