The Chicago White Sox Need More Steals Overall

The Chicago White Sox are not known as a team that steals a lot of bases. Even with the new base sizes put in place last year last year, the team, overall did not do well stealing bases. With the new rules and the emphasis on stealing bases, a stolen base can help earn a team a victory.

The White Sox must steal more bases in 2024.

While this team is kind of devoid of someone who can steal bases regularly, there is one player who might be up for the challenge. That player is Luis Robert, Jr. last season, Robert Jr. stole 20 bases and increased his career mark to 46 in four years. Those numbers must go up and Robert Jr. will likely increase his total stolen base numbers over last year. That would be great for the White Sox and could help them win a handful of games.

Another player who could ratchet up his base-stealing ways might be Nicky Lopez. He had a couple of seasons where he was actively stealing bases well, including a season in Kansas City where he stole 22. But his numbers have gone down, way down in fact to where he only stole two in 2023. Lopez needs to find that base-stealing ability again and get some bags for the Sox this season.

The White Sox don’t have a lot of guys that are speedy on the basepaths and that’s unfortunate. Maybe some of the guys will step up and be able to steal some bases for the team. Maybe a guy like Andrew Benintendi, who has 82 career stolen bases and stole 13 last year can do something. He just needs to turn things back on and not get injured stealing a base.

Other guys in the potential starting lineup, guys like Andrew Vaughan (one career stolen base), Paul DeJong (23 career stolen bases) and Yoan Moncada (31 career stolen bases) need to step up their stolen base ability and steal more bases.

A stolen base may not seem like a big deal, but it can be. Moving a runner into scoring position, without a hit, can help get runs in on a single. There are a lot of different strategies to stealing bases and the teams that steal the most bases tend to be the ones who win more games and are playoff-bound.

Once again, we need to look towards Robert Jr., to lead the stolen base effort for the White Sox. We like it when Robert Jr. steals a bag or two but some of us hold our collective breaths when we see him take off and slide into second. We worry about his being injured and missing a lot of time because he chose to steal a bag. White Sox fans don’t want him to miss that much time.

Although it may not seem likely, I would look for the Sox to try to steal a little more this season. It’s going to become necessary so they can keep games close.