The Chicago White Sox got destroyed in a three-game sweep by the Kansas City Royals. Ironically, the Sox have been mocked for trying to copy the Royals, and Kansas City went out and outscored the Southsiders 17-3.
However, the mocking was worth it in the offseason as the Royals somehow were worse than White Sox in 2023--a season where the Sox lost 101 games. It also did not help that the White Sox kept adding former Kansas City Royals players that were either way past their prime or not very good.
This is not last year's Royals. They are 10 games over .500 and holding onto the final wild spot in the American League.
In talking with my counterparts at Kings of Kauffman in Jacob Milham and Mike Gillespie, the Royals turned things around by spending their free-agent dollars on starting pitching and having a foundational, impact bat in Bobby Witt Jr.
Watching the Royals starting rotation render the White Sox lineup useless and Witt Jr. dominating the Sox, five things became abundantly clear about Chicago's AL team...
The White Sox must get an impact bat like Witt Jr. and they will likely have to trade Garrett Crochet and even Luis Robert Jr. to get one.
Bobby Witt Jr. went 9-for-11 with a walk, a homer, two RBI, and four runs. It was nearly impossible for the Sox to get him out.
Witt Jr. is leading the way for the Royals with a .337 average, .958 OPS, and 17 home runs. The most important thing he brings besides an unworldly way he can deploy all five tools he has is that Witt Jr. can be in the lineup almost every day.
You could argue the Sox have an impact player in Robert Jr. The problem is LRJ has played just one full season. He has been in the league since 2020 and has played in 413 career games. Witt Jr. has been in the leagues since 2022 and he has been in the lineup for 408 games.
Remember when the Sox were going great with Tim Anderson raking? It shows you that a team's success is always great when they have a stud shortstop.
The White Sox were in a position to take a high-ceiling shortstop in Konnor Griffin and they took pitcher Hagen Smith instead. While it is not the end of the world that the Sox went with a big, left-handed flamethrowing pitcher since the franchise has a track record of developing those type of pitchers.
The problem is if the Sox want to get a guy with a talent like Bobby Witt Jr., they must move the best asset, Garrett Crochet. He is the only asset the Sox have that a contender should be willing to give up a player that projects to be an impact bat at the big-league level.
USA Today's Bob Nightengale reported that the New York Yankees are willing to trade one of their top prospects, Spencer Jones, to get Crochet.