It’s not exactly a developmental position. The only qualified DHs under the age of 30 last season were Khris Davis and Corey Dickerson (Davis is 29), and is mostly occupied by aging players whose elite bats have kept them in the game past the death of their defensive utility. The Sox don’t figure to have any of those types unless they force that status upon Jose Abreu against his will, so they will probably be filling it the other commonly seen way: a rotating cast of players with some power potential and no consistent defensive home.

While reviewing a still in-development effort by Baseball Prospectus to project playing time for the 2017 season that I probably shouldn’t be discussing yet, I couldn’t help but notice that Sox DH was…a hodgepodge, to put it politely. They basically listed every position player on the 40-man who is not already a regular at another position, and they were not wrong to do so.

Avisail Garcia saw the most time there in 2016 of anyone returning, which, gives him some vague theoretical leg up. Melky Cabrera is still on the team, can hit, and is a declining defender who would figure to take some days off playing the field if he sticks around for a while, Rymer Liriano and Jason Coats are corner outfield types who will be looking to squeeze into whatever gap they can fit in, and Matt Davidson is on the 40-man roster, and thus in the mix. And this is alongside the possibilities of guys like Abreu, Todd Frazier and Brett Lawrie swinging over for some occasional PAs, just because they’re currently around.

Garcia is likely the worst defender of the three corner outfielders, but his power drought only ended when he got into the field more in the second half. He only slugged .366 as a DH in 2016, compared to .435 as a right fielder. It’s hard to work up a great reason to project success for Davidson, as he got nearly 2000 plate appearances in Triple-A alone before a mild, still strikeout prone (26.4 percent in 2016) turnaround earned him a short-lived call-up last season, but how is anyone too stalled to give a shot when Garcia is still in the mix?

Liriano is the freshest face in this regard, since the last significant playing time he received saw him hit .292/.383/.460 with San Diego’s Triple-A affiliate in 2015. He seems like a longshot to perform well enough in Spring to win a job, given that he will have a full year of injury rust to knock off, but really is just a mystery box since he was a raw prospect who showed promise but has now missed two years of development. But everyone has a specific advantage over Coats, who is otherwise projected by many to lead the field in playing time. Coats was only added to the 40-man roster last Summer, and can easily be stashed in the minors without risk of being claimed off waivers, whereas Liriano and Davidson cannot.

Coats has never suffered through a long stall in production at any stage of the minors, and has certainly earned a shot on a rebuilding club, but lacks the standout tools to project him as a consistent regular. If not wanting to lose a guy on waivers was enough to give Jerry Sands an Opening Day slot last year, it could definitely keep Coats in Charlotte for the start of April.

A sentiment we’re at risk of losing when discussing the turgid mechanics of figuring out playing time, is that unless Melky just becomes a full-time DH, none of these guys figure to fill the position particularly well. Davidson was supposed to have plenty of power, but also strike out a ton and hit for a low average that would make his offense an asset only if he could stick at third base. Liriano was always revered as a toolshed, and his throwing arm and athleticism were supposed to help prop up the unrefined elements of his game at the plate, and Garcia was looked upon similarly but with more reverence for his speed and hit tool, and all three have seen hopes of fulfilling those past expectations dim drastically.

So all three are options to slot at DH for the sake of giving them at-bats and a chance to prove themselves, but are not necessarily great fits that would preclude the Sox from finding a veteran bat and hoping they hit well enough to be flipped for prospects. Mets writers have been very keen to suggest the White Sox relieve New York of their inability to trade Jay Bruce, but that could be a very expensive and thankless favor.

