Pressed into starting duty after Welington Castillo’s PED suspension, Narváez broke out on offense. Omar had always been reliable for an above-average OBP with exceptionally little power but managed to raise his SLG almost .090 points from his 2017 numbers, ending the season with nine home runs and a .275/.366/.429 slash line. Unfortunately, he combines that approach at the plate with being one of the worst receivers in baseball both in terms of framing and blocking.

The Mariners traded for Colomé last May, obtaining the former All-Star from Tampa in yet another of the Rays arcane trade attempts to put together the most efficient team to miss the playoffs by 7 or more games. Colomé saved 84 games for Tampa from 2016-17 and pitched well for Seattle as a set-up man after the trade last season, striking out 3.77 hitters for every one he walked over 46.1 IP. He relies almost exclusively on a  low-90s cutter and a mid-90s four-seamer though he does also have a changeup he’ll throw maybe 5 times a season as well.

What does this mean for the roster and the immediate future of the White Sox? Colomé won’t hit free agency until after the 2020 season and likely slots in as the closer for next year’s team as he currently might just be the best reliever on the team. The Sox need improvement from the bullpen this season and unless he gets injured or completely loses his mechanics (which could happen because pitchers are pitchers), this helps shore up that weakness a good deal. Everyone other reliever becomes a bit more palatable when they’re moved down the ladder one rung.

As for catcher, I wouldn’t expect anything big happening. Yasmani Grandal is a free agent and would be a great addition to a team that’s contention window could begin early if management wanted to make some splashes this winter, but I don’t really see it happening. Seby Zavala was just added to the 40-man and I’d be pretty surprised to see Rick Hahn & Co. relegate Castillo to the bench with how much he’s being paid. That being said, trading your reliable backup catcher with four years left of team control for a good reliever with only two years does hint towards moving into the bolstering the major league roster portion of the rebuilding phase.

Instead, Shields unsurprisingly got worse. It’s almost like moving a pitcher who is struggling in San Diego while getting to face pitchers isn’t going to thrive on the South Side in a league that happens to feature the designated hitter. Who would have thunk it? We all remember how things went after that. Shields fell apart, giving up 31 home runs in only 114.1 innings and the team cratered with him. Sale and Adam Eaton were shipped out for prospect bonanzas mere months later and the White Sox were finally entering the first honest rebuild of our lifetimes. Johnson got hurt and likely won’t matter. Tatis wound up developing into A Guy and a global level prospect that would be right up there with Eloy Jimenez as a crown jewel in the system. Whoops!

Shields became a punching bag for Sox fans and his 2017 follow-up, while an improvement, was still terrible. The anger and resentment continued to grow despite the Padres kicking in enough money that his contract wasn’t actually that burdensome (and the fact that the Sox weren’t going to be spending money on any major contracts any time soon making the anger very misplaced). 2018 was going to be the season of the young gun pitchers with Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez each throwing their first full major league seasons and Rodon coming back from injury. The bullpen would have to cover more innings for the youngsters meaning someone had to soak up innings on the roster and who better to provide veteran sponge-manship than Shields?

To his credit, Shields wore it well. From all credible reports, he embraced the absolute hell out of his new role as positive veteran mentor and did his part. Yes, he was still below league average but only slightly so this year (93 ERA+). Is basically league-average what the Sox thought they were getting when they traded for him? No. Of course not. But on a 100 loss team, 204.2 innings of such skill are pretty valuable. Yes, Shields led the AL in losses but he threw 16 more innings than anyone else on the team during a season in which his main goal could charitably be described as “please throw at least five innings a night”. And he did it!

I wouldn’t be shocked to see the Sox work out a deal with Shields to come back next season even after not picking up his option this winter. There are still innings needing to be eaten and he’s clearly comfortable with the role and the team. The initial trade was a failure, that can’t be denied. But barring some big moves this winter, next season won’t be about contention and the team could certainly do worse.

But one man made it his mission to bring happiness to the South Side. One man decided to make things fun again by hitting monstrous dingers and embracing the weird fans hanging out in his section. He did this without pedigree. He did this without expectations. He came to town to do two things: crush baseballs and chew bubblegum and somehow the White Sox did not manage to order enough bubblegum.

That man was Daniel Palka.

The White Sox grabbed Palka off waivers from the Minnesota Twins last November. He had shown good power early in his minor league career but it tapered off the higher he rose through the farm system, a dangerous outcome for a 1B/DH who can only sort of play corner outfield. Given the logjam the Twins have in those areas, it wasn’t surprising at all that they cut him. It’s not like anyone would have actually predicted what happened next.

