There are logical arguments to be made for trading either or both. That’s an argument for another day. However, while Rick Hahn indicated at this week’s GM meetings in Orlando that the White Sox are in no rush to part with either of them, their respective values on the trade market are going to be a source of speculation throughout the winter. So with that in mind, here are a three teams who could, hypothetically, feel the need to acquire one of them.

Jose Abreu

• The Colorado Rockies have always seemed like the most obvious landing spot. During the White Sox Winter Purge of 2016, they were rumored to be interested in making a deal for him, but instead foolishly threw $70 million over five years at Ian Desmond — who had never played first base before — and he promptly put up a 73 OPS+. The Rockies made the playoffs anyway, because baseball. Desmond’s contract and the Rockies seeming unwillingness to part with prospects would be a hang up, of course, as would the presence of prospect Ryan McMahon, a third baseman who is blocked at third by some guy named Nolan Arenado. The Rockies’ desire to acquire Abreu would ultimately depend on how willing they are to go “all-in” after a surprising playoff appearance in 2017.
• The Seattle Mariners got similarly poor production out of their first basemen in 2017. They entered the season with a first base platoon of Danny Valencia and my large adult son Dan Vogelbach, and after that flopped they acquired Yonder Alonso, who fell back to worth after a surprisingly All-Star worthy first half in Oakland and is now a free agent. The Mariners have the longest active playoff drought in baseball and Dealin’ Jerry DiPoto is about the only general manager out there more active than Hahn, but the major hangup here would be Seattle’s barren farm system.
• The Boston Red Sox got a surprisingly productive season out of Mitch Moreland at first base in 2017, but he’s a free agent and the team is starving for power. The Red Sox, of course, are recently familiar trading partners with the White Sox. They’re also a rich team that may be more apt to spend their money on the market instead of parting with more prospects. That’s not to say Dave Dombrowski wouldn’t, if he and Hahn found a mutual agreement. But the odds seem long.

Avisail Garcia

• The Oakland Athletics have already been rumored to be interested in Garcia, a move that would seem logical in a “nobody ever knows what the hell the A’s are thinking” sense. Oakland has been in “Are they rebuilding? OK they’re definitely rebuilding. But maybe they’re trying to win now, too?” mode for a few years now, so all bets are off in guessing what Billy Beane could be up to.
• The Toronto Blue Jays are seemingly set to watch Jose Bautista leave in free agency, an outcome that would leave a gapping hole in right field. Garcia would be a logical replacement if they’re willing to part with prospects. With Kendrys Morales entrenched at DH despite a poor 2017, however, there wouldn’t be another spot for Garcia in the event that his already shaky defense continues to be an issue.
• The San Francisco Giants are coming off a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year in a season where many had them pegged for the playoffs. With the likelihood that they move Hunter Pence out of a full-time role, right field would be a spot they would presumably target to upgrade as they look to put 2017 behind them. The Giants, like the Red Sox, seem more likely to upgrade their roster with money rather than via trade, and a National League landing spot is less ideal for Garcia given his DH-ness. Besides, could you imagine him patrolling that right field?

There are other potential landing spots, of course, but IF Hahn finds himself inclined to move either player, the market is likely the biggest obstacle to overcome. I mentioned in both the Red Sox and Giants bullet points that those teams are more likely to upgrade their positions of need with money rather than via trades, but the same could be said for most any team.

Abreu and Garcia both hold value of their own, of course, but why trade valuable prospects for them when you could throw money at a Eric Hosmer, Carlos Santana, Logan Morrison, Lorenzo Cain, Jay Bruce, etc.? Because of both the market and, in Abreu’s case, his non-quantifiable value to the clubhouse, the odds are that both likely stay in Chicago. But if teams fall short of their goals in free agency, things could change quickly.

Lead Photo Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

White Sox fans shrugged and went along with it, but due to Latos’ prominent home run tendencies and extensive injury history, Sox fans could be holding their breaths to see how the situation unfolds. There is a certain type of warranted curiosity here, seeing as Latos was once a fairly decent starter during his early years in San Diego and Cincinnati. Unfortunately, a barrage of injuries has robbed Latos of his vintage form.

But in his debut start in a Sox uniform last Thursday, Latos successfully executed six innings of one-hit, one-walk baseball. It’s safe to assume that many of us were pleasantly surprised by the outing, however it’s still just one start that presents its own reasons for apprehension. Can we trust this version of Mat Latos to continue to show up on the mound every five days? Only time will truly give us a more decisive conclusion of that question, but in attempts to gain a little more perspective right now as to whether this was a flukey one-time baseball thing with impeccable false hope-inducing characteristics or if there are some underlying indications that this Latos is here to stay, we’ll look a little further at Latos’ outing against the Athletics.