But maybe the Sox should be in the business of doing expensive favors with little chance of paying off; they have all of $69 million in pre-arbitration obligations for 2017 and figure to shed Frazier’s expensive third year of arbitration at some point, not to mention David Robertson and possibly Cabrera’s contract. If the budget-conscious Mets are willing to sweeten the pot with a prospect to have Bruce taken off their hands, it becomes a worthwhile maneuver. The Sox could similarly do well to inquire just how disenchanted the Cardinals are with Matt Adams, and see if the 28-year-old could reclaim any of his promise on the South Side. The Cardinals have a lot of infield options and no true first base bat, and would probably be interested in shedding some of them for Abreu, while we’re at it. And that’s before we glance at a slow-playing free agent market that still has Chris Carter, Pedro Alvarez and Mike Napoli hanging around.

Just because the big league club is set to become a clearinghouse for reclamation projects doesn’t mean they need to be inherently overmatched ones, and the realm of hitters with some chance of success who are too risky for contenders to take a chance on does not end at the Sox 40-man roster, and they would be wise to leverage their ability to survive a flop.

Lead Image Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski // USA Today Sports Images

While LaRoche was a very long shot to rebound in any meaningful way in 2016, as PECOTA had him pegged for a TAv of .260, there is a non-crazy universe where one points to his .304 TAv in 2014 and attributes his awful 2015 to injuries.  With the White Sox finally filing his retirement papers, however, we will never get an answer as to what he could do in 2016.

The timing of this fiasco remains poor, as Pedro Alvarez had just been scooped up and added to Baltimore’s collection of all-or-nothing lefty sluggers.  Combined with Justin Morneau‘s surgery keeping him from even swinging a bat until June and Marlon Byrd signing with Cleveland, and there isn’t a whole lot left to choose from.

A team with quality depth would be happy to hide Melky Cabrera‘s glove at DH and just use LaRoche’s departure as a way to improve team defense.  The White Sox are not a team with quality depth, and unless something changes, they’re going to have either Cabrera or Avisail Garcia lumbering around ineffectually in the outfield one way or the other.  One could imagine more aggressive use of J.B. Shuck as a defensive replacement (a configuration of Shuck-Austin Jackson-Adam Eaton would be the best defensive outfield the White Sox have run out in a long time), but unfortunately none of Garcia, Jerry Sands or Shuck is a very appetizing option against right-handed pitching.  Indeed, unless you are the biggest Travis Ishikawa fan on the planet, there aren’t any usable left-handed platoon bats in the organization, or indeed, anywhere on the horizon.

Perhaps RotoWorld is correct that the White Sox simply do not presently have a DH, although I suppose Garcia fields like one.

Trade speculation is an easy way to sound like a moron — this shields me from being a moron if I say something dumb, right? — but the most attractive, realistic option looks like Matt Adams from the Cardinals.  The most obvious benefit is that he shares a name with one of our authors, but he has the potential to be a plus lefty bat who can spell Jose Abreu at first base.  Although St. Louis denied it this winter, it appears Matt Holliday is likely to get PAs at first this year, which means, with Brandon Moss on board, Adams could be the odd man out.  Granted, just because St. Louis can afford to part with Adams doesn’t mean they want to do so, but his projected .268 TAv would fit very nicely in the space recently vacated by Mr. LaRoche.

Given that Adams is under team control until 2019, and he will only turn 30 at the very end of that control, the Cardinals can ask for a return that will sting.  Something built around Trey Michalczewski and Jordan Guerrero may get most of the way there.  Those guys are nice, but are likely worth sacrificing in exchange for a guy who may give you ~1,500 quality PAs over the next three seasons.

*While the uncertainty as to how this will impact the team moving forward (if at all) is a source of discomfort, I take solace from Chris Sale singling out both Rick Hahn and Robin Ventura for praise yesterday.  If it is indeed purely an issue between Sale (and perhaps other individuals on the team) and Kenny Williams, then that should be fairly straightforward to navigate.  It also undercuts the narrative that swept Twitter yesterday that Sale had reached the point of no return, hated the whole organization, and would need to be traded immediately.  One is left to guess how well this sentiment correlates to a given speculator’s desire to have their team trade for Sale at pennies on the dollar…

Photo Credit – USA TODAY Images by Joe Camporeale.