Tyler Clippard — Clippard served as the awkward throw-in of one of the White Sox’ biggest trades this season. He was sent to Chicago along with three prospects, which made him a very certain outlier. At first blush it seemed like he was included to merely cover innings for a team that was trading away two of their best relievers at once. When he was traded to the Astros almost exactly a month later, it was clear his inclusion in the inital trade was merely to balance out salaries. It’s hard to say whether the team planned to flip him all along or his strong performance (10 IP, 2 ER) ignited interest from other teams. Regardless of the why, Clippard was in a White Sox uniform for merely an uninteresting month of the season.

Todd Frazier — Frazier was one of the many White Sox players belonging to the group of last ditch players from the era of the team piecing things together in hopes of finding something that worked. He spent a season and a half with the team, showing power in 2016 and nothing of great significance in 2017. The team was forced to package him with two strong relievers to get a team to bite, and he went on to find a leadership role with a Yankees team that was just one win away from the AL pennant.

Miguel Gonzalez — One of the big stories of the 2015 season was the massive failure of the Jeff Samardzija acquisition. There was absolutely no chemistry between Don Cooper and Samardzija, causing concerns about Cooper to ripple through the White Sox fanbase and baseball world. If it’s even fair to say there was a revival of Cooper’s reputation, it came in 2016 when Gonzalez went from throwaway player on the Orioles to one of the White Sox best pitchers. The 2017 was much rockier for Gonzalez, who battled injuries in the early part of the season. His 4.62 ERA on the season certainly wasn’t great, but he was effective while in Chicago. He weaved his way through hard contact left and right to make himself a trade asset in August, which helped the White Sox gain even more young talent in quantity even if not in quality.

Derek Holland — Holland always seemed like a great fit for the 2017 White Sox. He was a free agent whose price tag was greatly reduced by injury concerns, but if he was healthy he could easily provide a multitude of innings at at least a passable quality. That was a perfect fit for a team in the very early stages of rebuilding, and if the team got lucky he could have been a trade target by July. Instead things went horribly wrong, and Holland was cut from the roster before the season ended. His 6.20 ERA and 4.6 percent strikeout minus walk rate was not a site to behold, and as the summer came to an end his starts seemed to get worse and worse. The pitcher who appeared to be a solid signing with plenty of potential turned out to be a dud.

Dan Jennings — Jennings appeared in 77 games this season, which was good enough to put him tied for third in all of baseball among relievers. Perhaps it was the frequency with which Jennings was used that caused the Rays to show interest at the deadline. At the time they were certainly contenders for at least a Wild Card spot, if not within reach of the division title. With limited resources financially and within their system, they were forced to go bargain shopping. It’s hard to say why or how they landed on Jennings, but the fact remains that he was the guy they wanted. The White Sox were happy to oblige as they handed out bullpen arms like candy on Halloween throughout the months of July and August, and in return got Casey Gillaspie, a prospect who is flawed but interesting enough to more than justify the trade.

Tommy Kahnle — Kahnle and his morbidly huge thighs stepped out of nowhere and into our world in 2017. Before this season he was merely a fireballer who couldn’t find the strike zone, hardly a rare breed in this day and age of baseball. All it took for him to take off, as is the case for so many relievers, was a bit of command. He was able to establish the fastball early in counts and blow hitters away with his devastating changeup. The White Sox could have held out to squeeze more value from what seemed to be a very good reliever, but the general principle of selling high on relievers whenever you can is a good one. Kahnle went on to be a crucial part of the powerful Yankees bullpen, making strong and important appearances in a multitude of postseason games.

David Robertson — Robertson, like Frazier, was part of the team’s last ditch effort at contention over the last couple seasons. With contention out of the picture and Robertson still a valuable bullpen arm with a large salary commitment through 2018, the White Sox decided it was time to part with him. His value was neither at an all-time high nor all-time low, but when he was packaged with Kahnle and Frazier the return was at the very least a couple players of interest.

Anthony Swarzak — During most seasons you would be hard-pressed to find a reliever that came more out of nowhere to find success than Kahnle. However, in 2017 Swarzak did exactly that. The White Sox gave him a minor league deal, converted him to the bullpen and saw immediate success. He started the season on fire and finished with a 2.33 ERA and 30 percent strikeout rate. With Swarzak only signed on for the single season, it was an even easier decision to send him away to a contender. He landed in Milwaukee, where the Brewers were trying to keep themselves in the playoff race.

