White Sox have seen a power surge since La Russa left

The 2022 Chicago White Sox was a roster constructed around power. Heading into the season, there were at least seven players on the roster that had a legitimate shot at hitting 20 plus home runs.

Jose Abreu led the White Sox with 30 home runs in 2021. Yasmani Grandal also hit 23 home runs despite missing a significant chunk of time with a knee injury. Eloy Jimenz has the rawest power on the team and blasted 31 homers during his rookie season.

Luis Robert hit 13 in just 68 games in 2021. AJ Pollock has three seasons of 20 plus home runs while Andrew Vaughn and Gavin Sheets are projected to be power hitters. There is also Yoan Moncada who hit 25 in 2019.

Throw in a hitter-friendly park and all signs pointed to a power surge on the South Side. But for whatever reason, that hasn’t been the case.

The White Sox approach has been hitting for average. While they have racked up an abundance of singles, the runs have not come with it.

Entering Friday’s game, the White Sox lead the league in team batting average (.262) and hits (1311) but are just 15th in runs scored (625) and 21st in home runs (134).

Nobody on the team has reached the 20 home run mark yet and it’s mid-September. Andrew Vaughn leads the team with 16. But for whatever reason, the White Sox have found their power stroke as of late.

The Chicago White Sox need to keep their power surge going this season.

On Thursday, the White Sox offense flexed their muscle in the season’s biggest game to date. They marched into Cleveland and lit up Guardians’ starting pitcher Hunter Gaddis for five home runs in the first five innings.

Gavin Sheets opened things up with a ten-pitch at-bat before driving a ball 396 feet into the right field stands for a two-run homer. Andrew Vaughn followed suit by getting inside a high fastball and drilling it over the left field fence.

Yoan Moncada joined the home run parade with an opposite-field home run to left center field that left his bat at 104 mph.

Yasmani Grandal connected in the fourth inning on a home run that just had enough to get over the yellow line in right field. . Then, Elvis Andrus put an exclamation point on the home run party with a 409-foot drive in the fifth inning to give the White Sox a 6-1 lead.

It marked the first time since June 30th, 2021 that the White Sox had hit five home runs in the first five innings. This type of performance has been building for weeks now.

The White Sox have seen a steady uptick in power since August 29th. Entering Friday’s game, they have 27 home runs in their last 16 games. This happened to be the day that Miguel Cairo took over as interim manager. Is it a coincidence?

Frank Menechino’s track record as a hitting coach suggests that this probably isn’t the case. Menechino’s teams have a history of leading the league in singles but ranking near the bottom in runs scored. Just ask the Miami Marlins.

There is no magical home run switch that Cairo flipped on. It is unfair to Tony La Russa to credit this to Cairo with them hitting more home runs, especially when La Russa has managed some of the biggest power hitters in MLB history.

He was in the dugout for the Bash Brothers in Oakland and Mark McGuire’s historic 1998 campaign.

A lot of the power has come from Eloy Jimenez who is getting healthier by the day. He has launched five home runs in the past 15 games. His absence early in the season has hurt the White Sox’s power numbers. He isn’t the only one, either.

Grandal, Moncada, and Robert have all dealt with injuries that have affected their home run output. The addition of Elvis Andrus has also added some surprising pop to the lineup. Andrus has six home runs in the last 15 games.

However, there is no denying the White Sox are playing looser and with more energy since he left. That has translated to wins. Winning tends to cure all. If all it took was someone to lit a fire under them to hit home runs, so be it.

Whatever the reason, one thing is clear. The White Sox need to continue to hit home runs to win games; it has been their recipe of success since 2020 and will not change anytime soon.