Chicago White Sox: Yasmani Grandal was just starting to get hot

Chicago White Sox fans may have thought all was lost a few weeks ago when catcher Yasmani Grandal was sitting there with a sub .200 batting average and defensive miscues all over the place. Lots of fans were discussing how bad Grandal was and how much of a waste of money it was to have signed him.

Yasmani Grandal has been amazing for the Chicago White Sox this season.

Grandal’s offense has gotten a lot better over the course of the last few weeks. He has a slash line of .188/.388/.436 with an OPS of .824. His batting average isn’t overly impressive but when you consider his on-base percentage and the number of home runs he has this season (14) you can say that he’s had a pretty good year to date.

In fact, his season has been so good that he ended up as a finalist on the Major League Baseball All-Star ballot. He ended up in third place for the American League at the catcher position. Just being a finalist proves that there are those out there that feel that Grandal is one of the best players in the league.

When it comes to his defensive capabilities Grandal has gotten so much better. To think of where he is now, compared to where he was earlier in the season is amazing. He was making defensive errors quite often like catcher interference and was letting balls get by him. You stopped seeing that from Grandal. He was playing near-flawless baseball.

The team could certainly use more guys like Yaz, someone who is patient at the plate. It’s good when he gets things right because he hits home runs often. One could say that the White Sox are finally getting their money’s worth from Grandal. Fans would now probably agree that’s the case. He shows up big when needed both on offense and on defense. And he is a particularly important part of the White Sox.

Grandal is now suffering from an injury and it’s pretty serious. He is going to be out for 4-6 weeks thanks to a knee injury. Zack Collins is going to take over as the starting catcher for now and Seby Zavala will be the new backup. He was just starting to get hot so we can only hope that he comes back and starts playing as good as he was before the injury. If that happens, and the rest of the team gets healthy as well, he can help them be a legit World Series contender.