Chicago White Sox: 3 players who definitely won’t be back
It is always sad when a season comes to end for a lot of reasons. One of those reasons is that the team you just watched for 162 games (or more) won’t return exactly as is. There are always going to be some changes and you will see players that you like move on to different teams. That may be the reality for a few different Chicago White Sox players.
Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson, Eloy Jimenez, Andrew Vaughn, Luis Robert, Lucas Giolito, Michael Kopech, and Dylan Cease amongst others, are all young players that will be with the White Sox for a very long time. They are hoping that this group is supplemented just enough to win a World Series in the not-so-distant future.
Tony La Russa and whoever manages them after him are going to need to get the most out of this group. They are a very talented bunch but they can’t do it all by themselves. They will be going into the off-season with the intention of bringing in some more help. As a result, there might be some players that were there this year that will be gone next year.
As fun as 2021 was, there were some things that need to be corrected. There are going to be players on the team that are evaluated and ultimately gone because things didn’t go exactly the way that the White Sox planned.
There are some players that the Chicago White Sox probably won’t bring back.
It is always sad to lose players from a team that won so many games and had so many fun moments but that is the business of sports. These are three players that you can expect to not be back with the White Sox during the 2022 season:
Cesar Hernandez. 12. player. 128. . 2B. Chicago White Sox
Cesar Hernandez didn’t really live up to expectations with the Chicago White Sox.
The Chicago White Sox had some interesting things happen to them at the second base position. They started the season with Nick Madrigal who is their former fourth overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft. He was a really good contact hitter for them in the nine spot of the lineup but he had a season-ending injury so they traded him away at the trade deadline.
Danny Mendick and Leury Garcia handled that spot until the White Sox acquired Cesar Hernandez from the Cleveland Indians. He was the new everyday second baseman. There was a lot of hype around the trade because of how good he was with the Cleveland Indians leading up to the trade. Unfortunately, he didn’t perform as well with the White Sox.
Hernandez has a team option in 2022 and the White Sox are not expected to pick that up. There are plenty of really good free agents that are out there that can play second base for the White Sox in 2022 and they have the money to spend. There is a really good chance that they find someone that is an upgrade over both Hernandez and Madrigal. As a result, expect Cesar to be on another team.
128. . CL. Chicago White Sox. Craig Kimbrel . 46. player
The Chicago White Sox didn’t get what they needed from Craig Kimbrel after the trade.
As mentioned before, the Chicago White Sox trade Nick Madrigal. He was sent to the Chicago Cubs with Codi Heuer in exchange for Craig Kimbrel. The White Sox were getting one of the premier targets on the trade block as he was having a marvelous first half with the Chicago Cubs. He is one of the greatest closers that ever lived and he looked like it with the Cubs in the early going.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go well for Kimbrel when he came to the south side of town. It wasn’t all his fault as the White Sox didn’t use him right. People who know baseball know that pitching is a mindset too. Closers need to close games and the White Sox didn’t use Kimbrel as the closer as they had Liam Hendriks. Using him in the 8th inning was terrible and it didn’t work.
As a result, it sounds like the White Sox are going to pick up Kimbrel’s option for 2022 and then trade him during the offseason. They might be able to get something for him but they aren’t going to get back what they paid for him. Either way, you can expect him to be pitching for a different team by the time that next season rolls around.
Chicago White Sox. Ryan Tepera. 51. player. 128. . RP
There is a chance that the Chicago White Sox don’t return Ryan Tepera in 2022.
The Chicago White Sox did make one good trade during the 2021 season. They acquired Ryan Tepera from the Chicago Cubs which turned out to be a very solid move for them. He was very good as the season went along for the White Sox and he pitched in some high leverage situations. He is going to get some nice offers from lots of teams during this offseason.
The White Sox might be one of the teams that go after him but that can’t be a guarantee. They have a lot of needs to address this offseason but they do need to make sure their bullpen stays productive. They underperformed in 2021 which is saying something because they were still pretty good.
If the White Sox brought him back it would be a pleasant surprise but it may not be that high on their priority list. It was fun to see him get the Houston Astros all riled up during the playoffs. Some people will say that he woke them up but that is nonsense. The Houston Astros were just the better team this year. It would be nice to see him back but don’t count on it.
There is certainly a chance that one or more of these guys play in a White Sox uniform next season but it doesn’t sound likely where we stand right now. The offseason will begin in a little over a week as we approach the World Series so it will be really run to see what happens here.
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