Lenyn Sosa is rejoining the White Sox in Minneapolis according to a late-night report from James Fegan, and it's difficult to know just how bummed to be.
That has nothing to do with Sosa, because he's deserving of the look, and it'll be exciting to watch him get another crack at MLB pitching. He couldn't have started the season any better with Charlotte, hitting .448/.556/.828 over 36 plate appearances. More than half of his 13 hits have gone for extra bases (five doubles, two homers), and what's even crazier is that he's walked more than he's struck out (seven to five). Small sample size caveats, of course, but the thing about Sosa is that he's been so aggressive that any nine-game sample like this would represent a noticeable improvement.
But Sosa could be replacing one of three White Sox on the roster, and the net satisfaction calculations are vastly different.
Lenyn Sosa Replacing Tim Anderson
A day after Oneil Cruz broke his ankle with a late slide into Seby Zavala on Sunday, the White Sox risked losing their exciting shortstop for an extended period of time on Monday. Thanks to Hanser Alberto's strange cutoff of a rundown throw, Anderson was put in a vulnerable position while extending to corral the wide flip, and Matt Wallner clipped his leg.
The good news is that Anderson remained in the game initially. The bad news is that it started to stiffen up on him, and it required further evaluation.
Pedro Grifol said he's optimistic, and as we're getting to learn how he communicates injury information to the public, here's where we hope he wouldn't choose that word if he didn't have substantial reasons behind it.
Anderson's hitting .298/.327/.404 through 11 games, and he's taken advantage of the new baserunning benefits better than anybody, with five steals in five attempts. Sosa isn't a great candidate to replace Anderson's leadoff impact, especially when you throw in the pleasant surprise of error-free defense.
Lenyn Sosa Replacing Yoán Moncada
I've said before that Moncada is rewarding to watch regardless of the way he's performing, just because an informed eye test holds up pretty well. When he came out of the gate ripping the ball to the pull field and homering twice the opposite way, you could celebrate the return of his bat speed.
Then that snap disappeared during the Pittsburgh series. He went 0-for-9 over the final two days, and everything was either hit into the ground or popped up.
Sure enough, Grifol sat him on Monday, saying that Moncada was dealing with a recurrence of back soreness that he dealt with toward the end of spring training. He described the benching as proactive and protective, but the timeline didn't sound lengthy.
“Ten or 11 games in, we have to nip that in the bud quick and play some baseball rather than trying to grind through pain, that’s not the right thing to do,” said Grifol. “Moncada has had this nagging thing for a little bit. But 10 games in we’re going to err on the side of caution. If they miss a couple of games, they miss a couple of games.”
Alberto's chaotic day defensively shows that replacing Moncada in the field is no small task, with Burger as last year's proof. Sosa figures to be better than the latter, although you can't discount speed-of-game mistakes from a rookie. It'd probably be the easiest way to get him regular at-bats, unless ...
Lenyn Sosa Replacing Elvis Andrus
Although the White Sox have already eaten the contracts of Leury García and José Ruiz, Andrus doesn't strike me as a third candidate right now. Moncada's back and Anderson's knee are two reasons against it.
That said, Andrus is the most replaceable in terms of production. His bat is warming a little after a big season-starting slump, but he's still only up to .167/.200/.190.
More worrisome is the defense, which could charitably be described as ragged. Over the last couple games, he's committed a shifting violation, misfired on a double play ball, gotten handcuffed by a grounder to his left for an error. He's also made a couple of nice picks on hot shots to his right, but the ranges and angles to his left are giving him problems.
In defense of his defense, Statcast says he's faced tougher chances than just about every second baseman, with an estimated success rate of 64 percent on balls hit in his direction. The counterpoint is that he's still underwater. His actual success rate is 59 percent, and only three second baseman have a bigger deficit in Success Rate Added.
Romy González put a finer point on it later in the game. When Anderson left the game, González took his spot in the lineup while playing second base, with Andrus moving over to short. The ball found him in the eighth inning, and González turned in a sterling effort on a grounder well to his left, and it's a play I can't envision Andrus converting based on his early work.
Despite the frustration, Andrus doesn't seem like he should be jettisoned, just because he is the stablest option at shortstop in the event of a prolonged Anderson absence. If the absences aren't prolonged, then the picture because cloudier for Andrus. In a world where Sosa replaces Moncada and/or Anderson for a spell and looks worthy of more plate appearances if/when they return, then you'd look to swap out Andrus if he continues to play the way he's playing. The only question is whether the arrangement is temporary or permanent.
