Chicago White Sox: 2021 Grade for Yoan Moncada

The Chicago White Sox is loaded with great young players. One of them is Yoan Moncada. He has been their third baseman for a long time now and has had some ups and downs. For the most part, however, he has been good. There are critiques of his game that are mostly unfair because they are unrealistic.

Moncada is never going to have the power numbers that Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert have but he has similar offensive abilities minus the power. He has an outstanding on-base percentage but he also has a slightly above average OPS so the doubles and home run totals can certainly come up.

The best part of Yoan Moncada’s game is his defense. He is one of the best defensive third basemen in baseball. It is a very deep position in the MLB which makes it nice to know that the White Sox have a great player there.

For a few years now, Moncada has been one of the top third basemen in the whole league. White Sox fans might not appreciate him the way that they should but they will if they ever go far with him as a part of the core.

There is also room for criticism as well. Both sides of the Yoan Moncada Twitter debate make great points. One of the knocks is that we know he has the tools to do more. He can be an even better hitter and he does have more power to display. He is never going to be an elite power hitter but he can be an elite player. He has shown flashes of it time and time again.

2021 Grade: B+

Yoan Moncada ad a slash line of .263/.375/.412 for an OPS of .787. That is pretty good but as mentioned before, it could be better. He hit 14 home runs and had 61 RBIs with 74 runs scored. All of this and his incredible defense earned him a 4.0 WAR which is very good. In fact, it is amongst the best on the team.

2022 Outlook:

It would be nice to see Yoan Moncada take another step in 2022. We already went over how he could be even better than he has already been. However, if he is this same (4.0ish WAR) player in 2022, that might mean that is what he is.

He will be there playing third base at an elite level which is nice to know. His spot in the lineup is up in the air but he will be a part of it nonetheless. Hopefully, he does even better so that fans will begin to appreciate him for the good player that he is.