These maps from Brooks Baseball indicate the type of pitches thrown (left) and their result (right) throughout Latos’ entire start on Thursday. This may look like the zone maps for a pitcher who wasn’t locating his pitches well, however Latos was able to put the ball where he wanted it when it became necessary, and used the proper pitches to get himself out of jams. The question is now, how often will that continue to be the case, why did he get into jams, and how lucky was Latos?

Latos threw 30 sinkers (60 percent for strikes) and 26 fastballs (73 percent for strikes) against the A’s, according to the PITCHf/x data. These were the two most frequent pitches of the six types Latos threw. Latos induced swings on 57 percent of his fastballs and 43 percent of his sinkers, and most of those swings creating contact for the flyball outs. However, these pitches were located more in the lower/ middle half of the zone — which is living on the edge seeing as pitches located in this area can easily turn flyouts into home runs when thrown to the wrong batter at the wrong time or in the wrong ballpark. Latos induced six flyball outs, but if you watched the game, you can easily see that many of those balls were hit quite hard and some were taken all the way to the warning track, which left me a bit skeptical. It seems possible that there was a bit more luck on Latos’ side than not for those six outs.

However, the bright side of that is that nearly all of the groundball outs that Latos induced (6) came on well located, low fastballs and sinkers, save for one slider out made by Marcus Semien. When Latos was keeping the ball down, or in on the hands, he was able to make quick outs in a far less risky manner, something that he will need to do more often and with consistency to maintain success in U.S. Cellular Field. (Don Cooper vehemently stated to me at SoxFest that he is working with all of his pitchers to keep the ball on the ground as much as possible, because as we all know, flyballs easily turn into home runs at The Cell.)

One important thing to note is that when Latos found himself in hitter’s counts from sinkers and fastballs off the plate (as you’ll note in the maps above, almost all of the pitches off the plate and high above the zone are sinkers, along with a few curveballs and sliders went awry), he would quickly go to his secondaries — his slider and his splitter — to work on getting ahead in the count. Take a look at the numbers on those pitches in 2-0 counts:

Pitch Outcomes – from 04/07/2016 to 04/08/2016

and then in 3-0 counts:

Pitch Outcomes – from 04/07/2016 to 04/08/2016

Considering that Latos only threw 11 sliders and 10 splitters total that day, it becomes obvious that these were his go-to out pitches, and judging by the numbers you see here, they worked.

Latos also threw 7 curveballs and 3 changeups during the outing, but both pitches would be considered unsuccessful. Only two of his curveballs and one changeup ended up in the zone. The curveball clearly wasn’t getting the break that he needed (note the location in the maps above), which could lead to trouble, but seeing as Latos’ other secondaries worked well for him it’s not entirely neccesary that he employ the curveball all that often right now.

The overall take away here is that Latos looked good, and due to the fact that he no longer has the velocity to be a strikeout pitcher, he thrives on creating weak contact outs and keeping his pitch count low (which he did, only showing 88 pitches over 6 innings). His weakness will be the mistake pitches he leaves in the heart of the zone, and in the future batters won’t be a friendly to those as the Athletics were. He will also struggle during the times when he gets into two and three-ball counts and isn’t able to reconcile the situation effectively, via an out pitch or a well placed fastball or sinker that creates out-making contact.  His mehods worked well in this game, however, I’m not sure I see them consistently working for an entire season. But if he can continue to keep the ball low, create groundball contact, and keep his secondaries sharp, then perhaps Latos won’t be as chaotic as we had imagined him in the four spot. Latos’ next start will be tonight against the Minnesota Twins, which could be a good test despite their struggles.

Photo courtesy of Kenny Karst-USA TODAY Sports

Carlos Rodon has gotten a lot of ink this winter thanks to his strong 2015 finish and the expectations that accompany him into his sophomore season, including a piece this morning going into the details on why we may be looking at a breakout. What’s the big deal? After a rocky beginning to his career in which he basically alternated decent and tough-to-watch outings, he closed the year on a high note, lowering his ERA in each of his final eight starts. Getting deeper into games and limiting, but by no stretch eliminating, walk totals proved a good look for him, and leaves him room to build.

A couple of days recovered from sickness, Sonny Gray is now prepared to make his first start of the season. Gray is coming off of a season in which he finished third in Cy Young voting, but isn’t pegged by PECOTA to repeat on that success. As James pointed out earlier in the week, Gray’s peripherals don’t paint the picture of the same pitcher at home as they do on the road. For less than mysterious reasons, he pitches to contact much more, relying on the cavernous O.Co Coliseum to lend him protection. The White Sox have walked just three times in their first two games, and if Gray elects to consistently stay inside the zone, it may prove to be helpful to the seemingly aggressive swinging South side squad.

