Santiago spent the duration of 2018 with the major league team after making the final cuts out of camp, pitching mostly in long relief with a few spot starts here and there. His final line: 49 appearances, seven starts, a 4.41 ERA, 5.12 FIP, a decent amount of strikeouts and a whole lotta walks.

He was the prototypical mop-up man for a White Sox team that needed mop-up duty on a whole bunch of occasions. Of his 42 relief appearances, exactly half of them came with the White Sox trailing by four or more runs and only six times did he appear in the eighth, ninth, or extra innings with the game tied or the White Sox leading by one or two runs. Nine times, he entered the game in the fifth inning or earlier and in only one of those games were the White Sox leading at the time.

That’s pretty much what one would have expected when the White Sox acquired Santiago. He was depth, served to protect the young arms and join James Shields as someone capable of eating innings without completely embarrassing himself. Was he good? It would be tough to argue that he was. But he certainly served a purpose for a team that lost 100 games.

Kevan Smith, as you know by now, is no longer with the White Sox after the Los Angeles Angels claimed him through waivers shortly after the World Series.

Smith was always kind of the odd man out when the White Sox signed Welington Castillo last offseason, but was pressed into more playing time in 2018 than initially expected after Castillo’s banned substance suspension.

Smith was hardly incompetent in extended playing time, and was the only of the White Sox three primary characters who the defensive stats liked even a little bit. His FRAA_ADJ was 0.7, compared to Castillo’s -6.4 and Narvaez’s league-worst -15.7.

That Smith won’t be around in 2018 is unfortunate, as more catching depth is never a bad thing. It’s entirely possible that the offensive potential of Castillo and Narvaez — after a breakout season at the plate — won’t outweigh the defensive negatives, but catching stats fluctuate strangely from year to year (Castillo was good in 2017), and with Zack Collins and Seby Zavala waiting in the pipeline to hopefully, potentially, take over catching duties, losing him is hardly a detriment to the rebuild.

He was fun and jovial and everything that’s easy to root for. His celebrations — on the rare occasion the White Sox had something worth celebrating — became instant viral sensations across baseball Twitter, and the stories from beat writers who interacted with him on a daily basis spoke of a player who was as friendly up close as he seemed from afar.

Nobody is safe. pic.twitter.com/jxjaTJsXyF

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) September 26, 2018

Yolmer lays down a bunt… ends up at third! Only Yolmer Sanchez. https://t.co/cQmy2DWquG pic.twitter.com/uIpvnm9jua — White Sox Talk (@NBCSWhiteSox) September 26, 2018

Yolmer Sanchez adding himself into the umpires’ review on the last call, using his battle helmet as the headset. He certainly enjoys what he’s doing.

— Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) August 15, 2018

Yolmer Sánchez started to trot to first while holding out his shin guard to the bat boy…then suddenly accelerated at the last second. Bat boy finally caught up to him about 10 feet from the bag

— James Fegan (@JRFegan) August 26, 2018

Omar Narvaez said he and Yolmer Sanchez played on same team in Venezuela when they were 7.

What was Yolmer like then?

“Same.”

— Daryl Van Schouwen (@CST_soxvan) September 10, 2018

 

Not to get overly hyperbolic, but Sanchez just flat out seems like one of those players who never takes for granted the fact that he gets to make a living playing baseball. And maybe his journey here is the reason why. Sanchez has been in the White Sox organization for 10 years, signing as an amateur free agent in 2009, and while he shot up to a major-league caliber prospect relatively quickly, it took him more than a while to really get his footing. He made his debut with the big club in 2014 and kind of toiled as a Quad-A nobody, traveling up and down from Charlotte, for three years and ~700 plate appearances.

Since then, Sanchez has turned into something of an asset for the White Sox. While his 2017 breakout portended a player who may have played his way into a role on the next would-be contender, his 2018 season was more or less the same — adequate defense at third and average or maybe slightly worse offense.

The question now, though, becomes whether Sanchez is overburdened as a full-time starter or if the White Sox would be better equipped with him in more of a utility role moving forward. He can hold his own and not be a burden on a lineup offensively and defensively, as he’s proved the last two years, but at the same time he hasn’t exactly produced at a level where the White Sox shouldn’t look for an upgrade at the position, nor would they. Put simply: If Sanchez is a starting infield on a team with little to no holes elsewhere in the lineup, that’s fine. But if, say, a big-time free agent third baseman becomes available at a price they like, or if Nick Madrigal comes up as a second baseman and pushes Yoan Moncada to third, Sanchez’s presence as a guy who can fill in at 3/4 of the infield and maybe even a corner outfield spot in a pinch means he still holds value.

Whether that happens in 2019 or not is yet to be determined. It’s entirely possible that if the above situations don’t play out, Sanchez enters the season as the starting third baseman once again. And if so, that’s more than acceptable. But whether it’s there or as someone who can fill in well all over the field, it seems like he has a role with the White Sox for the foreseeable future.