Jose Quintana — The most inevitable trade of the season was one involving Quintana. It was a shock, however, to see him sent to the other side of town. Despite struggling in the early parts of the season, he rebounded enough to convince teams that confidence in his past performance was enough to warrant sending prospects to the South Side. His departure was the saddest of the season from a rooting standpoint, but it sent the most exciting prospects the other way. Suddenly a White Sox system that still seemed arm-heavy had one of the best hitting prospects in baseball along with another high-ceiling pitcher. Seeing Quintana go after so many years of improbable success was unfortunate, but it was a huge step in the right direction for the White Sox rebuilding efforts.

Lead Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

• -The return for Todd Frazier, David Robertson, and Tommy Kahnle.
• -The high difference of opinions on Blake Rutherford.
• -Whether trading Kahnle was the right thing to do.
• -Any other trades likely? Does anyone want Melky Cabrera?
• -The insanely mediocre American League Central
• -Yoan Moncada’s promotion and what to watch from him the rest of the season
• -Other prospects who might get called up this season. Reynaldo Lopez? Lucas Giolito?

Also be sure to check out our summary of Wednesday’s deal, as well as BP’s transaction analysis. You can also read a more in depth take on the decision to trade Kahnle by Ryan Schultz, and Collin’s closer look at Moncada’s White Sox debut. Follow us on Twitter @BPSouthSide.

You can subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by searching for “The Catbird Speaks.”

Concurrent with the trade, general manager Rick Hahn also announced that heralded top prospect Yoan Moncada would make his debut with the team Wednesday.

Rutherford is the headliner here as far as the return. The 18th overall pick in last year’s draft was often linked to the White Sox in the weeks leading up to the draft. He was considered arguably the most polished high school hitter in that class, but fell because of bonus demands and a ceiling that isn’t considered quite as high as those who went ahead of him. As BP’s Greg Goldstein put it on Twitter, he has a solid all-around game but no standout tool. He’s an outfielder who’s played a lot of center early in his career but is likely going to be destined for a corner long term. He was No. 49 in BP’s Preseason Top 101 but didn’t make the recently released Midseason Top 50, however, he’s ranked as highly as No. 30 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100, and was No. 36 on Baseball America’s Midseason Top 100.

Clarkin is a left-hander who was a first round pick in 2013 and has yet to pitch above A-ball, primarily because of injuries. Entering this season he’s thrown only 178 innings in his career, but he’s had modest success in High-A through 75 innings thus far in 2017. Polo is a 22-year-old outfielder originally signed by Pirates in 2012 who came over to the Yankees for Ivan Nova last summer. He was on Colombia’s World Baseball Classic team this spring, and has split time between High-A and Double-A with the Yankees this season. He was not in their system’s Top 30, per MLB Pipeline.

The final piece is Clippard, who is decidedly not a prospect. The 32-year-old veteran has a 4.95 ERA with the Yankees in 2017 and is a free agent after this season. He was likely included solely to help balance out the salaries (the Yankees are taking on the entirety of the money owed to Frazier and Robertson), and to eat some innings for the Sox for the rest of this season.

Frazier and Robertson being traded wasn’t a surprise, but packaging the two together, in addition to Kahnle, was a bit of a shocker. Kahnle’s trade value had obviously increased exponentially since the start of the season and there had been some debate as to whether or not he was worth trading at peak value or hanging onto as a present and potentially future bullpen asset. Hahn said in a press conference Tuesday that the trade wouldn’t have happened without the addition of Kahnle, and given the volatility of relievers, as well as the suddenness of his ascension, it’s tough to blame the White Sox for selling highly.

Combining those trades with the call-up of Moncada (as well as reliever Brad Goldberg; sorry for overshadowing you, Brad!) is a logical choice as Moncada can take Frazier’s place on the infield at second base with Yolmer Sanchez and Tyler Saladino now splitting time at third base. It will be important, of course, to temper expectations as he adjusts to the majors once again after an extremely small trial last September.