White Sox Lineup:

1. Adam Eaton – RF
2. Jimmy Rollins – SS
3. Jose Abreu – 1B
4. Todd Frazier – 3B
5. Melky Cabrera – LF
6. Avisail Garcia – DH
7. Brett Lawrie – 2B
8. Alex Avila – C
9. Austin Jackson – CF

Athletics Lineup:

1. Billy Burns – CF
2. Khris Davis – LF
3. Jed Lowrie – 2B
4. Danny Valencia – 3B
5. Billy Butler – DH
6. Josh Phegley – C
7. Mark Canha – RF
8. Yonder Alonso – 1B
9. Marcus Semien – SS

Yonder Alonso, the lone left-handed swinger in tonight’s lineup for Oakland, is 1-for-5 thus far in the series. The Sox failed to force Josh Phegley to make an out in last night’s contest so I’m sure he’s feeling pretty good about himself. The MVP of the series in the first two games for the Athletics could be argued in favor of Marcus Semien. The glove-last shortstop might be batting ninth, but he’s collected a pair of hits and a walk, and has even yet to commit an error. Some quick mental math confirms that puts him well behind his 2015 pace, where he committed 35.

Adam Eaton and Jose Abreu have both hit the ball well in each of the first two nights, despite the latter having a couple of poor looking plate appearances last night. Eaton is riding a streak of 24 games in which he’s reached base, the longest of his career. I’d be unsurprised to see both get aggressive early in the game before the cool air settles in to the East bay and keeps the ball from carrying much.

Lead Photo Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

It was hardly the prettiest of victories, but wins are wins, and I’ll try my best not to pick nits after Game 1 of 162.

The entirety of Monday’s scoring came in the third inning, with the White Sox tacking putting up four runs thanks, in part, to a pair of Oakland errors. After Austin Jackson walked and advanced to third base on an errant pickoff throw by Rich Hill (Oakland’s foul territory is really spacious!), Adam Eaton tripled him home with his first of two hits on the night. After Jimmy Rollins singled home Eaton with his first hit in a White Sox uniform, Jose Abreu doubled and the White Sox brought home their final two runs of the night when Mark Canha couldn’t handle the throw to first on a grounder by Melky Cabrera.

A 4-0 lead for Chris Sale seems more than safe enough, but a shaky third inning coupled with the White Sox bats going silent made things interesting until the end. After Sale retired his seventh-straight to open the game, and third via strikeout, Stephen Vogt reached on an infield single, old friend Marcus Semien walked, and after a Billy Burns groundout advanced the runners, Jed Lowrie singled them both home. After another single by Josh Reddick, Danny Valencia drove home Oakland’s final run of the inning and, as it turns out, the game.

Sale settled down from that point on, making it through seven innings, striking out eight and walking one. Robin Ventura wound up using four relievers on the night, three to get through the eighth inning. After right-hander Jake Petricka came in to face Lowrie — and walked him — he then turned to Zack Duke to retire the left-handed Reddick. Nate Jones then entered the game and retired Valencia and Khris Davis.

David Robertson recorded his first save, walking Coco Crisp to leadoff the ninth inning before retiring the final three batters.

Some notes from a 4-3 victory:

• Sale’s shaky third inning seemed a combination of him overthrowing his fastball and some tough luck with balls in play. He didn’t allow a single extra base hit in the inning, and the only two he allowed for the game were both doubles by Billy Butler, who improved to an absurd 17-for-50 off of Sale for his career.
• Jackson bobbled a single to center during Oakland’s third-inning rally. He had an outside shot at throwing out Lowrie at the plate had he not done so, but it would have had to be perfect, thus why all three of Sale’s runs were earned.
• The White Sox had a pair of TOOTBLANs on the night. More specifically, they had a pair of runners picked off first base, as both Eaton and Brett Lawrie were thrown out at second base after jumping too early.
• The debuts: The White Sox had five guys in their Opening Day lineup who were not on the roster last year. Rollins finished 1-for-4 with an RBI, Lawrie went 1-for-4 (and was picked off after his hit), Jackson went 1-for-3 (and also drew the team’s lone walk of the night), while Todd Frazier and Dioner Navarro both went 0-for-4. Frazier struck out in his first two at-bats and finally hit the ball hard in his last at-bat, lining out to third base. Navarro tried sacrificing Lawrie after his aforementioned single and promptly popped out. He did, however, make a nice defensive play later by picking off Burns on a botched steal attempt.
• As mentioned before, the White Sox offense was mostly quiet outside of the third inning, and their lone extra-base hits both came in that frame with Abreu’s double and Eaton’s triple. No dingers like the Spring foretold, but Oakland isn’t exactly the easiest park to go yard in.
• Ventura REALLY wanted the platoon advantage in the eighth inning, and while it seems strange to use Petricka, Duke AND Jones to get three outs, the three of them combined to throw 17 pitches so I can’t imagine it affects their ability to pitch the rest of the series. Also, Jones looked great in his two-thirds of an inning of work, particularly in striking out Davis.
• Although the White Sox’s four-run third inning was defense-aided, it also knocked Hill out of the game after just 2.2 innings. Oakland’s bullpen, of course, shut down the Sox, with Fernando Rodriguez, Ryan Dull, John Axford, Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle combining to allow just four hits over the final 6.1 innings.

