How The Starting Right Fielder Position Battle Is Going So Far During Spring Training

Another season is about to start for the Chicago White Sox and that means the team will have another different Opening Day starting right fielder.

Ever since Jermaine Dye's tenure concluded in 2009, the Sox have had nine different Opening Day starters in right. They have also pinned their hopes on the likes of Avisail Garcia, Nomar Mazara, and Oscar Colas as players who could develop into long-term starters. None of them have panned out.

Colas is still with the team, but he is now being tried out at first base. However, with the way the team demoted him late last season, during which the team lost 101 games, he probably does not figure to be in the plans to be a starter anytime soon.

He did get two at-bats and was a late-inning replacement in right during yesterday's Spring Training loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He did not reach base in either of those ABs. Colas is also hitting just .188, so it is highly unlikely he will be the Opening Day starter.

General manager Chris Getz and manager Pedro Grifol are looking at seven possible options to put out there in right.

Gavin Sheets spent his first two seasons as a backup outfielder and first baseman is being given a shot to win the job. Getz also traded for prospects ready to contribute at the big-league level in Dominic Fletcher and Zach DeLoach.

Getz also brought in veterans Rafael Ortega, Mark Payton, Brett Phillips, and Kevin Pillar as non-roster invitees to Spring Training.

Sheets, Ortega, Phillips, Payton, and Pillar are not great options.

Then again, that seems to be the theme of the players Getz brought in this season.

Sheets is trying to finally get regular at-bats.

He finished as a -1.4 fWAR player with 10 home runs and a wRC+ of 61 in 118 games in 2023. He is a career -24.1 fWAR defensive player. Maybe that is because he came up as first baseman and then was asked to play outfield to get his left-handed bat into the lineup.

Sheets has pop in his bat, so giving him some at-bats to see if he can smash 20 or more home runs is not the worst idea. The problem is he does not fit into Getz' desire for better defense.

He is having the best Spring Training so far among his competitors with a .263/.391/.632 slash line.

Phillips has always been all glove and no bat.

He is a career .186 hitter who played just 33 games in the majors last season with the Los Angeles Angels. Covering the outfield is his calling card as he is a career 29.5 defensive fWAR player.

He is one of the many former Kansas City Royals on the Spring Training roster. That at least gives him a running chance to make the roster as a late-inning defensive replacement.

At this point, he should be nothing more than an organizational depth piece mining his time at Triple-A Charlotte where he only gets a call-up if there is an injury.

His .182 spring batting average along with a .348 OPS is evidence of that.

If he does make the big-league roster, he should only see the field during the rare times Grifol elects to start Eloy Jimenez in right to get a different bat in the lineup at DH.

Ortega is a reliable veteran backup.

Cubs fans are familiar with his work during his two seasons on the Northside. He hit a career-high .291 in 103 games for the Cubs during the 2021 season. He played in just 44 games last season for the New York Mets.

He will be 33 in May and is another veteran who would probably be suited to being the fifth outfielder if the Sox choose to carry that many.

However, he is not making a case to make the team with a .067/.118/.200 slash line in the early portion of Spring Training.

Kevin Pillar could be a reliable veteran leader.

He is past his prime but is still capable of playing a professional right field. He might provide the veteran leadership presence this club lacked last season.

If anything, he probably has the most honest assessment of how this franchise allowed what should have been a long reign at the top of the AL Central to end so quickly.

He is having a productive spring so far with a .250 average in seven games.

Payton is an organizational depth player.

Born in Orland Park, IL. Payton came to the Sox after spending time with the Cincinnati Reds. He played in eight games in 2022 where he had three hits in 21 at-bats. He was non-tendered after the season and went over to Japan.

Payton is a long shot to make the big-league club. He is 3-for-6 with a home run in Spring Training. Getting just six at-bats shows he is probably not winning a job but should help out Charlotte this year. Plus, it must be an organizational rule or something that he is invited to Spring Training.