Corners aside, White Sox poised for defensive turnaround

The fifth volume of The Fielding Bible was the latest addition to this month's pile of baseball books, but it's the first one I've consumed.

Because it's a product of Sports Info Solutions, there's some overlap with the latest Bill James Handbook, which I rifled through in early November. The Fielding Bible's sole focus on defense brings additional clarity to its purview, starting with a big chart early in the book that shows the White Sox finishing 19th, 21st, 26th and 26th in team Defensive Runs Saved over the last four years.

Compare the last two seasons -- those 26th-place finishes -- in the chart below, and you can more or less immediately identify the differences and their causes, which is kinda fun.

It's not so fun when realizing how much ground the White Sox need to gain to reach neutral as a team, but when you go through it position by position, breaking even seems a lot more attainable. And since I went through the Handbook before the White Sox made their biggest additions, and because we have nothing better to do, it's worth revisiting with more depth.

Pitcher

Lucas Giolito's improvement as a defender almost matched his strides as a pitcher. He went from being one of the bigger liabilities on the mound to receiving enough support to be a Gold Glove finalist. A lot of further team improvement should be found in the shift from Dylan Covey (reliably a -4 DRS defender) to Dallas Keuchel (3 DRS in a half-season).

Catcher

While the White Sox still finished underwater in the catching department, the improvement from Omar Narvaez to James McCann helped put a dent in the deficit. Looking ahead, it might surprise you to learn that Sports Info Solutions' methodology says that McCann graded out better than Yasmani Grandal when judging catchers as a whole in 2019.

I went through the Handbook before the White Sox signed Grandal, so I didn't know to rope him into our comparisons. By this methodology, McCann was the better defender, finishing at 4 DRS to Grandal's zero.

I'm not sure I buy the staff-handling metric, especially considering Grandal went from a team with stable pitching depth (the Dodgers) to a team that managed to needed to hold its staff together with duct tape (Brewers). I can buy into the idea that McCann's presence helped pitchers more than we might assume, especially after watching Narvaez and Kevan Smith scare precisely no one with their arms.

The good news is that Grandal doesn't have to be better than McCann was last year to make a difference. He needs to be better than Welington Castillo, who managed to suffer a lot of damage (-10 DRS) in not much time (48 games). Zack Collins didn't help, either.

First base

José Abreu's career arc as a defender looks like the offspring of his learning curve and his aging curve.

I wouldn't expect this to improve, which is another reason to look forward to Andrew Vaughn.

Second base

When Statcast released its Outs Above Average metric for infielders, we noted that Yolmer Sánchez's relatively poor showing might have been due to the metric's low prioritization of double-play capabilities. DRS counts them, and while there isn't a proper leaderboard, I haven't found anybody who comes close to Sánchez's 4 GDP runs saved. None of the other Gold Glove finalists (Kolten Wong, D.J. LeMahieu, Adam Frazier, Ozzie Albies, Jose Altuve) had more than 1. Javier Baez is the only competition with 3 GDP runs, and he's another guy renowned for quick actions near second base.

Poor Nick Madrigal, playing the one position where there are actually big shoes to fill.

Third base

Of all the metrics, DRS was the least charitable toward Yoán Moncada regarding his defense at third, although it improved from -7 to -4 after the revision of its system. That's a bit closer to the other metrics (OAA and UZR called him above average), and more in line with the eye test. It wouldn't surprise me if his best is yet to come, given the way he's been moved back and forth during his young career.

Shortstop

Unlike Abreu's wholly logical career arc, there isn't a way to know which way Tim Anderson is going to go from here based on his DRS history alone.

The Fielding Bible says that Anderson committed 5.2 Misplays & Errors per 100 innings, the highest among shortstops with at least 500 innings, and the fourth-lowest good throw rate among shortstops with at least 250 throws over the last three seasons (92.5%).

We've seen him play better, and he spent the offseason trying to get his defense to see the same jump as his offense. We probably shouldn't count on him smoothing it all out -- sometimes players just are what they are -- but Anderson winning the batting title suggests he has the ability to astound, and decent defense is something he's actually done before.

Left field

The fate of the position rests entirely on Eloy Jiménez's chances for improvement, and The Fielding Bible awards him some faint praise by noting his improvement from the first half (-8 DRS) to the second (-3 DRS). That's progress from "train wreck" to "poor but playable," or "Dayan Viciedo" to "Melky Cabrera." His arm is going to hold him back even if he gains more confidence in his routes.

Center field

Leury García was overexposed as a center fielder, dropping from -1 DRS over 26 games in center in 2018 to -5 DRS over 80 games in 2019. Adam Engel and surprising small samples from Charlie Tilson and Ryan Cordell helped negate the lost ground, but Luis Robert should be able to improve on this bunch in time. Maybe even immediately.

Right field

If you're wondering how in the hell Tilson and Cordell graded above average in center, their performances in right field will either satisfy you or confuse you further. Rick Renteria played six guys in right field last year, and they all finished in the red.

For all their struggles in the field, at least they also made up for it with the league's worst offense.

Nomar Mazara doesn't really help here, as he's finished below -3 and -6 DRS over four seasons with the Rangers, but pair him with García's brand of decent, and the Sox shouldn't bring up the rear whenever play resumes.

However, if the White Sox would rather seek real improvement rather than reduced losses, Mookie Betts (93 DRS the last four years) and George Springer (7 DRS in 2019) continue to look like great ideas.

Teamwide defensive improvement has eluded the White Sox, and it doesn't help that they're vulnerable to awful numbers in three of the four corners. They do have the potential to climb into positive territory at six positions, not just because of wishcasting, but because it's a sign the rebuild is over. One shouldn't count on Madrigal and Robert taking immediate ownership of their turf, Anderson turning it around and Moncada showing more in the tank all at the same time, but the talent is young and athletic, which are the two key ingredients in any such turnaround. And if Major League Baseball figures out a way to proceed in 2020 with a fun-sized season, a smaller sample increases the chances of seeing all of these at once.