Chicago White Sox: Did Tony La Russa put Yermin Mercedes in a slump?
Yermin Mercedes got his MLB career off to a tremendous start with the Chicago White Sox in 2021. He was the best hitter in the league for the first month of the season. He was going really well halfway through May too but then a very unfortunate incident happened.
His manager, Tony La Russa, threw him under the bus to the media after he swung at a 3-0 pitch in a blowout off a position player. It was a pathetic display of managing by La Russa that resulted in some pretty negative effects. The entire world was talking about the White Sox in a negative way despite them dominating on the field.
Following that, the Minnesota Twins took exception to this and threw at Mercedes. La Russa then told the media that he had no problem with the way the Twins handled it. The manager of the White Sox had no problem with a player on the Twins throwing at a player on the White Sox. It was very strange and borderline infuriating.
The Chicago White Sox needs to figure out how to fix Yermin Mercedes and fast.
Since the incident, Yermin Mercedes is 8 for 52 which is good for a .153 batting average. That is far less than what we have come to expect for Mercedes so far this season. He is a great hitter but he needs to get back on track. They don’t have many other options from the designated hitter position so getting Mercedes back up to speed needs to be a priority.
If there is anything that Tony La Russa can do to fix this, he should do it. It isn’t a coincidence that the Mercedes slump started immediately following the 3-0 swing. He needs to get back to attacking pitchers the exact same way that he was before this. If he does, the White Sox lineup becomes that much more dangerous.
They are eventually going to have a healthy lineup at their disposal so Mercedes needs to get hot again to maintain that full-time role as the DH. When Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert come back, Mercedes is surely going to want to be a part of this group. When everyone is going at full speed, the White Sox are going to be hard to beat.
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The pitching has been outstanding so if Mercedes can get on the level that we know he can, this is a World Series group when the full cast of characters is there. This needs to be a lesson for Tony because you never know when a big slump is coming for your big guns. Swing away when you are feeling good because you just never know how long it is going to last.