Lead Photo Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

Those are just some of the guys who have taken advantage of the circumstances that surround the White Sox roster the last few years. If the White Sox were in a different situation — say, trying to contend — many of those players may not have had the opportunity to try to prove their worth at the major league level. There’s hardly any benefits to a rebuild from the perspective of a fan, but one of the minor ones is seeing borderline major leaguers prove they can hang. Most of those players won’t over the long haul, but the Astros obscene tank job in the early 2010s allowed them to give meaningful playing time to guys like Jose Altuve, Dallas Keuchel, or even Marwin Gonzalez, all of whom wound up being valuable members of their World Series team in 2017.

Those are extreme examples, of course, but the point is that while 99 percent of the “quad-A” types who litter the rosters of rebuilding teams will flame out, there’s always a chance one of them might break out in a meaningful way and thrust themselves onto the next team built to contend.

It’s yet to be seen if any of the players that fit that profile will do so for these White Sox, but another player who may have played himself into further opportunities in 2018 was Jose Rondon. The 24-year-old only had 107 plate appearances at the major league level, but showed enough during both that time and during his season at Triple-A to make you wonder what, exactly, the White Sox have in the player they acquired from the San Diego Padres last January.

As a prospect, first for the Angels and later the Padres, Rondon profiled as an above-average glove at shortstop who could hit for a decent average with little power or patience, and that reputation pretty much stuck throughout his career. His career high in home runs was seven in 2017, and his walk rate for the most part hovered in the 3-8 percent range. Something change in 2018, though, and he led the Charlotte Knights in home runs with 16, and hit 24 total across Triple-A and during his cup of coffee in the majors. The strikeout rate increased with it, as one might expect, but an ISO more than 50 points higher than his career average is enough to make you turn your head.

If the improvements Rondon made in 2018 are real he goes from potential minor-league depth to potential major-league contributor. He’ll have just turned 25 by the time the 2019 season starts, so there’s a decent chance he’s just now starting to turn into the player he’ll become. A player who can more than hold his own at shortstop while providing legitimate power is valuable on any team. The problem, of course, is that the White Sox already have a facsimile of that entrenched at the position, and one with a lot more upside and athleticism. Similarly, while he may be better suited in a utility infield role given he’s a projected plus defender at third and second as well, the White Sox have guys like that in Yolmer Sanchez and Leury Garcia.

Still, having a surplus of players of that ilk isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The White Sox aren’t yet in a position where a young and intriguing player is going to get squeezed out of playing time, so like the plethora of fringe major league players looking to prove their worth, Rondon will surely get more opportunities in 2019.

Lead Photo Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Four years into his professional career, though, it might be fair to now revise that down to “Will he ever break out?”

For the last two years, it has seemed like the only thing holding Rodon back has been his health. A myriad of ailments have limited him to fewer than 200 innings the last two seasons combined, and in the 69 1/3 innings he threw in 2017, we got enough of a glimpse of good Rodon to remain optimistic he would develop into the top end starting pitcher the White Sox always hoped he’d become.

He was shut down late, of course, and wound up having arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder that kept him sidelined until June of this season. The good news for Rodon is that once he returned, he showed no signs of that injury or any other. The bad news was, well … the results. The walk rate jumped back up to more than 4 per nine innings pitched, and the strikeout rate which was always acceptably around 9 K/9, dropped considerably, and the swinging strike rate expectedly jumped along with it.

There was really no way to easily explain the struggles, which is honestly kind of a good thing. Where a dip in velocity or out-of-whack mechanics would be easy to identify, they would also be a bigger reason for concern that his shoulder surgery was proving a hindrance. That wasn’t the case at all, and the month and a half where Rodon produced good results — from July 5 through August 27 he had a 1.84 ERA in 63 2/3 innings despite just 49 strikeouts against 27 walks — showed that he can at times get by without his best stuff.

It’s that success that makes the vulnerability he’s shown that much more frustrating. We’ve seen Rodon at his best, such as the 11 strikeout, 0 walk performance against Boston last August, and although he wasn’t missing bats at a sustainable rate this season, he still showed the ability to blow mid-to-high 90s heat and his nasty, wipeout slider past hitters at times. But between those blips of success were command issues where he couldn’t find the strike zone and got pounded when he did.

For what it’s worth, both Rodon and the White Sox believe a full and healthy offseason will be part of the cure to those woes. And maybe they’re right. As of this writing, it’s expected that Rodon will enter camp next spring at 100 percent, which is something we haven’t seen in a few years. And that plus being another year removed from surgery may be exactly what helps elevate him to the level both he and the team know he can reach.

Rodon becoming a top-of-the-rotation starter is a bit factor in the White Sox rebuild living up to expectations. He still has a chance to do that, but until he puts it all together — both from a health and results standpoint —the skepticism will remain.

Lead Photo Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

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.

It’s easy to be disappointed with the second baseman after his first full season in the majors. The former No. 1 prospect in baseball and prize of the trade that sent new World Series champion Chris Sale to the Boston Red Sox has had his share of struggles through what is now 901 career plate appearances. An essentially league-average offensive season isn’t what the White Sox envisioned, and he simply hasn’t been the type of game-changing force we saw this season out of the likes of Juan Soto, Gleyber Torres, or Ronald Acuna Jr.

