3 White Sox players the organization has too much faith in right now
The Chicago White Sox have too much faith in these players right now.
Part of the reason that the Chicago White Sox are such a bad team is the people in charge. From ownership down, this management team, past and present, has been horrible.
The players also deserve a lot of blame. We've seen them make changes over the last 24 months and it is going to continue well into this upcoming season.
However, there are a few players that this team wildly overrates. They think they are going to be the savior when they are very much not.
Believing in the wrong people this much is the reason the White Sox are in the position that they are in. These are the three players that they overate the most:
Andrew Vaughn is a player that they think too highly of on the field
Andrew Vaughn is a good player. He is far from the biggest problem on this team. However, it is fair to say that you expected a bit more from the third overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft.
He didn't have a traditional rise to Major League Baseball because of the COVID-19 pandemic but he is in the league now. He is a very average player all around.
Some people thought that switching from the outfield to his natural position of first base following the departure of Jose Abreu would turn him into a superstar. Newsflash, it hasn't.
In 2023, playing first base full-time, he slashed .258/.314/.429 for an OPS of .743. He also hit 21 home runs and had 80 RBIs.
Again, those are all decent numbers but they aren't leading a World Series contender anytime soon. His 0.9 WAR reflects his value to the team. He can still get better as he is entering his age 26 season but he certainly shouldn't be untouchable.
Andrew Benintendi was a major mistake for this Chicago White Sox team
The Chicago White Sox overrated Andrew Benintendi when they gave him the richest contract in the history of the franchise.
That speaks more to how cheap the White Sox are than Benintendi but he isn't even worth the 75 million that he is going to have when the deal is done.
The White Sox wanted him when he was coming out of Arkansas but the Boston Red Sox beat them to him in the draft. He was great for them during his tenure there.
He was even decent with the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees as well but things fell south when he came to the White Sox. He is usually a good hitter and decent with his glove but he was awful with both during his first season on the South Side.
In 2023, a year in which everyone was awful, he slashed .262/.326/.356 for an OPS of .682. He hit five home runs and had 45 RBIs with 72 runs scored. His WAR of 0.2 is a great reflection of how underwhelming he was.
There is a chance that he will bounce back in his second year with the team if he is more comfortable with his situation. However, don't count on it.
Michael Kopech never reached his potential and now he is overrated
Michael Kopech was one of the prospects that came back from the Boston Red Sox in the Chris Sale trade. He was considered to be an elite player in the making.
In 2021, on a very good White Sox team, Kopech was a great reliever. Putting him in the bullpen was the Sox's way of easing him back into action.
Now, it is clear that he isn't the starter we thought he'd become when they first acquired him. Whether they are looking at him as a starter or reliever in 2024, they are overrating him coming into the year.
He should not be someone that they believe is going to carry the load in the long term. If they can find a team that wants to acquire him for his potential, the White Sox should do whatever they can to make that deal happen.
Sadly, we feel this way about Kopech and the others mentioned on this list but it is the reality of the situation. It would be nice to be wrong about all of them but signs point to them all being major dissapointments.
Next. The 15 worst contracts in Chicago White Sox history. dark