By signing Yasmani Grandal, the White Sox broke new ground in multiple ways. He's their new high-water mark for free agent contracts, and he should snap the team's inability to command favorable strike zones for pitchers.
Grandal also helped the Sox break a bad habit. By signing somebody to slot in above a starter who performed credibly in James McCann, the move represents a pleasant departure from their tendency to ask too much of a guy who already surprised once.
It goes back to 2010, when the White Sox brain trust chose Mark Kotsay as a direct replacement to Jim Thome after a productive little 40-game sample in 2009. Kotsay flopped in the larger role, Thome pulverized Chicago's pennant hopes in Minnesota, and it's been bad news ever since. The Sox have run into similar issues with Omar Vizquel, Dewayne Wise, Conor Gillaspie, Tyler Saladino and J.B. Shuck on teams that were ostensibly trying. Their history is one of a team not quitting while it's ahead, mostly because the roster has so many other sinkholes demanding greater attention.
McCann set a similar trap for the White Sox after his 2019 season, because while he attained All-Star credentials out of nowhere with the help of an unsustainable BABIP, it wasn't entirely a mirage. After regression clobbered him in July, he recovered to hit a respectable .264/.323/.466 over the last two months with a .340 BABIP. That's still high, but it's partially reflective of his ability to take what the defense gives him with opposite-field singles.
Revisiting all the catchers who switched teams last year, the White Sox would've been hard-pressed to fare better in a detectable fashion. WARP hammers McCann for his framing, but his throwing made a big difference, and nobody can take his singles away from him. He seemed to be a positive contributor to the clubhouse, at least where Lucas Giolito was concerned.
All in all, I'd give the 2019 James McCann Experience a thumbs-up, especially considering the initial expectations. He might've been my last choice at the time of the signing, and the White Sox could've done a little better on the catching carousel, but they also could've done worse. Some teams lost a finger.
| Catcher | PA | OPS+ | FRAA | WARP | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| James McCann | 476 | 109 | -10.2 | 1.0 | $2.5M |
| Omar Narvaez | 482 | 120 | -12.3 | 2.3 | $581K |
| Kevan Smith | 211 | 89 | -7.9 | -0.2 | $572K |
| Martin Maldonado | 361 | 80 | 1.8 | 0.3 | $2.5M |
| Mike Zunino | 289 | 44 | 8.3 | 0.5 | $4.4125M |
| Jeff Mathis | 244 | 11 | -2.8 | -0.8 | $3.25M |
| Kurt Suzuki | 309 | 102 | -8.6 | 1.4 | $4M |
| Brian McCann | 316 | 86 | 5.0 | 1.8 | $2M |
| Yan Gomes | 358 | 78 | -1.6 | 1.3 | $7M |
| Wilson Ramos | 524 | 107 | -6.7 | 1.6 | $8.25M |
| Jonathan Lucroy | 328 | 75 | 0.4 | 0.0 | $3.35M |
| Matt Wieters | 183 | 80 | -7.4 | 0.0 | $1.8M |
| Russell Martin | 249 | 79 | 6.2 | 1.2 | $3.6M* |
(*Toronto covered $16.4 million of the $20 million owed in the final season of his five-year deal.)
This chart might be reason to stick with McCann, given the White Sox's previous luck at the position and the idea that perfect is the enemy of good. However, that leaguewide volatility in catchers also made relying on McCann a dangerous proposition, at least without a formidable Plan B.
McCann is now that formidable Plan B behind an elite Plan A in Grandal, which is new ground for both team and player. The White Sox don't often seek higher ground when they're not actively underwater. Meanwhile, McCann has never caught fewer than 105 games in a full season, even in seasons where he shouldn't have.
There will be an adjustment, and the good news is that Rick Renteria seems like a guy who can communicate such a thing.
“I spoke to Mac right away,” Renteria said at a White Sox charity event at Mercy Home on Tuesday. “I called him. I know here’s a guy who did a great job for us — All-Star. I’m sure he sees ‘Gosh we just signed a guy, gave him an extension, a multiple year contract, where do I fit?’ Well, I made him understand and the kind of conversation we had is he knows how I feel about him. The whole organization knows how I feel about him. I make no bones about it, I love Mac and I think that this addition does not detract from who he is and what he brings to the table for us as White Sox.”
McCann should find a couple starts a week behind the plate as Giolito's go-to guy, and he should get a lot of looks against lefties. I wouldn't want the White Sox to make him a primary player in a DH platoon, especially with rosters expanding to 26 and the relative cheapness of bat-only guys on the open market, but I'm generally supportive of two-catcher lineups when the situation demands it, and some situations in 2020 should. Also, should Grandal have to miss time, McCann has earned everybody's respect as the first-stringer.
It's a little funny how foreign the concept of roster depth feels, and as the rebuild kicks into the "take us seriously" stage, hopefully this isn't the last time Renteria has to tell an adequate patch that the White Sox gave him a better player to play. Unless, I suppose, it's somebody besides Renteria because the Sox decided to apply that same principle to manager.
