Chicago White Sox: The Yoan Moncada debate may never end

There is a topic of conversation amongst Chicago White Sox fans that might never go away. That is the topic of Yoan Moncada and his abilities as a baseball player. Nobody in their right mind thinks he is a bad baseball player by any means but a discussion on his current status is debated.

There are plenty of numbers that make him out to be an elite player but the eye test tells some people otherwise. You can see both sides of the argument if you look it rationally. He can be even better with the tools he has but he has certainly been very good so far.

In 2021, he had a WAR of  4.0 which was amongst the leaders on the White Sox. He does some very good things offensive numbers but he is an elite defensive third baseman. He moved there from second base ahead of the 2019 season and has done an amazing job.

He slashed .263/.375/.412 for an OPS of .787. He had 14 home runs, 61 RBIs, and 74 runs scored throughout the year. Some of the power numbers need to come up which would absolutely increase that OPS from a good number to an All-Star number. If his offensive numbers were able to explode like we know they can, he would be in MVP conversations with that defense.

Yoan Moncada is going to be a very important player for the Chicago White Sox.

As mentioned already, he needs to add some more power to his game. It feels like he is more concerned with avoiding strikeouts which is causing him to lose some of his power. It is certainly something to figure out during the offseason. His approach is usually very good which is why he had a .375 on-base percentage but producing more runs needs to be a priority.

There are a lot of people who have high expectations for Yoan Moncada. He was the number one prospect in all of baseball when he was called up which is probably a big reason why. He came over with Michael Kopech for Chris Sale which adds to it. It is fair to believe he can do great things but we need to be realistic with him.

He will never be as good of a hitter as Luis Robert or Eloy Jimenez. However, he can be as important to the Chicago White Sox as those guys. It is time for all fans to appreciate him for the player that he is and not get on him for not being the player that they want.