Baseball America predicts big things for 2021 Chicago White Sox

Most of us have high hopes for the 2021 Chicago White Sox. Of course, it is very hard to win the World Series and only one team gets to each year. It is fair to expect them to compete for the American League Central Division this year, however, simply based on the rosters of each team. There is a lot of star power right where you need it on the White Sox. There are a lot of outlets with varying opinions but one notable one, Baseball America, believes in them.

Seeing Baseball America give the Chicago White Sox some respect is very interesting.

The Baseball America editorial team put out their 2021 MLB Season Preview. They have the Chicago White Sox edging out the Minnesota Twins for the AL Central Division title. They have the Cleveland Indians coming in third followed by the Kansas City Royals and then the Detroit Tigers. That will be a common prediction for a lot of people and it makes sense why.

They have Mike Trout winning the MVP of the American League. It is a fair assumption because he is the best player in the league by far. The interesting thing is that they have Tim Anderson in second place one year after Jose Abreu won it in 2020. Anderson having a big year feels right but coming in second for the AL MVP would be so cool.

Gerrit Cole, according to them, is going to win the AL Cy Young Award. He will be going into his second year with the New York Yankees after signing a monster contract. They have last year’s winner, Shane Bieber, coming in second. Then in third is White Sox ace Lucas Giolito.

Coming in third would be the highest he has ever come in the race for that award. The fact that he has up to four pitches to work with this year in addition to his typical fastball and changeup could really make him even more lethal.

One notable snub was in the Rookie of the Year category. They don’t have Andrew Vaughn in the top three which is very interesting. There are a lot of really good rookies that have a chance so saying this is a snub is more about how good Vaughn is. It should surprise nobody if he takes some time to get acclimated to Major League pitching but if he hits the ground running, he could absolutely be in this conversation.

Now, for the fun stuff. They have the White Sox winning the American League Pennant as a website. Obviously, not every writer picked them but enough did for them to be the consensus pick. Winning the American League Pennant would be a significant step in this rebuild as the organization looks to have sustained success for a long time.

Nobody picked them to beat either the Los Angeles Dodgers or San Diego Padres in the World Series but this is only year two of the long-term window. They still have a lot of work to do for any of these things to happen but it is so cool to see them in these conversations. Hopefully, they live up to these expectations.