Lead Photo Credit: Kelley L. Cox / USA Today Sports Images

The expectations for Rodon should be tempered. He’s had a wildly untraditional start to the season, which could naturally have an effect on his performance. With the first two seasons of his career being tumultuous it would be silly to expect him to immediately step into a top of the rotation role. The best thing Rodon can provide right now is innings. As Collin Whitchurch noted last week, the White Sox have been incredibly poor at getting starters to stretch beyond the fifth inning. If Rodon can simply do that while attempting to hone command for the first time in his career, the White Sox pitching staff will breathe a much needed sigh of relief and perhaps not have their arms all fall off.

2. The White Sox defense has somewhat notably been good in some aspects while failing at others. A couple weeks ago they led the league in BABIP allowed. They have since fallen all the way to tied for third with a .283 average on those balls in play. Some of that is sneaky good talent, but it’s probably mostly do to the White Sox tendency to shift. They’re fourth in the league in batters faced with any sort of shift on.

An area of the defense that hasn’t been discussed is how often the outfielders have thrown out baserunners. The White Sox outfield ranks third in baseball in outfield assists. While Avisail Garcia was lauded for his arm as a prospect and continues to have that reputation and Melky Cabrera is sneakily good in the area, it’s a bit surprising that this particular White Sox defense would excel in outfield assists. A lot goes into throwing a runner out, of course. It depends on the runner’s aggression, where the ball is hit, the speed of the runner, and the game situation. Those are a lot of unpredictable variables. What is known is that the White Sox have been good at it, which has certainly helped prevent runs for a defense that looked shaky entering the season.

3. The White Sox addition of Alen Hanson was a typical rebuilding team move. Hanson was at one point a Top 100 prospect who failed to live up to those expectations. A change of scenery has possibly affected his play in a positive direction. It’s a teeny tiny sample, but Hanson is hitting .333/.385/.423 with a home run. He’s managed to fit right into the top of the order despite his limited time in the big leagues as well. If he could remain even an average player at the plate, the White Sox will have found a nice diamond in the rough in just their first year rebuilding.

4. Jose Quintana‘s season has been heavily discussed because of his inadequacy along with the failure of the Chicago front office to move him before some sort of decline hit. What could erase all of that is an excellent second half of the season that reaffirms what most teams and fans already knew about Quintana: he’s good. His start on Thursday was a step in the right direction. He went nearly seven innings without giving up a single run. More importantly, he had nine strikeouts with no walks.

5. The AL East is highly competitive this season, because of course it is — it’s the AL East. One point of weakness among the teams at the top, mainly the Yankees and Red Sox, is a gaping whole at third base. Each of those two teams had a young option in their minor league system that could have been slotted in if needed. However, Gleyber Torres of the Yankees just tore his UCL and Rafael Devers of the Red Sox doesn’t appear to be ready for the promotion. That puts both teams in excellent position to make a trade for a rental at the hot corner.

It just so happens that the White Sox have one of those players. Todd Frazier hasn’t been overly impressive with his .209/.314/.418, 12 home run, and 93 wRC+ line. Necessity, combined with a limited number of options at the position, could be advantageous for Chicago. Mike Moustakas and Eduardo Nunez may provide equal or better options, but the White Sox should be able to unload Frazier for something. Jon Heyman, however, reported that Chicago would have to practically give him away to move him. If a bidding war arises in the AL East, though, the White Sox may be able to receive more value. They would likely have to be willing to pay a good portion of Frazier’s salary. What we know about the organization seems to hint that such a thing won’t happen, but they should ideally be willing to do so if it means they receive better young talent.

Lead photo credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

1. Leury Garcia has been a pleasant surprise this season — I wrote about that in more detail a couple weeks ago — since that article was published he’s been able to retain his pace as one of the best center fielders in baseball. No, seriously he still has the fifth best wRC+ among center fielders (118). Not all news is good, though. He left the game on Sunday with soreness in his left hand after sliding through first base. Ignoring the fact that sliding into first base is idiotic and poor strategy 99 percent of the time, there is reason for concern over something being simply reported as soreness. You may recall that fellow excellent center fielder Mike Trout suffered a torn ligament in his thumb after sliding into a base. Initially that was reported as soreness as well. It appears nothing is broken, but there’s still an X-ray to be had and good reason to keep your eyes peeled for news about it.

2. The White Sox defense doesn’t appear to be an overly great one. They rank 14th out of 15 AL teams in fielding percentage. They have players like Tim Anderson who has failed to reach the defensive potential he showed a year ago along with a player like Avisail Garcia that never even flashed brilliance in the field. And yet, they somehow lead the league in BABIP allowed with .272. This is particularly odd because White Sox pitchers haven’t given up soft contact this season. Jose Quintana hasn’t been himself, Holland has been hit hard in almost every start, Miguel Gonzalez hasn’t shown the player he was last year, and the rest of the rotation is full of players the White Sox scraped together when James Shields and Carlos Rodon went down with injuries. I have absolutely no clue why the White Sox would be giving up such a low BABIP. Although, I suppose, it doesn’t raise a team’s BABIP if balls are sailing over the outfield fence.

3. Yoan Moncada was red hot before he was sent to the disabled list with a hand injury. So hot, in fact, that many were questioning the White Sox decision to keep him in the minor leagues. The White Sox argued that they believed he wasn’t quite ready for big league pitchers. Since his return from the disabled list he’s looked lost at the plate. Whether that is a lingering injury or pitchers adjusting remains to be seen. However, it is of note that over the last 30 days Moncada has been slashing .169/.301/.273, which after some simple math gives an ISO of .104 and OPS of just .574. Those numbers are certainly not worthy of a call-up to Chicago. They’re also not reason to be overly concerned. Moncada is just 22 years old and experiencing Triple-A for the first time in his professional career. If he doesn’t adjust back or fully recover from his injury in the next month or so then it may be time to worry, however unlikely that is to happen.

4. Quintana had another start over the weekend, which only complicated things further. It wasn’t a complete implosion like some of his previous starts, but it wasn’t good either. We have yet to see the Quintana we know and love this season for any stretch. He has a 5.30 ERA, but his strikeout rate is the best of his career. The problem has been something he’s hardly experienced in his career: lack of control. He’s walked 9.2 percent of batters this season, which is also a career high. His DRA of 4.12 doesn’t reveal any rays of positivity either. Major league scouts know who they’re getting in Quintana if they were to trade for him, however, it’s become impossible to ignore the hit his trade value has taken.

Some will remark that this means the White Sox should have dealt him before the season began. Well, hindsight is 20/20 as they say. What has always been the case for the White Sox is that they have some wiggle room in timeline of a Quintana trade. He’s under control until 2020. If Rick Hahn and his cohorts have to wait until the offseason for him to regain the value he once had, so be it. They would be trading Quintana, whose talent level does fall a bit lower than Sale’s, with the same amount of control remaining on his low-cost contract as Sale had this past winter. Does that mean the White Sox get the same value in a trade as they did for Sale? Of course not. But the fact remains that the White Sox aren’t backed into a corner yet. They will hear offers, of course, but I wouldn’t count on him being traded this season. And that’s okay.

5. Todd Frazier had a rough start to the season, but he has rebounded a little. Because of the position he plays, he may garner some trade interest as we head into July. The .222 average isn’t pretty, but the rest of the numbers aren’t bad. He’s striking out less and walking more than he did a season ago. With a 13.4 percent walk rate and 21.2 percent strikeout rate, he’s been able to salvage his .222 average into a .327 on base percentage and .438 slugging percentage. That has helped him remain an above average hitter with a 102 wRC+. A league average hitter with at least average defense at third could bring the White Sox some young talent. Even if the offers aren’t incredible, it’s better to trade him than let him walk. For that reason, Frazier is likely out of a White Sox uniform by the end of the season.

1.  Derek Holland got shelled again. For the second start in a row, Holland surrendered three homers while only striking out two batters.  After his June 2 outing, Holland sounded like he knew what was wrong and that the problem was fixable, but if he was correct, he hasn’t been able to implement the correction yet.  His velocity isn’t noticeably off over his last two games, although after throwing only 203 innings from 2014-2016 combined he may be experiencing some fatigue, which could impact his command.

Holland has pretty much already justified his 1-year, $6 million contract, but after his strong start to the season it had some hoping that he would actually be a meaningful trade chit at the deadline.  The last two games have pushed expectations back toward the, “He’s just here to eat innings,” column.