The White Sox called Palka up at the end of April. For the rest of the season, he swung as hard as he possibly could at almost every pitch he saw. If the pitcher was right-handed, this worked fairly well (.249/.298/.526). If they were a southpaw? Not so much (.200/.277/.293). His home runs had that Adam Dunn quality to them. That gunshot loud, turn your neck as soon as you hear it crack that left no doubt the ball was going to be a missile over the fence. His walk-off against Cleveland in August was a wonderful season highlight.

Palka wound up leading the Sox in home runs with 27 and finished with a .240/.294/.484 line that could garner him some down ballot Rookie of the Year votes. He engendered himself to the fans with his affability and embracing of the 108 lifestyle. Palka comes off as your well-meaning galoot of a buddy from undergrad who just so happened to stumble into being a pro ballplayer and is making the most of it before the clock strikes midnight. His season was definitely a success, though there are definitely concerns about how productive he can be going forward. He managed to adjust after both of his down months, but we’re still talking about striking out five times for every walk and there’s not terribly many places you can hide him defensively. It’s not unreasonable to believe he could be the better half of a DH platoon or an incredibly useful bench bat on a more robust roster, so there’s definitely a role for him on next year’s team at least.

Oh, and those 27 home runs? That’s three more than anyone hit for Minnesota last season.

It would be very fair to say that Omar Narvaez is one of BP South Side’s favorite sons. The essentially unheralded former Minor League Rule Five draft pick displayed quiet competence during his cup of coffee in 2016 (.267/.350/.337) and then improved upon it during his first full season as a backup in the majors in 2017 (.277/.373/.340). He established himself as a useful bench bat that could maybe even become half of a platoon if his defense improved a bit. A solid OBP coupled with doubles power is useful anywhere, but especially at the backstop.

Instead, circumstances forced the Sox into using Narvaez as the number one catcher after Welington Castillo got caught using EPO and missed half the season with a suspension. Fortunately enough, he rose to the challenge. Narvaez had a whopping three career home runs to his name over 412 PA before 2018. He’s the kind of hitter who somehow only managed to hit two dingers during the Season of the Juiced Ball. Yet somehow in only 322 PA this season he knocked nine pitches out of the park. His plate discipline skills remained as good as they’ve always been (with just a slight uptick in strikeouts) but seemingly out of nowhere his ISO increased 2.5 times (.063 to .152). His .794 OPS was second on the team behind only Jose Abreu’s injury-riddled .798. That’s a bat that more or less demands starting reps.

Unfortunately, his defense skills didn’t make the same jump and remain stagnantly poor. He lacks range and fluidity while blocking as his 12 passed balls and the 44 wild pitches thrown while he was catching show. He threw out 24 percent of all would be thieves, which isn’t too bad but league average was 28 percent. And while defensive metrics tend to be suspect and catchers get it worse than anyone, it’s hard to say his -17.5 FRAA is undeserved. His poor framing skills (-10.8 framing runs) gave back a win alone on defense.

His 2018 wasn’t perfect, but it was the leap forward he needed to cement his place on the 2019 roster. If the Sox can find production at other positions, that should play well enough to make his defense palatable.

This was supposed to be one of the happy write ups. One of the coveted Year in Reviews that you have to be the first person who signs into the Google Doc to claim. One of (if not the) top pitching prospects in all of baseball with electric stuff, charisma, and he’s ours? The stuff of dreams. Until September hit. But let’s start with the good stuff.

Kopech came into the season a unanimous Top 20 prospect (No. 11 by Baseball America, No. 10 by MLB Pipeline, No. 17 by Baseball Prospectus). Everyone knew he’d be in Charlotte for at least a few months because baseball is baseball and the service time clock must be gamed. Apart from a few minor hiccups, Triple-A wasn’t much of a challenge. The only real blemish you can find on his stat line from Charlotte is a BB/9 of 4.3 but that’s a lot less of an issue when you’re still managing to strike out almost three hitters for every one that walk (12.1 K/9). You can only say “he needs to stay down to get a better feel for his secondary stuff” for so long once it’s established that none of the hitters he’s facing can provide any further challenge. And so the White Sox finally bit the bullet and called up one of their top prospects.

The fans rewarded them with 23,133 tickets sold for a late August Tuesday night game against the similarly moribund Minnesota Twins. Kopech didn’t disappoint. Four strikeouts over two innings with three hits allowed before Mother Nature decided that was enough for the young flamethrower. We would only get a minor taste, but it was good. God, it was good.

Five days later we got a proper show. Six innings against Detroit, four strikeouts, one earned run allowed. Sure, he hit two batters but jitters are jitters. The offense actually picked him up and Kopech earned his first career win. Elation. Absolute elation. Followed by more rain. Three innings against Boston before another storm put the early kibosh on his evening after a mere three innings. But he only allowed three baserunners (two via HBP) against the best team in the American League so it was hard to care.

August turned into September. Things fell apart. The center could not hold. Mere anarchy was loosed upon the world. Kopech only managed to go 3.1 innings against the same paper Tigers while giving up 7 hits. Something was clearly wrong.

