When people think of the Chicago White Sox over the last decade or so, Jose Abreu needs to be at the front of it all. He has been the team’s most consistent player throughout his entire career. Now, here in 2022, he is the second most important player on the White Sox roster.
Now, second most important certainly doesn’t mean second most talented. We might find out that a guy like Eloy Jimenez, Yoan Moncada, or Tim Anderson shows more talent at this stage of their careers but that won’t take away Abreu’s importance.
Jose Abreu does his best to play in every game possible. It certainly isn’t a detriment to the team for him to do that either as he has been one of their most prolific players for years now. Hitting 30 home runs and having more than 100 RBIs is basically a guarantee now.
Abreu won the American League MVP as recently as 2020. At that point, people started to talk about him in the same vein as Paul Konerko or Frank Thomas in terms of the overall impact on the White Sox organization. It is well deserved as he is clearly one of the best White Sox players ever.
The Chicago White Sox has a very special player with Jose Abreu at first base.
When it comes to defense, Abreu has become one of the best first basemen in the league as well. It took a while for him to get to this point but he is there and the White Sox benefit from it quite a bit. When he has to dig a bad throw out of the dirt or apply a difficult tag, he can do it with ease.
The only thing that Abreu is missing in his career now is a championship. This is going to be one of the best teams that he has ever played on which should help him keep his elite production going. The protection that he has in the batting order gives him even better stuff to swing at.
Another thing that Abreu does well is lead the way. There are a lot of young players on the roster that could use as much veteran leadership as they can get and Abreu provides that. This applies both on and off the field as he has proven to be incredibly clutch in his career.
If Abreu can stay healthy, the White Sox are going to be in good shape. He drives in runs when they need them the most and provides so much with his bat, glove, and mind. It is going to be so fun seeing him play on this team in 2022.