The Chicago White Sox are going to play in a very interesting American League Central Division. The Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Guardians, Kansas City Royals, and Detroit Tigers will all present different challenges in what will be a very fun year.
The Minnesota Twins go into the season as one of the most improved teams in all of Major League Baseball. They were a disaster in 2021 after going into that season with high expectations as well. Now, they will try to get back to the postseason in 2022.
They shocked the world when they signed the biggest free agent on the market this offseason in Carlos Correa. Nobody really expected him to choose the Twins over a team like the New York Yankees or Houston Astros but here we are.
Now, they made another big addition by trading for Chris Paddack. He goes to the Twins in a trade with the San Diego Padres. San Diego sent Paddack there along with Emilio Pagan in exchange for Taylor Rogers and Brent Rooker.
This is a very interesting trade. From a Chicago White Sox perspective, we have to hope that Paddack has another bad year. He was a negative WAR player for San Diego in 2021 and has been in a constant decline since his rookie year.
The Chicago White Sox will face Chris Paddack a fair amount in 2022.
The White Sox were a team that made sense for Paddack and if that happened we would be hoping for him to figure it out. He could go either way but the White Sox need to take care of their business when they face the righty.
Paddack became available because of another trade that the Padres made. They acquired Sean Manaea from the Oakland A’s which made Paddack expendable for them. The White Sox were in on him too but ultimately let him go to the Padres.
The White Sox will be dealing with the Twins a lot in 2022. They have to hope that they are able to contain them to the best of their ability. If the White Sox win the division, it is fair to assume that means that they played well against their division which will include this improved Twins team.