Two Chicago White Sox players who deserve more playing time and two who deserve less
More Braden Shewmake and Robbie Grossman!
Let’s face it, the Chicago White Sox are brutal to watch.
They are hardly scoring any runs because their offense is terrible. Their defense, which started the season on a high note, was exposed against the Kansas City Royals on Thursday night showing us that things there may not have changed. Injuries have struck hard. Eloy Jimenez has hit the injured list and Luis Robert Jr. just joined him.
It’s a mess folks and it’s not going to get better anytime soon. This team is indeed struggling and unfortunately, it was built to struggle.
Eventually, things will get better, right?
We are here to look at three players, two who deserve more playing time and one who deserves less of it. This list was a little bit difficult to come up with because the White Sox, as a whole, aren’t doing anything great to warrant much praise for anyone. Still, some guys on the team just might deserve a little more playing time to not only see what they have to offer but to also see how well they could perform in the place of someone else.
Let’s look at three players, two that deserve more playing time and one (or two) that don’t, who are currently on the White Sox major league roster, and why we might think the way that we do about these players.
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Braden Shewmake
Braden Shewmake is already getting some extended playing time and he deserves it. His first hit as a Chicago White Sox ended up being a home run. Couple that with the fact that he’s a quick-footed baserunner who has stolen one base already and you have someone that the White Sox need in the lineup. He’s young, healthy, and has a great future with the Sox.
The Sox have Paul DeJong as a shortstop and Shewmake can play the position as well. Of course, waiting in the wings you have top prospect Colson Montgomery, and he’ll be called up later for sure, especially if there are any injuries to Shewmake or DeJong. Shewmake needs to be in the lineup but so does DeJong. So, you have a bit of a quandary here.
It is possible that you could put Shewmake at second base, in place of Nicky Lopez and have DeJong start at shortstop. That would be maximizing the lineup to its utmost potential. Sure, Lopez has three hits but he has done nothing else. He is a good fielder, however, but he’s not a huge base stealer any longer.
Shewmake is someone who needs as much playing time as he can to help this team get better.
Robbie Grossman
This one should surprise everyone who is reading this post.
Grossman has barely seen the lineup yet but we are already calling for him to see more playing time. If there is any way Grossman can take some time away from Andrew Benintendi, who isn’t doing anything at the plate, then we should be calling for him to see more playing time. Benintendi has three hits and has one run scored. That’s not the kind of production you want out of your leadoff hitter and his 28 at-bats.
His .107 batting average just isn’t getting it done. The problem is, he’s a highly paid player so economics has him seeing the field more often. It should be the best player available seeing the field. Now we don’t know what the Sox have in Grossman, we know he’s had a steady career. We also know he didn’t have a lot of success at the plate in the last game.
But couldn’t he be better than Benintendi? Let’s let him play a little bit more and find out.
Who is the one player that should see less playing time?
Nicky Lopez and Andrew Benintendi
You could go with Benintendi here or even Lopez. It’s a tie between the two. There just isn’t a spark when these two are in the lineup. As a leadoff hitter, Benintendi’s number one job is to get on base. He’s barely doing that.
Now, granted the rest of the White Sox offense isn’t getting on base that much overall but still. You must start looking at someone and Benintendi is a guy that’s costing this team runs and chances. He’s just not doing much.
One could say the same about Lopez. While he’s a good fielder, he's an uninspiring hitter (uninspiring might be a good word to describe the whole of the White Sox right now).
The White Sox need offense, and they aren’t getting it from Lopez. Chicago needs to make some adjustments and maybe seeing less of Benintendi and Lopez are the adjustments that they need to make.
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