Record: 1-0
Up next: 9 p.m. CT Tuesday against the Athletics on WGN. Jose Quintana vs. Chris Bassitt

Lead photo credit: Kelley L Cox/USA Today

Sale and Gray have never faced each other, though somehow Sale has faced the injury-prone Jarrod Parker three times. Think of how much harder it will be for them to match up after Gray gets traded to Cubs.

Gray’s is projected for about half the value as Sale by PECOTA for 2016 because 1. Sale is really good and 2. Gray’s peripherals become more pedestrian when he’s in Oakland Coliseum (7.3 K/9, 51.6 GB%) compared to who he is on the road (8.1 K/9, 57.2 GB%), and he seems to be more focused on pounding the zone (3.1 BB/9 down to 2.3 BB/9). Not being completely starved for power might aid the Sox in dealing with this approach this year.

One-on-one matchups are mostly noise, but if Billy Butler owning Chris Sale (.357/.404/.643) has been a constant annoyance for a while and if it continues even as he becomes an albatross for his current team, maybe we’ll really know it is for real.

2. Jimmy Rollins will be batting second on Opening Day, which reads as a rather significant subversion of the thinking that placed Jose Abreu in the No. 2 hole last season. Rollins has never been a great OBP guy–he only had a .344 OBP in his MVP season–and is coming off a season where he reached base at a .285 OBP clip. His offensive potential is the reason he’s starting over Tyler Saladino, but that’s a potential that doesn’t stretch far beyond hopefully a .300 OBP with moderate pop–not something to leverage the top of the order on.

Besides just putting Abreu back to where he belongs, the type of hitter Robin Ventura seems to be searching for is Melky Cabrera, whom he is likely avoiding for the sake of ducking having him in the same position where he flopped last season.

It feels so great to be griping about lineups again!

3. Alex Avila will also be getting the Opening Day nod at catcher, starting a season-long curiosity in how the Sox will split the playing time between him and Dioner Navarro. A traditional platoon split would make Avila the primary starter, especially in the AL Central, but durability and performance concerns (can he still put a bat on a ball?) make banking on him for even 100 games seem dicey. Are they going to try to keep both with an even split? Is Navarro going to be aggressively used late in games for matchups?

Navarro is a better bet to scratch what league average for catcher offense is these days in regular action, which is likely why he was able to demand more money, but Avila’s quieter actions behind the plate and game management make him more appealing. It’s a question of a much tolerance a long start with a sub-.200 average will bet met with for Avila. but if he just hits like its 2011 again, it won’t be an issue (He won’t).

4. The White Sox announced Chance the Rapper will throw out the first pitch at their home opener on Friday; a promising start to the dream of ‘Chance the Rapper–White Sox hypeman and talisman.’

Chance previously threw out the first pitch on May 30, 2014, which was followed by the Sox losing 4-1 to the Padres in a game where they blew a genuinely good start from John Danks, but this was before he rapped the line “I made Sunday Candy, I’m never going to Hell/I met Kanye West, I’m never going to fail.” So, suffice it to say the calculus has changed just a bit.*

5. Paul Sullivan had an interview with Robin Ventura about his lame duck status heading into the 2016 season. Unsurprisingly, Ventura is publicly very unbothered about not being under contract after this season and praised the team’s vibe through camp.

Ventura famously turned down a contract extension after his successful first year at the helm, which only furthered speculation at the time that he was an unwilling passenger in the organization’s unique fascination with him (this is his first coaching job, after all). While there is little reason to seriously doubt Ventura’s commitment to his work, he’s never read as the type of striving careerist who would be stewing about a lack of financially guaranteed job security, especially with the regard he has with ownership. Ventura lost his bench coach over the offseason, so he is likely well-aware of the stakes at hand, but keeping the peace is his primary skill–one still touted even after the LaRoche madness–and that starts with his own conduct.