Torn ACL. Everything’s bad.

I remember reading one of the dumber takes of the season shortly after it was announced Kopech would need Tommy John surgery. It was something along the lines of “I hope all the people who wanted Kopech called up to pitch in some meaningless games are happy now”. I don’t need to explain to you why that’s stupid, but I will because you are my audience and that’s kind of my job. Assuming his elbow wouldn’t have exploded in Charlotte instead of Chicago is stupid. It’s the logical argument of either a child who doesn’t yet know better or an adult refusing to speak in good faith. You’re an adult. You shouldn’t be engaging those kind of folks.

The White Sox did the right thing in calling Kopech up when they did. Honestly, they should have called him up sooner. You can’t protect your prospects forever. Eventually they have to be thrown into the fire. It sucks that Kopech won’t pitch again for the White Sox until 2020. It’s an awful outcome from a reasonable process. It just means there’s one fewer bright spot in 2019.

Lead Photo Credit: Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports

Things haven’t been going well for the once top prospect since before being the crown jewel of the Adam Eaton trade, but things were looking somewhat up during Spring Training. His fastball velocity jumped back up to 94 MPH and he was actually able to abuse hitters with it again. But once things moved back to the Midwest and games actually started to matter again, he slipped back into the 91-92 MPH range we’ve come to expect and things rapidly fell apart.

Giolito led the American League in both earned runs and walks allowed (118 and 90 respectively). He became the first White Sox pitcher to qualify for the highest ERA in the AL since Jose Contreras’ 5.57 back in 2007. His K:BB ratio danced far too close to 1 (1.39) for comfort, especially from someone who was once supposed to be a top guy. Over six starts in May, hitters looked like All-Stars against Giolito (.283/.397/.513). The only real bright spot in the ordeal that was his 2018 is that he made 32 starts and threw 173.1 innings.

For the past two seasons, I’ve clung to the Gavin Floyd comparison for dear life and it still fits. It’s incredibly hard to actually become a bonafide ace pitcher and sometimes the road you take ultimately winds up turning you into a mid-to-back of the rotation stalwart who just soaks up innings in a useful manner for a handful of years. Floyd took his lumps for four years in the majors before eventually figuring things out so it’s not unheard of to think Giolito could make that jump in the nearish future. But he’ll need to show some solid improvement next year to start getting that level of faith back.

Lead Photo Credit: Jim Young-USA TODAY Sports

You may be asking yourself, “Mark, why the hell are you talking about Walker Buehler?” and that’s a fair question. The Dodgers drafted Buehler 24th overall out of Vanderbilt in the 2015 draft. The White Sox drafted his Commodore rotation-mate 16 picks before that. That young hurler?

Carson Fulmer.

There have been questions about Fulmer’s future role since day one. He’s listed at a generous 6-foot-0 and has an irregular delivery that screamed “reliever” to a not-small number of scouts. But his fastball sits in the mid-90s and he already had a good feel for the cutter, so he seemed like a safe bet to at least become a seventh inning guy if the whole starter thing didn’t pan out. Not quite what you want out of a top 10 pick, but positive value is positive value and young late inning arms count as that.

Fulmer’s late season cup of coffee last year was deceiving. He struck out a decent number of hitters (19 in 23.1 IP) and had a respectable 3.86 ERA. But he walked 13 hitters and gave up four home runs, so it was fair to wonder if that was more smoke and mirrors than meat and potatoes. He deserved a shot at the rotation in Spring Training and did well enough to break camp as a starter.

April saw two good starts, one against Toronto (5 IP, 2 ER, 5 K, 1 BB) and one against Kansas City (7 IP, 0 ER, 3 K, 3 BB). That’s it for highlights. Over three starts in May, Fulmer completely lost the thread. He pitched a total of 7.1 innings, allowing 17 earned runs while walking just as many hitters as he struck out (11). Management had seen enough and Fulmer spent the rest of the season with the Charlotte Knights. That didn’t go well either.

Fulmer started nine games for the Knights before being transitioned to the bullpen. The results? A 5.32 ERA with 62 strikeouts and 41 walks over 67.1 IP. His stuff is still there, he just doesn’t seem to have any idea where it’s going once it leaves his hand. His control didn’t improve after shifting to the bullpen, which is pretty concerning. Hopefully with a long winter to learn his new established role, things will turn around for Fulmer otherwise it’s looking more like he’ll be a mop-up man at best.

Lead Photo Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

Adam Engel was drafted in the 19th round of the 2013 MLB Draft. That’s not exactly a prestigious place to be taken. No other player from his draft round has made the majors. The last 19th rounder to make much of an impact in the majors was the last Adam who played center for the White Sox (Arizona drafted Adam Eaton 571st overall back in 2010). So while there is definitely the chance of finding All-Star quality talent almost 600 picks into the draft, it’s not exactly something you should bank on. When a player you take that late manages to provide any sort of utility for the parent club, you should think of it as a win, however minor of one it truly may be. Perspective.