2. After a three-hit game with his third home run in four games, Todd Frazier has boosted his line to .206/.312/.429.  The recent hot streak is fortuitously timed and is consistent with the narrative that he simply started the year cold, and then got crushed by a serious bout of the flu.  With his defense still sound at third, Frazier may yet represent something of value at the deadline, if the White Sox feel the return they can get is worth parting with his leadership.

3. Trading Frazier may also serve to free up space on the infield when Yoan Moncada eventually gets called up. Yolmer Sanchez is one of the many young White Sox position players who have dramatically resuscitated their careers from life support so far in 2017.  After three seasons of failing to put up an OPS north of .600, Sanchez is hitting .292/.341/.435 and it would be to the White Sox’ benefit to see what he can do with a full season of PAs in his age-24 season.  I don’t really think of Sanchez as a natural third baseman, but if the White Sox do call up Moncada, he will obviously play every day at second, meaning third is the only potential spot for regular reps, and that’s only if Frazier is gone.

Even if Sanchez, Leury Garcia, and Avisail Garcia are going to see some regression, there is more hope than ever that they can be solid regulars or plus bench contributors.  Seeing unexpectedly significant developmental wins at all three of these spots could actually alter the strength of the organization moving forward.  After all, if you think Moncada and Anderson can be star players, the Garcias and Sanchez only need to be solid to help fill out your roster.

4.  The Red Sox just got smashed twice in two games by the Yankees.  Sitting at 32-27, the Red Sox are hardly in bad shape, but the Yankees have certainly gotten off to a better start than many would have predicted, and with their robust farm system they are probably going to get stronger rather than weaker as time progresses, and the Red Sox third base situation has been just about as bad as you could have imagined before the season started.

Our prospect team adores Rafael Devers, who is crushing Double-A. But Devers doesn’t turn 21 until October and banking on him to save the position as a rookie seems risky for a team with World Series aspirations.  Similarly, the Yankees have Chase Headley‘s on-base skills following his power into the underworld, and although their 20-year-old hot prospect, Gleyber Torres, is in Triple-A, he is barely getting his feet wet, and you don’t want to risk rushing a top-tier prospect to throw a band-aid on a position of need.

These are two potential matches for Frazier, but speculating from the outside as to what he’s worth or whether these two organizations deem him a worthwhile investment is quixotic.  It is hard to identify other potential suitors unless someone on a contender gets hurt between now and August 31, however.

5. In statistical odds and ends, the White Sox are really, really bad at stealing bases, with a 57.5% success rate as a team. It’s even odder as the team has more than its fair share of young speedy players, although they are largely being dragged down by Sanchez’ 3/9 efforts to date.  Fortunately, and much more significantly, the White Sox have been the second best defense in all of the majors so far this season by Park Adjusted Defensive Efficiency with a defense that includes the aforementioned Garcias and the error-riddled Anderson as regular fixtures. A very encouraging sign, as the defense may feature those players consistently moving forward.

Lead Photo Credit: Kim Klement – USA Today Sports Images

Rick Hahn and the White Sox brass might be asking themselves that same question.

The third baseman has followed in the footsteps of Adam Dunn, Jeff Keppinger, and Adam LaRoche as corner infield acquisitions who have underachieved after joining the White Sox.

Frazier was supposed to be one of the missing pieces to make the White Sox a bonafide contender in the American League in 2016, but just like Frazier’s performance, that flopped.

After an early season power surge last season, Frazier struggled to make any consistent contact, hitting below .200 for much of the year. While Frazier struggled to put the ball in play, when he did it often traveled very far, as he finished with 40 home runs, most by a third baseman in club history.

Unfortunately, his struggles from 2016 have leaked over into this season. Frazier ranks in the bottom third of the league in batting average, slugging percentage and OPS among qualified third basemen.  He is also sporting the fifth lowest wRC+ among any third basemen in MLB (82).

Frazier’s poor 2016 can be somewhat masked because of the power numbers he was still able to produce. This season, the contact struggles remain and the power has yet to come around. One has been his inability to square up pitches that he has historically been able to handle in the past.

