Normally when June rolls around, those who follow the White Sox start pounding the trade block to see what the few valuable players might fetch on the open market.
There's still that urge on this June 1, but with the White Sox at 28-29 and just one game behind Boston, Texas and Oakland in the wild card standings on June 1, there's a pleasant lack of resignation. Sure, it still seems most likely that they'll plummet into obscurity before the trade market actually starts stirring, but given the top-heavy nature of the American League, there are more ways than usual for a mediocre team to pad its résumé.
We should still get to follow plenty of player movement this month, but shipping talent out isn't yet a prominent part of the equation. Here are five players who aren't guaranteed to remain in their current locations, for better or for worse.
Yonder Alonso
Alonso is hitting just .187/.292/.332, and it was even worse before he closed out his May with a couple of strong showings against Cleveland. He has 10 hits in 10 games against his former team this year, and just 25 in 45 games against everybody else.
These struggles are extreme, and Alonso is chalking it up to his first serious time spent at DH:
“It’s just a totally new position,” Alonso said. “I’m trying to learn early in the year how I can have a routine that works for me in the sense where I can stay in the game defensively, even though I’m not playing defense, and then taking each at-bat like I would if I was playing defense.
“I’m not trying to overthink things too much because you have so much more time to think about things. I think I’ve been getting better and better every day.”
The problem is that these numbers are within the shape of a decline phase. Alonso had last been a remarkable hitter when he made the All-Star team with a big first half in 2017. In more than 1,000 subsequent plate appearances, he's hitting just .238/.320/.402.
Even if Alonso rebounds, it doesn't seem like he has much to rebound to, so he's not a great choice for the playing time. Also, he needs 526 plate appearances to trigger an $9 million vesting option, and he's on pace for 613. Maybe the White Sox want to reap the benefits from regression if they think it's going to happen, but a phase-out seems to be in order in the bigger picture.
Dylan Cease
Dylan Covey staved off cries for a replacement with six strong innings against Cleveland on Friday, which snapped a string of 10 losing decisions as a starter. That said, Cease seems to be coming, whether it's for Covey's job or Manny Bañuelos'. He has a 3.26 ERA in Triple-A -- no small feat given the run-scoring environment -- and peripherals to match.
Cease's workload also now resembles that of a major-league pitcher, as he's pitched six innings or more in each of his last three starts, averaging exactly 100 pitches a start. In the time it took weather and Cease's performance to cooperate, the Sox passed the historical range for Super Two cut-offs, so the financial concerns are alleviated as well.
The one obstacle is strength of schedule. The White Sox have used quality of opponent as a reason to suppress pitching prospects in the past, and with the Nationals, Yankees, Cubs, Red Sox and Twins on the schedule, there aren't a whole lot of soft spots in June. There are, however, six off days that will allow the Sox to give Cease plenty of extra rest as he works on his first-ever six-month season. They can probably figure out a way for him to dodge the Cubs if they're worried that facing his former team at Wrigley Field adds unnecessary pressure.
Alex Colomé
We talked about Colomé's value to the 2019 White Sox on Friday, but what makes him valuable to the White Sox also makes him attractive to teams that have much more legitimate claims for contending.
Bruce Levine said some of those teams are starting to circle:
As the White Sox hosted the Royals for a three-games series earlier this week, the Cubs, Phillies, Nationals, Mets, Diamondbacks and Yankees had scouts in attendance watching. What they saw was Colome at his best, as he won and saved games Tuesday in the White Sox's sweep and then followed up with another save in his team's victory Wednesday evening. In addition to those interested teams, the it's well-known that the Red Sox are searching for a lockdown closer.
It's anybody's guess how teams will respond to the single trade deadline this year, but it's possible we could see earlier activity from teams who don't want to make their status at the end of July a question. I don't know how early into June that will reach. It doesn't make sense for the White Sox to trade Colomé while they're a couple games out of the wild card, but should the losses pile up at any point, it becomes a more reasonable discussion -- as long as the return isn't as fringy as Kodi Medeiros or Blake Rutherford.
Jake Burger
Ever since Burger ruptured his Achilles for the second time, June 1 has been treated as the rough date for a return to affiliated ball. Considering he was asking for places to watch today's Tottenham game, it doesn't seem like he's suiting up for Kannapolis tonight, but he should be on a flight in the near future.
Jon Jay
Jay is supposed to return to affiliated ball on a similar timeline, but I don't think White Sox fans are clamoring for his return. A lot of them might forget he even exists in the first place.
There's a potential use for Jay if the White Sox keep the wild card within reach and he shows up ready to offer the left-handed OBP and above-average corner defense he was supposed to provide. But if the Sox are falling out of the picture by the time he's back and he needs time to knock the rust off, what's the point? The White Sox are probably better off forgetting they ever signed him, although Sox fans shouldn't file him away, because probably he has more staying power as a reference than a player.