Adam Engel was worth 0.9 WARP this year. That’s obviously not anything amazing nor what you really want out of your starting center fielder, but it’s certainly better than nothing (or his 2017 season in which he was worth -0.1 WARP). He managed to raise his OPS almost .100 points, going from an anemic .517 to a slightly more robust .614. His SLG passed the .300 threshold (.336) and his OBP inched ever closer to the almost palatable .300s as well (.279). And despite the occasional brainfart route, most metrics (and the majority of the time eye test) place him as an above average fielder. Progress! Perspective!

But there are, of course, negatives. All that progress still only amounts to an OPS+ of 70. It’s a big step forward from his previous year, but when your old OPS+ was 40 it’s hard to not make progress and keep getting playing time. If not for a hot August in which Engel hit .276/.284/.448 with three home runs, his second half slash line looks more like .239/.273/.310. Yikes. And while Adam stole twice as many bases this season (16), his success rate dropped precipitously from 88.9% to 66.7%. For a Man of Steal, that’s pretty bad.

The good news for Engel is that unless the White Sox pick up a new center fielder during the offseason, the three prospects gunning for his job are all still at least a year and a half away at the soonest from making their way to Chicago. Luis Basabe will likely start 2019 in Birmingham, though finding time for Luis Robert and Luis Gonzalez may force him up to Charlotte before long. And even if Engel winds up losing his starting job, gritty glove-first center fielders tend to stick around for quite some time.

Lead Photo Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

He hit the ground trotting, smacking three dingers against the Kansas City Royals on Opening Day. While he didn’t manage to hit a hat trick’s worth of home runs every game, he remained absolutely torrid throughout March and April, hitting nine homers to go with a .253/.375/.609 slash line and 15 walks to boot. He still struck out a lot (33 K in that same stretch), but when you’re only four walks shy of tying your career high before May rolls around, you’ll take the improvement.

Unfortunately, the hot start was unsustainable and he only had one other month with an OPS over .750 (.751 in August). He started more games at DH (64) than at third and first combined (45 and 14 respectively) and for good reason. His range at either corner doesn’t seem to extend much further than his wingspan and he has all the grace of an under-oiled tin man when attempting to scoop up the ball. He also struck out just as many times this season as last (165).

But there were notable improvements. Yes, Davidson will always be a high-strikeout hitter. But his batting eye improved tremendously as he drew almost three times his previous career high in walks (52). That was good enough to goose his OBP up .059 points, shifting him firmly into the territory of average hitter instead of an all or nothing power bat without enough power to make that work.

And in the most interesting development of his year, Davidson made three appearances as a relief pitcher. In a year that featured more position players pitching than any sane person would believe, Rick Renteria called for Davidson during three separate blowouts. How did he do? 3 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 0 ER, and 2 K. Look at this curveball that sat Giancarlo Stanton down swinging.

Almost vintage Ben Sheets with that 1-7 drop!

The roster crunch might still catch up to Davidson this winter, especially as baseball seems to move ever farther into bigger and bigger pitching staffs at the expense of bench players. But even before his surprising and delightful development as the last man out of the bullpen, barring some major additions to the roster it’s hard to imagine not finding at least a spot on the bench for a guy capable of an .882 OPS against southpaws.

Lead Photo Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

Castillo has always been a pretty decent hitter for a catcher (100 OPS+ for his career) and his bat would certainly bring some needed pop to an otherwise anemic White Sox lineup, but perhaps the main reason he was brought aboard was that he somehow at the age of 30 developed into a pretty good pitch framer for the Baltimore Orioles. And when one of your key goals for the season is to develop a young pitching staff you hope will be able to eventually lead your team to glory, someone who is at worst average behind the plate is pretty useful. Any offense is just icing on the cake at that point.

Things were going pretty smoothly over the first two months with Castillo hitting .267/.309/.466 with six home runs all before Memorial Day. With how weak the crop of catchers in the American League was this year, it’s not unreasonable to think Castillo might have found his way onto the All-Star team. If he hadn’t managed to catch an 80 game suspension for testing positive for erythropoietin in late May.

What had started as a fairly promising season turned into a very long unpaid vacation from June through August. Castillo looked understandably rusty when he returned on September 3, only managing a .571 OPS over his final 16 games and seeming to struggle tremendously to establish a rhythm and rapport with the pitching staff, especially Carlos Rodon. 2018 is definitely a season Castillo will want to put behind him, but with Omar Narvaez’s breakout season, only one year left on his deal, and the relentless dual marches of time and age it’s more than fair to wonder what 2019 will hold in store for him.

Lead Photo Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports