A lot of Chicago White Sox deserve criticism for the way that they played this season. The players played the game and a lot of them were bad. When the guys on the field don’t play well, the team has no chance to win. That may sound obvious but not enough blame goes on the players.
One of those bad players was Seby Zavala. He opened the season as the team's backup catcher but he ended up playing a whole lot more than he should have. When Yasmani Grandal is your starter in the year 2023, however, there isn't really much else of a choice.
Zavala had a negative WAR just like Grandal did. He was at -0.3 because of his below average catching and truly awful hitting. He slashed .171/.230/.314 for an OPS of .545.
Those numbers include the final few weeks of the season in which he played for the Arizona Diamondbacks because the Sox let him go. His numbers were pretty good with them which tells you how truly bad he was in a White Sox uniform for his final numbers to look like that.
The Chicago White Sox had another bad year with Seby Zavala on the team.
With that said, this is a piece on his season which the Chicago White Sox which was horrific. He had some good moments with the White Sox earlier in his career but he was mostly a bust following that.
Unless your defense behind the plate is immaculate, a bat like that can't be in a Major League lineup with any regularity. The Chicago White Sox, however, were 61-101 for a reason so it all makes sense.
Final Grade: F
Seby Zavala was terrible this season. He couldn't even crack an OPS over .600 as he produced little to no offense with regularity. It isn't really his fault that he played way too much as he would never deny the playing time. It is more of a reflection of the team that he stuck around for so long.
2024 Outlook:
It is unclear if Zavala will be a Major League player full-time next year but he will certainly play professional baseball. He might be given a tryout but that should turn into AAA baseball for him relatively shortly. He certainly won't be with the White Sox which is a good thing.