An earlier injury to Avisail Garcia and the reluctance to promote Eloy Jimenez have allowed the White Sox to give some extra run to players that haven't yet established themselves as future pieces. Specifically, Matt Davidson, Nicky Delmonico (when healthy), and Daniel Palka have been given a chance to show what they can do. Here's where things stand as we head toward the end of August.
| PA | BA | OBP | SLG | wRC+ | bWAR | fWAR | |
| Matt Davidson | 366 | 0.231 | 0.330 | 0.456 | 116 | 1.2 | 1.0 |
| Nicky Delmonico | 226 | 0.233 | 0.326 | 0.421 | 105 | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Daniel Palka | 324 | 0.235 | 0.277 | 0.468 | 98 | 0.0 | -0.1 |
None of them have exactly lit the world on fire this season, but it seems like Davidson's been having the best season of the three. He didn't give the White Sox many, if any, reasons to let him stick around after 2017, but they figured they'd roll him out there to see if something would click. Lo and behold, something did. Davidson's nearly tripled his poor walk rate from the previous season and made himself into a palatable offensive player. He wasn't going to magically discover a hit tool, fielding skills, or baserunning ability, but he improved where he could.
Despite that progress, the White Sox seem to have reversed course on whether Davidson has breathing room to fail, even without anyone else on the roster knocking down the door for plate appearances. Here's his slash line by period:
- April/May: .243/.368/.521
- June/July: .210/.294/.392
He was excellent for two months before hitting a rough stretch on the other side of a back injury. Accordingly, here's how the starts have been allocated in August:
- Davidson: 10
- Delmonico: 16
- Palka: 16
At one point, Davidson went seven days between starts. With Delmonico soaking up most of the playing time in left, Davidson's effectively been losing playing time to Palka. Palka's been outstanding in the clutch and has probably been the most fun player on the 2018 White Sox. Yet, his season-long numbers don't quite make a strong enough case to squeeze Davidson and Rick Renteria can't point to recency bias either, as Palka's been hitting just .214/.247/.357 in August.
Delmonico's recent surge has compounded the playing time crunch, as he's been far better than both players since returning from the disabled list. It looked for awhile like Nicky's success in 2017 was simply a "juiced ball mirage", with his power absent early in the year amidst several nagging injuries. However, 14 extra-base hits (including six home runs) in 95 plate appearances have put some distance between Delmonico and the chopping block. His triple-slash line over that span is a robust .244/.316/.581.
Abreu's recent surgery has temporarily alleviated the situation, as Davidson or Delmonico can now get reps at first base, but Jimenez' promotion and Abreu's return will restore the logjam, whether that's this season or next. All three have their uses, but there's going to be a time in the very near future when the White Sox need to make a choice. Delmonico's recent streak probably gives him the strongest case for regular playing time the rest of the year, followed by Davidson on the strength of what he showed earlier in the season.
There could be another lever to pull to reduce the clutter, however, which was raised on Twitter yesterday by BeefLoaf, one of our friends from Section 108.
Garcia's a Super Two who's earning $6.7 million in this, his third year of arbitration. He doesn't figure to get much of a raise next season (and payroll doesn't figure to be a issue), but his current .231/.262/.449 line along with his recurring problems with staying healthy have put him on track for his fourth season out of five with the White Sox in which he's failed to be worth even half a win. The benefits of continuing to play Garcia are vague at this point, given that he hits free agency after next season and is unlikely to fetch an interesting return in trade even in the event of a bounce-back performance.
I don't expect the Sox to non-tender Garcia, as the organization has repeatedly remained attached to him in past situations when Avisail has given them reasons to move on. He also offers the Sox the upside they'd want in the unlikely event they make a play to become surprise contenders next season. However, it's worth considering that retaining him will close the door for regular playing time on someone who could stick around beyond 2019. Davidson, Delmonico, and Palka have just over a month remaining to give Rick Hahn a reason to be uncomfortable with that.
