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Chicago White Sox
Last night, Rule 5 pick Shane Smith continued his run at the AL Rookie of the Year award with 5 1/3 shutout innings against the first-place Tigers. Smith struck out six and scattered three hits, lowering his ERA to 2.45 and bumping his bWAR to 1.7, a mark that leads the White Sox.
Smith spent a couple of years at Wake Forest, but one was interrupted by the pandemic and the other by Tommy John surgery. The right-hander went undrafted in 2021 and signed with the Brewers. Last year at Double-A and Triple-A, he had a 3.05 ERA in 94 1/3 innings, not quite good enough for the Brewers to place him on their 40-man roster. The Sox took him with the first pick of the Rule 5 draft and were rewarded when Smith showed up in camp with an extra tick on his fastball and a new changeup that has been nearly unhittable. Batters have just six hits off it all year, and they’re whiffing on it more than a third of the time. The pitch has helped him hold lefties to a .178/.276/.271 line with a 22% strikeout rate.
Smith is part of a Sox team that has leveled up from “historically bad” to “just bad.” They’re on a 50-win pace and, more importantly, they’re finding multi-year solutions. Smith should be a high-floor mid-rotation starter who won’t make much money for a while. Davis Martin, in his eighth season in the Sox org at 28, has established himself as a #4 or #5. Jonathan Cannon, 24, has done the same. These aren’t exciting players, but the White Sox are coming up from a floor no team had hit in 60 years. You take your green shoots where you find them. Along with Sean Burke, these four have given the White Sox a stable starting rotation that’s 21st in MLB in fWAR, with an ERA three-quarters of a run lower than last year’s group despite losing Garrett Crochet and Erick Fedde.
At the plate, Miguel Vargas has bounced back from a miserable start to post a .243/.321/.425 line (Editor Scott notes that he’s hitting .296/.365/.542 since April 20), and since the demotion of Andrew Vaughn has taken over at first base, probably his best position long-term. Chase Meidroth, part of the Crochet deal, has a .373 OBP. Catcher Edgar Quero, who arrived in the Lucas Giolito/Reynaldo Lopez trade, has made his debut with a .341 OBP, though the defense hasn’t quite been there yet. Again, the White Sox aren’t good, but they’re better. They’re better behind the kind of players who should be here a while and, thanks to their lack of service time and concomitant low salaries, will open the door for Chris Getz to put higher-priced vets around them.
Last night, Rule 5 pick Shane Smith continued his run at the AL Rookie of the Year award with 5 1/3 shutout innings against the first-place Tigers. Smith struck out six and scattered three hits, lowering his ERA to 2.45 and bumping his bWAR to 1.7, a mark that leads the White Sox.
Smith spent a couple of years at Wake Forest, but one was interrupted by the pandemic and the other by Tommy John surgery. The right-hander went undrafted in 2021 and signed with the Brewers. Last year at Double-A and Triple-A, he had a 3.05 ERA in 94 1/3 innings, not quite good enough for the Brewers to place him on their 40-man roster. The Sox took him with the first pick of the Rule 5 draft and were rewarded when Smith showed up in camp with an extra tick on his fastball and a new changeup that has been nearly unhittable. Batters have just six hits off it all year, and they’re whiffing on it more than a third of the time. The pitch has helped him hold lefties to a .178/.276/.271 line with a 22% strikeout rate.
Smith is part of a Sox team that has leveled up from “historically bad” to “just bad.” They’re on a 50-win pace and, more importantly, they’re finding multi-year solutions. Smith should be a high-floor mid-rotation starter who won’t make much money for a while. Davis Martin, in his eighth season in the Sox org at 28, has established himself as a #4 or #5. Jonathan Cannon, 24, has done the same. These aren’t exciting players, but the White Sox are coming up from a floor no team had hit in 60 years. You take your green shoots where you find them. Along with Sean Burke, these four have given the White Sox a stable starting rotation that’s 21st in MLB in fWAR, with an ERA three-quarters of a run lower than last year’s group despite losing Garrett Crochet and Erick Fedde.
At the plate, Miguel Vargas has bounced back from a miserable start to post a .243/.321/.425 line (Editor Scott notes that he’s hitting .296/.365/.542 since April 20), and since the demotion of Andrew Vaughn has taken over at first base, probably his best position long-term. Chase Meidroth, part of the Crochet deal, has a .373 OBP. Catcher Edgar Quero, who arrived in the Lucas Giolito/Reynaldo Lopez trade, has made his debut with a .341 OBP, though the defense hasn’t quite been there yet. Again, the White Sox aren’t good, but they’re better. They’re better behind the kind of players who should be here a while and, thanks to their lack of service time and concomitant low salaries, will open the door for Chris Getz to put higher-priced vets around them.