The Chicago White Sox are looking to have a big bounce-back year in 2023. They came into 2022 with lofty expectations and were incredibly disappointing. An 81-81 (no playoffs) season is not what fans wanted to see and were very angry about it.
Now, the team is done with spring ball as they are trying to turn things around. There is a new manager in Pedro Grifol, a new attitude, and a few new players. As of right now, there is a bit of cautious optimism surrounding the team.
Things finished off at Sloan Park as the Chicago White Sox took on the Chicago Cubs again. They lost the game 8-5 to drop their Cactus League record to 12-14. Obviously, results in the spring don't matter. What matters is how people play.
There were a couple of roster players that played in this game but it was far from their Opening Day lineup to close out the spring season. Romy Gonzalez and Andrew Vaughn each hit home runs as they try to impress one more time before things get going for real.
The Chicago White Sox didn't finish spring training with a win.
Michael Kopech took the mound for the White Sox and didn't do all that well. He gave up five runs on five hits and three walks in 4.1 innings. We don't know what he was working on in this game but he gave up some runs.
He did have seven strikeouts which suggest that his stuff is there but he is going to have to be better with run prevention once the season begins.
Now that the games are over, we can focus on the regular season which begins on Thursday. The White Sox will be on the road to take on Jose Abreu the Houston Astros in a four-game set.
By then, we will have a slightly more clear picture of what the team is going to look like in 2023 in terms of player personnel.
Between spring training and the World Baseball Classic, there were some good things that they can build on. Some things need work as the year goes along. Hopefully, they did what they needed to do in order to be better this year.