3 changes we'd make to the 2023 Chicago White Sox before it's too late
With a 6-10 record and a run differential of -23, the 2023 Chicago White Sox are not off to the start that anybody wanted to see from them. While the division rival Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Guardians are always threats, the Sox seemed to have a real shot at taking the division by storm this year.
However, things have not gone according to plan. Eloy Jiménez, Oscar Colás, and Elvis Andrus are all off to relatively slow starts on offense while Lance Lynn, Lucas Giolito, and Michael Kopech have been eyesores on the mound.
The bullpen has also been a major weakness for the club. Entering the day, the only semi-reliable relief arms are journeyman Keynan Middleton and starter-turned-reliever Jimmy Lambert.
The talent is there for the White Sox, it's just the follow-through that has not met expectations so far. Injuries to Tim Anderson and Yoán Moncada certainly don't help matters either.
But, it's important to remember that the regular season is still young. As any baseball fan knows, anything can happen in this game. The White Sox could very easily take this slow start and turn it around and emerge as division winners by the time the end of the year rolls around.
Let's play general manager for a second and determine three changes we'd make to the current White Sox roster.
DFA Hanser Alberto once he returns from the injured list.
After putting together an incredible performance in 2023 Spring Training, Hanser Alberto's selection to the 40-man roster came as a surprise to virtually nobody. Originally in camp as a non-roster invitee, his red-hot bat (.439 average with six RBI and seven runs scored in 16 games) earned him a spot on the Opening Day roster.
Now, Alberto finds himself on the injured list with a strained quad. He has had some occasional injury concerns over the course of his eight-year career and doesn't appear to be long for this club.
In the first eight games of his White Sox career, the 30-year-old utilityman has struggled mightily at the plate. In 19 at-bats, he has just four hits and has yet to draw a walk. He's never been one to reach base at an above-average clip, but he has a .211 average and an OPS+ of just 56 out of the gate.
If there's one thing the White Sox have a ton of on their current 40-man roster, it's positional versatility. To replace Alberto in the lineup, the club has options such as Elvis Andrus, Romy Gonzalez, Lenyn Sosa, Bryan Ramos, and José Rodriguez.
This leaves them with no shortage of flexible infield options, so the best course of action may be to just cut bait once Alberto returns from the injured list.
Reynaldo López needs to be removed from the closer's role immediately.
With essentially every option to be the club's closer currently on the injured list (Crochet, Foster, Hendriks, Kelly), the White Sox have been forced to use starter-turned-reliever Reynaldo López there to start the year.
After beginning his big league career as a starting pitcher, López put up two consecutive dreadful seasons (2019 and 2020) before the White Sox began to seriously consider him as more of a relief pitcher. Sure enough, he made 11 relief appearances against nine starts in 2021 and then 60 relief appearances last year.
In 2022, he looked better than he ever had before. Functioning as a middle-relief option who can go multiple innings if need be, López had a 2.76 ERA and 146 ERA+ in 65.1 innings. Notably, he allowed just one home run all year.
Through eight appearances in 2023, he has been lit up like a Christmas tree and should be taken out of the closer's role immediately. In 7.1 innings, the 29-year-old has allowed six earned runs on nine hits while walking five batters and surrendering a pair of home runs.
He has struck out 12 batters already, which is highly encouraging to see, but overall he has been having a hard time.
López is one of the longest-tenured pitchers on the staff, which does mean something, but when you struggle as badly as he has to start a season, something needs to be done.
Remove Michael Kopech from the starting rotation.
For years now, Michael Kopech has seemed to be an arm that would excel in a relief pitching role rather than masquerading as a starter. He has been bitten by the injury bug more times than I can count and really only has two full seasons under his belt since he debuted back in 2018.
Last year, Kopech was a full-time starter. He made 25 starts for the White Sox and did very well, posting a 3.54 ERA and 113 ERA+ in 119 innings of work.
His strikeouts came way down, walks went way up and he had an unusually high FIP; so there were some things to be concerned about underneath the surface-level numbers.
People forget that the former top prospect functioned primarily as a relief pitcher as recently as the 2021 season. He made 44 appearances (only four starts) and excelled, striking out 103 batters in just 69 innings with a 3.50 ERA and a sparkling 2.97 FIP.
His 125 ERA+ remains the highest mark of his career and suggests that he was 25 percent above the league average that season.
To start 2023, things have not looked pretty for the 26-year-old. In three starts and 15.2 innings of work, he has a 6.32 ERA thanks to 11 earned runs on 16 hits and a whopping seven home runs allowed.
He has failed to strike batters out at his usual rate and is walking entirely too many batters and allowing them to reach base has come back to bite him frequently.
There may not be a long line of replacements for him, but the White Sox should move Kopech to the bullpen and see where it goes. History shows that it can work, so now is the time to begin the second phase of this experiment before his numbers spiral too far.
Next. The 15 worst contracts in Chicago White Sox history. dark