Throughout his career, Frazier has hit fairly well against fastballs (.281), but that hasn’t been the case in 2016. According to Brooks Baseball, Frazier has been below average against fastballs, hitting at a .225 clip (18-for-80). While he has also struggled mightily against breaking balls and off speed pitches (.132), the inability for a slugger like Frazier to barrel up mediocre fastballs is concerning. If Frazier was only being blown away by the elite pitchers in the American League, that would be one thing, but teams fourth and fifth starters are giving him trouble. If you watch Frazier’s at-bats, you’ll see the lack of a plan at the plate, which usually leads to a quick 0-2 count. While he will still occasionally run into a pitch and send it out of the ballpark, hitting a few homers won’t fix the Frazier’s issues.

The biggest disappointment as far as the White Sox are concerned this season is that Frazier’s trade value isn’t anywhere near where they’d like it to be. With the team in year one of its rebuild, Frazier could have been one of many assets who could be moved as the team continues to find young, controllable players.

Frazier’s struggles are unfortunate, and there’s no way the White Sox envisioned them being in their current position when they acquired him a year and a half ago. The White Sox gambled on Frazier helping put their offense over the top, and while that didn’t happen, neither of the prospects the Sox shipped out to acquire Frazier have made much noise in the big leagues. Trayce Thompson can’t seem to stay in the big leagues for longer than 60 days and Micah Johnson is now on his second team since being traded by the Sox. Likewise, Frankie Montas was moved to Oakland in a deadline deal last season and looks to destined for a career in the bullpen, just as many experts expected. Following the 2017 season, the White Sox will likely close the book on Frazier’s tenure once he becomes a free agent and continue with their youth movement either handing the keys to the hot corner over to Matt Davidson or look elsewhere.

I’d love to say there are good times ahead for Frazier and that he will snap out this long slump, which if you include his second half from 2015, is going on two years, but he hasn’t showed anything to give anyone confidence that a change is coming. It’s going to be a long summer for the South Side’s Jersey boy.

Lead Photo Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

I had taken to Gonzalez last year when he placed another feather in the cap of Don Cooper and his reclamation projects. The Jeff Samardzija situation could be tossed away as Gonzalez went from “please, please be better than Mat Latos or John Danks” to reliable fourth or fifth man in the rotation after being claimed on waivers from the Baltimore Orioles. This season has been a bit of a struggle, but as I basked in the sun on Sunday afternoon, Gonzalez threw away all the disasters of past starts and treated me to a splendid pitching performance. For a few hours, Gonzalez reminded me, every White Sox fan in attendance, and those watching at home that, in baseball, an incredible feat can be accomplished any day by even the most ordinary of players. While the perfect game, no-hitter, and shutout were wiped away in comic fashion by three successive batters, the value and awe of Gonzalez’s effort were not lost.

2. Gonzalez wasn’t the only pitcher in the Chicago system to put together a great performance this past weekend. On Thursday, Lucas Giolito was pitching the first half of a doubleheader. That meant the game would only last seven innings. Giolito managed to pitch a technically complete game without giving up a single hit. It was a no-hitter with a big fat asterisk, but it was a no-hitter nonetheless. For a struggling Giolito, the confidence that comes from such a feat could be enough to get him back on track.

Alec Hansen had himself a fine start Sunday in low-A Kannapolis. The gargantuan righty, armed with a terrifying pitch face, mowed down hitters on his way to a seven inning outing where he gave up just five hits and a single run. Most impressively, he was able to strikeout 15 batters while walking none. The White Sox have been methodical with their assignments for Hansen, who dropped in the 2016 MLB Draft because of his lack of command and utter collapse in his final college season. There’s also no rush in moving a pitcher of Hansen’s ilk through the system. If he can slowly progress as a starter and clean up his delivery, the White Sox may have found a diamond in the rough. His raw stuff and athletic build instilled enough confidence in the BP Prospect team to rank him 97th among all prospects coming into the season, and Sunday’s performance was a strong indicator of why those evaluators thought so highly of him.

3. It hasn’t been a successful start to the season by any means for Todd Frazier. While a year ago his average similarly sat right around the Mendoza line, he was crushing dingers left and right. This year, he’s failed to raise his average and fallen way behind the home run pace he set for himself just a season ago. With just six home runs on the season in 41 games played, he’s on pace to barely crack the halfway mark to the 40 he hit last year.