Simply put, it’s not what we signed up for.

Forget, though, for a second what your or the White Sox’s expectations for Moncada were two years ago. Forget that he was a No. 1 prospect, or that evaluators saw him as an elite All-Star talent capable of anchoring a lineup and competing for MVP awards, and your view might change a bit.

Moncada was a league-average hitter in 2018. Maybe a little better in the context of his position. As a 23-year-old whose shown the type of tools he possesses, that’s plenty to be excited about, because it’s clear he can still be a lot better.

Not all prospects are built the same. You can point to the aforementioned guys and a few others who came up and immediately dominated, but it doesn’t always work like that. Moncada needs to get better, but given all that we’ve seen in a year and a half, there’s plenty of reason to believe he will. He hit .235/.315/.400 with a 97 wRC+ in 2018. Across the season, he went through stretches where he mashed the ball to all fields and took walks at an elite rate. Between those stretches, he struck out too often and sometimes let his advanced eye and passive approach get the best of him.

But those stretches of greatness, his age, and the skill set he very clearly possesses outweigh the frustrations. We’ve been burned on a number of occasions by prospects who failed to live up to expectations, held back by glaring holes in their game. This is different. Even if he just cuts down a little bit on what was a league-leading strikeout total — something that his elite eye makes very much possible — he’d go from league average to legitimate asset, maybe even borderline All-Star given the position, and his gap-to-gap power has already showed up plenty in games.

This all may sound like blind optimism. I understand where the frustration lie with Moncada. You watch him play and ache for him to dominate like so many young stars have. But it’s not. Moncada was a good player in 2018, just not the type of game changer we envisioned. Thankfully, there’s still plenty of time for that.

Lead Photo Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

Minaya still throws hard and strikes out a good amount of batters.  Compared to 2017, he cut his home runs and his already too high walk rate climbed even higher to 14 percent, which is almost 3 points higher than the qualified leader in the majors on that statistic.  With the bat missing and velocity there is always the temptation to keep trying in the hopes he figures things out, but improving his 5.71 DRA to 5.05 from 2017 to 2018 may tell more of the story here.  The odds are Minaya is simply a mediocrity who has shown us about the best that he can do, and it’s not like the White Sox haven’t given him opportunities, appropriate to a team in the situation the White Sox are in.

You can never have too many relievers, and I’d be surprised if he weren’t pitching for the major league team at some point next year.  That said, the relievers part of the rebuild are likely the first to arrive.  Nate Jones, Jace Fy, Ian Hamilton, and Ryan Burr are all ahead of him in the pecking order and one has to imagine some combination of Aaron Bummer, Caleb Frare, and maybe even Jose Ruiz would be ahead of him as well.  Throw in Zack Burdi, Carson Fulmer, and whoever the annual relief pickups are, and Minaya is going to have a lot more competition for a bullpen he washed out of early in 2018 as it is.

Pitchers get hurt. Minaya has been durable. Modern bullpens are huge. And Minaya could pop up throwing 99 for Oakland in three years, too.  But hopefully phasing out Minaya for younger, better options could similarly be representative of the White Sox actually moving meaningfully toward the next phase, wherein they are actually trying to win at the major league level and succeeding at it.

The first one is nice. Lopez made it through his first full season as a starting pitcher and did mostly fine. He threw 188 innings and posted a 3.91 ERA. It’s the type of season where you can look back at his Baseball Reference page in a few years, see his 2018 line, and go “that was a fine year year by Lopez.” It was the epitome of “OK.”

This is particularly true when you consider where Lopez was coming into the season. Of all the at or near-major league ready pitchers the White Sox have, Lopez’s ceiling was the lowest, or at least the expectations for him were. Lucas Giolito was a former top prospect. Michael Kopech is one now. Carlos Rodon is only a few years removed from being the No. 3 pick in the draft. Lopez had some pedigree, but always measured behind those three on the excitement index. He was the guy who got the “probably a reliever” tag more than anyone.

By the end of the year Lopez was the only guy left standing, at least metaphorically. Giolito struggled mightily, Kopech got hurt, and Rodon was hurt and then struggled mightily. Lopez had a few rough patches, but he got through the season without embarrassing himself or getting hurt. Given the season the White Sox as a whole had, that’s a win!

Outside of the context of the White Sox season, however, Lopez’s future is much less clear. The reality is that there was very little that happened this season that makes you any more confident he can become the type of starting pitcher the White Sox envisioned when they acquired him in the Adam Eaton deal two years ago. The ERA was nice, yes, but behind it was a 4.63 FIP and 5.65 DRA that portends a whole lot of luck in that 3.91 figure. His cFIP of 122 does not predict a lot of future success, and the rate stats — particularly the 7.2 K/9 — don’t leave a lot of room for optimism.

Lopez’s future could still very well be in the rotation. It’s likely, however, that our expectations should maybe shift to that of a back-end starter, which still has value even if it would be something of a disappointment. At the very least, Lopez’s 2018 bought him another year in the rotation to prove it — one way or the other.

Lead Photo Credit: Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports

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