The White Sox pulled the plug on Yonder Alonso just as his bad start officially crossed the line into a bad season. There's no getting out from under a half of .178/.275/.301 as a first baseman/DH unless Albert Belle's 1998 second half is waiting in the wings, and with his contact quality moving in the wrong direction and his speed and spray charts also working against him, bad luck could finally be thrown out, too.
The White Sox could have picked slightly better timing. Word leaked that the Sox were designating him for assignment a couple hours after the team issued a press release reminding the media about his charity bowling event.
But then again, bad timing is somewhat fitting for his exit, because the Alonso trade was destined for the bad idea bin as soon as Manny Machado signed with the San Diego Padres for $50 million more than the White Sox were willing to guarantee.
Alonso never made sense for the White Sox as a talent. Yes, they could've used a left-handed hitter with a good idea of the strike zone, but they didn't need to block off their DH spot so early in the offseason while helping a cash-strapped division rival shed a salary it didn't want. Judging it only as a baseball decision, it had the kind of low ceiling and low future value that the White Sox said they weren't interested in when it came to upgrading their pitching staff beyond Iván Nova.
I disliked the move even more at the time, as it reminded me a little too much of the Adam LaRoche signing.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve learned to cringe when the White Sox pick up somebody who had more homers than doubles the year before. It’s one thing when Dunn did it, because he averaged 40 homers from 2004-10. It’s less impressive when the homer total starts with a “2.” That caught my eye when the Sox signed LaRoche, and Alonso’s in the same situation:
*LaRoche, 2014: 26 homers, 19 doubles over 586 PA*Alonso, 2018: 23 homers, 19 doubles over 574 PA
Basically, it seems unsound to save the DH job for a guy who has never topped 50 extra-base hits in a season, especially when it helps out a division rival’s payroll in the process.
If that comparison came up short, it was only because Alonso hit worse than LaRoche did.
- LaRoche, 2015: .207/.293/.340, 78 OPS+, -0.8 bWAR
- Alonso, 2019: .178/275/.301, 56 OPS+, -1.0 bWAR
Otherwise, it's a pretty good fit, even down to family ties biting them in the ass.
Rick Hahn put himself in a difficult position when he traded for Alonso. Everybody immediately connected the dots and said the Sox didn't trade for "Yonder Alonso" as much as they traded for "Manny Machado's brother-in-law," but Hahn couldn't admit that without coming off as disingenuous to Machado and low-rent to everybody.
In order to thread this needle, Hahn had to really stress the talent, then pray that Machado signed with the Sox. And hey, had Jerry Reinsdorf committed to Machado, the end would have justified Hahn's approach to the offseason. It backfired instead. Reinsdorf didn't play ball, and the talent Hahn stressed with Alonso turned out to be nonexistent, leaving everybody with yet another acquisition to add to the pile of disasters that define Hahn's career.
At least the White Sox are making the right decision to move on. The writing was on the wall since the Sox cut Alonso's playing time in June and his bat failed to respond (4-for-32, all singles). Charlotte is making all hitters look better than they are -- see this morning's Minor Keys regarding Adam Engel -- but between Zack Collins and Daniel Palka, they have two more productive uses of those DH at-bats. Welington Castillo may only require the use of one of them if he's ready to return. I'll update this post when the White Sox officially announce how they're going to make it all happen.
Hopefully the White Sox are done with rushing toward low-impact first basemen to clog their DH spot, and hopefully Hahn won't again design his entire offseason around Reinsdorf setting the market, because Lucy will just keep pulling that football. If there's anything for us to learn, we now know that the presence of a charity event on a calendar can be ignored when it comes to the timing of a DFA. Given the woeful track record of the White Sox' pro scouting department, it's a lesson that stands a non-negligible chance of resurfacing.