One thing Frazier has excelled at is seeing a lot of pitches. He leads the league in pitches seen per plate appearance at 4.42, but unfortunately that doesn’t directly lead to success. While it’s been pounded into hitters’ heads that seeing more pitches is a good thing (and perhaps it is in the long run), it doesn’t appear to have a direct effect on the stat line of the hitter. In fact, I whipped together a little chart showing the correlation between TAv and pitches seen per plate appearance is essentially no correlation at all.

It may be a sign of better things to come that Frazier has been relatively patient at the plate, but the results simply aren’t coming. He did hit a screaming home run in Sunday’s game, but the White Sox severely need him to heat up in the coming months in order to gain some value in return when he’s inevitably traded at the deadline.  Hopefully the slow start can be chalked up more to his bout with the flu than any permanent deterioration in skill.

4. The White Sox pitching staff struck out 49 Tigers hitters throughout their weekend series that spanned three days and four games. With Tyler Danish, Mike Pelfrey, Derek Holland, and Gonzalez taking the mound in each of the four games, that’s a bit of a surprise. Pelfrey was able to find a way to mysteriously miss bats, and the bullpen took over and dominated in the first game. Danish showed good stuff, along with Holland and Gonzalez in their starts. Those combined with a strong weekend from those in the bullpen resulted in a lot of swings and misses from Tigers hitters.

5. Our good friend and former editor-in-chief James Fegan wrote brilliantly about Yolmer Sanchez’s effect on the White Sox clubhouse. While his humor and playfulness off the field has a significant effect on the players, especially on a young rebuilding team, it has been his presence on the field that has mattered the most. In 2015 when he acted as the White Sox everyday second baseman, he hit just .224/.268/.326 with a 61 wRC+. It has never quite clicked for Sanchez at the major league level. That is, until now.

Sanchez is in the midst of his best season to date. While there is a fear of regression on the horizon, he is still in good shape to surpass his career-best mark of 61 wRC+. Right now he’s hitting .306/.346/.430 with a 109 wRC+. It’s not the prettiest line in the world, but for a player that has oft struggled to reach even the Mendoza line while showing little to no pop in his bat it’s been quite a year. His month of May has been the most impressive of all with a 126 wRC+ in just shy of 100 plate appearances. He hasn’t had a season like either of the Garcias, Leury and Avisail, but his clubhouse presence combined with competence at the plate has made him a valuable asset to the 2017 Chicago White Sox.

Lead Photo Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

The picture isn’t much clearer than it was in March for Joses Quintana and Abreu — both are under contract for a couple more years, so they don’t have to be dealt this year. Moreover, trying to size a deadline package for a star who’s not a rental is next to impossible from the outside, since it’s much harder to rule teams in or out on a player that demands a bigger return. For better or for worse, Quintana’s tepid start and Abreu’s solid-but-spiky first six weeks don’t mean much.

For the two proper rentals on the team, the first six weeks haven’t been kind to their trade values. Melky Cabrera’s tAV of .226 would be a career-worst by 25 points, and while he’s due for a bit of a bounce back just based on BABIP luck, it’s not out of the question the power’s just gone. He probably always needed to get off to a hot start to get something more than a lotto ticket on the trade market, but barring a huge streak he’s now more likely to bring back a Nolan Sanburn than a Leury Garcia. (He’s not helped that there aren’t many contenders that need help in left field or a so-so bench bat. The Diamondbacks sort of fit the bill, but for now it’s hard to guess what shape they’ll be in at the deadline.)

The market for third basemen is at least a bit more open, with the Cardinals, Mets, and Red Sox all teams with reason for skepticism about their current situations at the hot corner and some shot at the playoff chase. (Amusingly enough, depending on how teams decide to value Melky’s switch-hitting, Todd Frazier might actually be a better left field/bench bat than Cabrera for the rest of the year.) The issue with Frazier is that there’s uncertainty for him at the hot corner — he just hasn’t been very good, though he’s got even more room for positive regression than Cabrera. While the White Sox won’t be as damaged by Frazier’s walk year slump as he likely will be, it does seem unlikely he brings back a bad piece, but they’re in better shape to get something interesting back for him than they are with Cabrera.

