The White Sox need more from Andrew Vaughn in 2024

Andrew Vaughn is a good baseball player. He isn't a superstar yet like we thought he'd be but he is a serviceable player in Major League Baseball. With that said, the Chicago White Sox needs more from him once we get to 2024.

In order to be the first baseman of the future, you need to be a borderline offensive star. There are better first basemen that hit the free agent market most years than what Vaughn has shown. The hope is that he becomes one of those guys while being much younger and cheaper.

The White Sox took Vaughn with the third overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft so the hopes have always been high for him. Coming out of Cal, he was seen as the best power hitter in the country. He has somewhat shown flashes of that in MLB but there needs to be more.

In 2023, his numbers were okay but not great. He had a slash line of .260/.435/.751 with an OPS of .751. He has 21 home runs and 80 RBIs with 67 runs scored. Again, these are good numbers but he isn't (as of right now) the guy an offense is built around. He only has a 1.0 WAR for a reason.

The Chicago White Sox need more from Andrew Vaughn in the future.

Can his numbers improve as he gets better and has a better team around him? Absolutely. He needs to bring more to the table in 2024 to prove that he is going to be a force in the coming years. Getting a good team around him is going to be important as he will see better pitches.

Vaughn also moved to first base on a full-time basis this season. That was said to be something holding him back as he was more focused on learning a new position than hitting but his numbers are almost identical to 2022 when he was in the outfield almost every game.

Jose Abreu is gone and Vaughn certainly had a better year than him in almost every way. That doesn't mean that it is an accomplishment though as Abreu was borderline bad this year. The difference is that the Houston Astros will be in the playoffs again and the White Sox won't.

At the end of the day, almost everyone on the White Sox failed to be the best version of themselves and Vaughn is no exception. He took some big steps this year but he has a long way to go before he is considered to be a great third overall pick.