Chicago White Sox: Five potential award winners in 2020
The Chicago White Sox could have some individual awards given out to a few of their players.
The Chicago White Sox are hoping that they are going to be a good team in 2020. They are just going to get to play 60 games as COVID-19 swept through the nation and caused sports to be gone for a total of 133 days. Well, baseball is back and the White Sox are hoping they can finally turn the corner of their rebuild. This is a good team that has a lot of potentials to be one of the surprise teams in the league.
The goal in baseball is to win the World Series. Nobody really cares about anything else at the end of the day. When you are a little kid dreaming of playing Major League Baseball, you imagine yourself winning that World Series trophy with your team. Baseball is a sport that you can only win if you work together and get everything you need from everyone on the team. The team that lifts the Commissioner’s Trophy at the end of the year is always the best at doing that.
With that said, having many members of the organization who are capable of winning multiple individual awards are usually a good sign of a good team. The White Sox seem to have that with a lot of their guys. There are so many good players on this team that is just scratching the surface of their true potential. If they have multiple award contenders this year, chances are they were a good team and are in the playoffs. These are the five guys in the White Sox organization that are capable of being individual award winners in 2020:
MVP
Yoan Moncada is that good. He has a chance to be an MVP caliber player. I am not saying that he is a shoo-in to be the MVP of the American League in 2020 but he is good enough to be in the conversation. He probably would have been more involved in the 2019 MVP conversation if the White Sox were a playoff contender. Instead, he came in 21st place in the MVP vote which isn’t bad for a player like him.
That is usually the sign of things to come. Nobody really goes from a prospect to an MVP that quickly. The steps have been taken by Moncada for us to really be having this conversation. Anything can happen in a 60-game season so Moncada being in the MVP conversation is a realistic possibility. The fact that he is an elite defender along with his offense makes it even more of a possibility. He is (for now) the most well-rounded baseball player on the team.
Moncada tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in Summer Camp but he is back now. He played in two exhibition games so he appears to be ready to go to start the season. That is huge for his chances of helping this team be in the playoff picture. If they are in the playoff picture and Moncada puts up the numbers we know he is capable of, he could absolutely be an MVP or at least a top-five finisher.
Rookie of the Year
Luis Robert is a freak of nature in many ways. He is so good at baseball and there really isn’t anything he can’t do. Not many prospects are legit “five-tool” players in the way that Robert is. He can make crazy plays in the field using his speed and skill along with his ability to hit the ball to the moon. This kid hasn’t played a single MLB game yet and he is already one of the best players on the team.
Once Robert got to play against a team in a different color, exhibition or not, he looked amazing at many different points. He even showed that he can make a major adjustment at the plate against an elite pitcher like Kyle Hendricks. Not only is he going to be in the conversation for the Rookie of the Year award, but he is also going into the year as a favorite.
Robert is probably going to be lower in the lineup to begin his career. Every player hitting ahead of him is a very tough out which should make him even more dangerous. By the time the season is over, he might even be higher in the lineup. Some of the elite pitchers might carve him up early on but he will absolutely adjust and become an impact player in more ways than once.
Coach of the Year
A lot of the time, the Coach of the Year award in any sport goes to the coach of a team that was awesome when they weren’t expected to be awesome. Not everyone knows exactly how good the White Sox roster can be so they are perceived as the middle of the pack team right now. If the guys that our White Sox fans love really hit their stride, this team can be extremely dangerous. If that happens, Rick Renteria could be considered to be a Coach of the Year candidate.
There are some usual suspects that he will be up against but all he needs to do is help his White Sox become a great team and he will be recognized. He needs to go about his business the way he always has because these players love playing for him. “Ricky’s boys don’t quit” being a slogan tells you everything you need to know.
A lot of fans want to see the White Sox win with Renteria at the helm. The Chicago Cubs fired him right when it was time to win with a good roster and it looks like the White Sox are not going to do that. It would be really cool to see him win now that he finally has a good lineup with the White Sox because every lineup he has ever managed before this simply wasn’t good enough. If that happens, he will be in consideration for this award.
Gold Glove
The Chicago White Sox’s ability to play defense is one of the few questions in a negative light about this roster. They hope that they can clean up a lot of errors from a year ago. Well, the pitcher isn’t going to make as big of a difference in terms of defensive fielding but Dallas Keuchel is certainly very good in that department.
Keuchel is a ground ball pitcher so learning how to play defense after he throws the ball was certainly a very good idea for him. This is a guy who has already won a Gold Glove Award from the mound a remarkable four times. The most recent one came in 2018 which is also his last full season so you know he is more than capable of doing it again here in 2020.
The White Sox brought in Keuchel to be a big part of their rotation. He is going to slot in as the number two pitcher which should really help make this group much more effective than they were in 2019. Hopefully, he lives up to the hype and helps the White Sox play some great defense when he is on the mound. Seeing a White Sox pitcher win a Gold Glove would be so awesome.
Cy Young
Lucas Giolito is an incredible starting pitcher. He was statistically the worst pitcher in the Majors in 2018 which was sort of sad to see. Well, in 2019 he showed why he was the number one pitching prospect when the White Sox acquired him and became one of the best pitchers in the world. He came in sixth place for the American League Cy Young for his efforts in 2019 so a lot of people are wondering what is next for him.
If he came in 6th place in 2019, what can he do if he gets better? He has been working on his breaking pitches in the offseason which would really solidify him as a terrifying starter for batters that are trying to get on base against him. If he somehow gets better than he was last year, a Cy Young could absolutely be in his future.
Hot. Can Joc Pederson be an option for the Chicago White Sox?. light
He is in the same league as guys like Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander amongst others so it is an uphill climb but he has the talent to do so. He is also hoping to be on a much better team here in 2020 so that could help inflate his recognition as well. If he is the ace of a division-winning staff with even better numbers than last year, the Cy Young might be in his future. It is going to be a lot of fun to watch all of these guys go for their awards with the hope of making the playoffs coming as a result.