With the White Sox current rolling out Mike Pelfrey and Dylan Covey, it seems a little foolish to talk about trading starting pitching “depth,” but the peripherals suggest they might not have any takers anyhow — Miguel Gonzalez and Derek Holland’s respective cFIPs of 105 and 111 are pretty bad, and while Gonzalez threw a couple gems in April, neither guy has the recent track record to make him an appealing pickup at the deadline.

At least I have a couple positive nuggets to save for last, which is that the White Sox bullpen has been dominant thus far. Before Tuesday’s game against the Angels, David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle, and Anthony Swarzak were each in the top 30 in all of baseball by cFIP, and each of them (along with Nate Jones, if he gets well soon) are likely available to any contender. Right now it’d almost be more surprising if the Nationals didn’t trade for Robertson, but having three or four high-end relievers to deal, encompassing a range of contract situations and track records, means the White Sox are sitting somewhat pretty in this regard. None of the quartet will bring back what Andrew Miller or Aroldis Chapman did last season, but in Kahnle and Swarzak the White Sox appear to have found some lottery tickets worth cashing in (either for innings or in trade), and Jones and Robertson have good pedigrees that might attract a premium. It’s still early, but it’s a couple rays of sunshine peeking through the otherwise overcast trade outlook.

Lead Photo Credit: Caylor Arnold-USA TODAY Sports

2. James Shields is on the disabled list because of a strained right lat, and was replaced in the rotation, at least for Saturday’s 7-0 loss to Cleveland, by veteran Mike Pelfrey. The White Sox rotation depth, despite the results not being particularly relevant, was already a source of concern entering the season, and has been magnified after Carlos Rodon’s injury — his return date is still uncertain — and now Shields’s. The sixth, seventh, and eighth options for a team’s rotation are unlikely to feature much promise, even for contenders, but counting on the likes of Pelfrey and Dylan Covey to eat innings in their stead is an experiment with a very short expiration date. What’s more, time Rodon isn’t able to progress from a development standpoint or Shields isn’t able to advance his trade value — as minute as it may be — is not time well spent.

3. The White Sox are striking out at an extremely high rate. They struck out 34 times during the three games, including 15 times in Sunday’s win, and have four regulars with strikeout rates north of 30 percent in Matt Davidson (47.2), Cody Asche (36.8), Jacob May (36.1), and Tyler Saladino (31.6). This is likely escalated during their last three games in which they faced Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, and Danny Salazar, all of whom posted K/9 rates above 9.0 a season ago.

The fact that three of those four are fringe major leaguers and the fourth (Saladino) has the highest walk rate on the team among guys who have gotten regular playing time doesn’t make this particularly troubling. But while the numbers, both good and bad, are still not yet to the point where they’re ready stabilize, the strikeout trends of the likes of potential trade targets Jose Abreu (21.7 percent, up from 18), Todd Frazier (21.4 percent, still high but down from 24.5), or hopeful cornerstones like Tim Anderson (also still high but down from 27.1 percent to 24.6) are worth keeping an eye on.

4. Speaking of Abreu and Anderson, two players off to the more notable cold starts this season, neither is quite to the point of breaking out but there are signs of progress. Anderson has hit in five of the last six games and Sunday was his first multi-hit game of the season, while Abreu is 8-for-13 over his last four games, with Sunday’s two-hit game and Thursday’s three-hit, two-double game sandwiched around a pair of 0-fers.

Frazier, on the other hand, went 1-for-10 in his first three games back from illness, and while the sample for him is particularly small — he has about half of the plate appearances thus far as someone who’s played the entire season — the way he finished 2016 coupled with his age and profile make his situation worth monitoring a bit more closely.

5. Avisail Garcia is 1-for-12 in his last 14 plate appearances. Frank wrote about his likely regression last week, and while he did have two walks Thursday and a hard-hit double Sunday, his numbers taking a deep dive is surely still coming.

Still, while Garcia’s propensity to flail at pitches out of the strike zone is likely not going away, signs of improvement are there. Garcia entered the season as probably the least interesting hitter in the White Sox lineup, and in less than a month has become someone whose progress is worth watching. That, in it self, is an accomplishment.

Lead Photo Credit: Caylor Arnold-USA TODAY Sports