5 reasons to question the 2023 Chicago White Sox's improvement
By Joe Santoro
Are the Chicago White Sox better than they were a year ago?
With the start of the regular season only about a week away, we still don't truly know the answer to that question. A year ago at this same time, the expectation was the World Series. Nobody is even whispering those two words around the White Sox this spring.
It might appear right now that the White Sox are better than they were a year ago. Tony La Russa, after all, is gone. All of the core players are not yet on the injured list. Yoan Moncada has yet to ground out to second base with the bases loaded.
But don't confuse late March 2022 with the six months that followed. Everything that could have gone wrong last season did go wrong. Cub fans have Murphy's Bleachers across from Wrigley Field to drown their sorrows. Sox fans had Murphy's Law to ruin their World Series dreams last season.
The Sox of late March 2022, don't forget, were a confident bunch, and for good reason. The team was not only talented, but it was also finally experienced. It already had won a division title in 2021 and experienced the postseason. The team, we were told, was ready to win big.
The Chicago White Sox are going to try and bounce back big in 2023.
Fast forward to a year later. Half the roster is heading into a make-or-break season. The rebuild window is starting to close. The rookie manager hasn't had time to instill a new lineup let alone a new culture because of a roster fractured by injuries, illness, and the World Baseball Classic.
Still, think the Sox are better than they were a year ago at this time? That sort of has the same feel as Dorothy clicking the heels of her ruby red slippers and chanting, "There's no place like home. There's no place like home."
Then again you might be on to something. Like Dorothy, the Sox are simply trying to wake up from a bad dream of a 2022 season. It just might work after all.
But in case you wake up a month or so into the season and find the White Sox barely treading water once again, here are five reasons why the bad dream might not be over just yet: