The White Sox treaded water with a .500 June, and considering the schedule included seven consecutive series against contenders of some variety, it certainly could've been worse.
What can't be worse is the AL Central. Case in point: The White Sox went 13-13 and gained 1½ games in the standings by the end of the month. If the only games that counted started on June 1, the White Sox would be right in the thick of things.
- Guardians: 14-12
- White Sox: 13-13
- Twins: 12-15
- Tigers: 9-18
- Royals: 6-20
Alas, April remains official, so the White Sox remain in fourth place, and fourth place in this division remains a stone-cold indictment of the organization's leadership.
The problems remain the problems: The Sox finished with the third-worst June OBP in the American League at .290, although it's shocking to see the Yankees bringing up the rear at .273. They compensated the best they could with the fourth-highest home-run total, and that's probably going to be the way they have to win ballgames.
Except they lost Mike Clevinger in the middle of June with a biceps issue, and then Michael Kopech showed signs of wearing down at the end of the month. Thanks to a flash fire of inflammation, now the long-feared lack of pitching depth is starting to emerge as a real threat to undermine the handful of positive developments.
There is room for upside if the White Sox's offensive core can stay healthy, but the optimism is negated by the threat of one more injury causing the bottom to fall out. See? It's a thoroughly .500 month after all.
WHITE SOX TEAM PERFORMANCE
- Record: 13-13
- Standings: Fourth, 5½ GB
- Longest winning streak: Five, June 2-8
- Longest losing streak: Three, June 10-13
- Largest margin of victory: 6, June 28
- Largest margin of defeat: 4, June 10 and June 13
HITTING LEADERS
- Batting average: Andrew Benintendi
- On-base percentage: .414, Benintendi
- Slugging percentage: .677, Luis Robert Jr.
- wRC+: 182, Robert
- Home runs: 11, Robert
- RBI: 16, Robert
- Walks: 10, Benintendi
- Strikeouts: 35, Robert
- Stolen bases: 4, Benintendi, Robert and Romy González
- fWAR: 1.7, Robert
PITCHING LEADERS
- Wins: 2, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López, Kendall Graveman and Liam Hendriks
- Losses: 3, Tanner Banks
- ERA: 2.20, Dylan Cease
- Innings: 31, Lucas Giolito
- Strikeouts: 42, Cease
- Appearances: 13, Kendall Graveman
- Relief innings: 12⅔, Graveman
- fWAR: 0.9, Cease
COMING AND GOING
- White Sox debuts: Zach Remillard, José Rodríguez, Touki Toussaint
- White Sox departures: Hanser Alberto
- Going up: Tanner Banks, Remillard, Jesse Scholtens, Nick Padilla, Rodríguez, Adam Haseley, Carlos Pérez
- Going down: Scholtens, Padilla, Jimmy Lambert, Rodríguez, Haseley
#SOXMORGUE
- Liam Hendriks: Right elbow inflammation
- Yoán Moncada: Lower back inflammation
- MIke Clevinger: Right biceps inflammation
- Romy González: Right shoulder inflammation
- Garrett Crochet: Left shoulder inflammation
Awards
Most Valuable Player: Luis Robert Jr.
Robert started the month 0-for-7 with five strikeouts, then rattled off three straight multi-hit games to put him back on track toward a deserved spot on the American League All-Star team. He cracked 11 homers, and while he only drove in 16 runs, he scored 20 in 24 games, so he was at least able to set up some opportunities for guys down the line when he wasn't leaving the yard.
LEAST Valuable Player: tIM aNDERSON
It's not just that Anderson hit .152/.191/.177 over 84 plate appearances, but his struggles mattered more than they should have because Pedro Grifol's idea of reducing exposure is moving Anderson from first in the order to second. Anderson also committed three errors between third and second base, and those loomed larger than they should have because just about every game in June was close.
Most Valuable Pitcher: Dylan Cease
After a couple of unimpressive months, Cease resembled a Cy Young finalist in June, with a 2.20 ERA and 42 strikeouts against 10 walks over 28⅔ innings. He didn't allow more than two runs in any of his five starts, and every one of his five games was decided by one run, so he did his part. Speaking of which, Cease went without a decision during the month. At least he wasn't stuck with a loss, because he wouldn't have deserved it in any of them.
Least Valuable Pitcher: Michael Kopech
This might be a controversial pick in a month where Lance Lynn posted a 6.28 ERA over five starts, but Lynn at least completed five innings in every one of his outings, so he gave the White Sox a sense of what they were going to get. His ability to shrug off rough starts got him a win at the end of the month, and he also tied the team single-game strikeout record, which ain't nothing. Kopech posted a 2.96 ERA over his five outings on the strength of the way he opened the month (two runs over 12 innings), but he couldn't finish five in any of his last three starts, and he walked 16 batters over those 12⅓ innings. Perhaps the fact that he's now on the IL for shoulder inflammation skews the judgment with hindsight, but he also issued seven walks over four innings in his final start of the month, which was a strong enough indication that he wasn't right.
Fire Man: Gregory Santos
This was a weird month for the bullpen, because every fixture reliever had a couple of tough outings that caused a crisis in confidence, but none of them finished the month looking like a DFA candidate. Perhaps that's a side effect of playing so many close games. Kendall Graveman blew two of four saves and gave up a ton of hits at the end of the month, so Santos gets the nod for being a little more stable.
Gas Can: Nobody
Reynaldo López had a couple of tough games, including the grand slam he gave up to the Dodgers, but six of his 10 outings were hitless, and seven were scoreless. He, Keynan Middleton and Aaron Bummer were probably the worst relievers of the month, and it seems like Joe Kelly is always on the mound for the worst defensive breakdowns, but, again, day after day of high-leverage situations put everybody under the gun at some point, and they had some successes in tight spots as well.
Bench Player: Zach Remillard
A refreshingly easy choice. He hit .394/.444/.455 over 37 plate appearances since being called to Chicago mid-month, including three high-leverage hits that tied games or put the Sox ahead in late innings, and a fine cameo in the leadoff spot as well. He finished 20th in Major League Baseball for Win Probability Added in June, which doesn't sound like much until you realize that everybody else on the list is a starter, and most are stars. He's one slot behind Corbin Carroll, and four spots ahead of Elly De La Cruz.
Stench Player: Clint Frazier
Frazier appeared in 22 games in a number of capacities -- starting outfielder, pinch runner, pinch hitter, defensive replacement -- even though there isn't one thing he does well. He hit .143/.250/.167 with defense that could best be described as "creative." The White Sox's transaction page shows they optioned him to Charlotte, so at least this experiment has ended.
Gold GLove: Luis Robert Jr.
Oddly enough, the one play that comes to mind is the ball that fell at Robert's feet to break up the combined no-hit bid against the Dodgers. That's a terrible way to sell him being the best defender on the team, except to say it's a shock when he doesn't make plays. Statcast says he led the Sox in Success Rate Added, but without Yoán Moncada on the field, there really isn't competition on the diamond.
Hands of Stone: Tim Anderson
Surprisingly, Andrew Benintendi finished at the bottom of the White Sox's monthly Outs Above Average leaderboard, at -4 OAA and a Success Rate Added deficit of minus-7 percent. I can kinda believe it because Benintendi's routes don't inspire confidence, but Anderson's errors were more visceral, including a failure to catch a pickoff throw at second base that doesn't count in the sample because he didn't get enough chances there to qualify.
Timeline
A long-awaited debut: Noah Schultz makes his first appearance in affiliated ball, throwing two scoreless innings for Kannapolis 10½ months after the White Sox selected him in the first round of last year's draft. (June 3)
#WILDPITCHOFFENSE: The White Sox beat the Tigers 2-1 in 10 innings. All three runs score on wild pitches, including a Jose Cisneros fastball that drilled home plate umpire Cory Blaser in the mask and knocked him to the dirt to score the winning run, resulting in a half-hearted celebration due to concern over Blaser's condition, and maybe a little bit of shame, too. (June 3)
Slamming shut a sweep: Jake Burger only needed a sacrifice fly to win the game with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth, but why not pad some stats and hit a grand slam to close out a three-game sweep of Detroit? (June 4)
Multi-homers or nothing: Seby Zavala entered a series in New York against the Yankees with a .424 OPS, only to homer twice and drive in all the runs in a 3-2 White Sox victory. The first one seems like a lock for the shortest White Sox homer of the year, a Yankee Stadium cheapie at just 320 feet inside the right-field foul pole. (June 6)
Smoked out: Smoke from Canadian wildfires blankets the East Coast, forcing the second game of the series in Yankee Stadium to be pushed into a doubleheader due to dangerous air quality readings. (June 7)
A whopper of a scorebug: Sure, the White Sox hit four homers to beat the Yankees 6-5 in the first game of that doubleheader, but Jake Burger faced Michael King, and that's what matters. (June 8)
Same play, same result: For the third time this season, Tim Anderson rushes his motions to get a potential out at home plate in a high-leverage situation. This one allows the Marlins to score the tying run in the ninth inning, and opens the floodgates for four more in a 5-1 loss to Miami. (June 10)
Another one: The White Sox take a 5-1 lead into the eighth inning against Miami, only to blow it over the final two innings because regression hit Keynan Middleton and Kendall Graveman, both of whom hadn't allowed a run since April. (June 11)
Some resilience: After a series of defensive miscues help turn a 2-0 lead into a 4-0 deficit, the White Sox bounce back with three in the eighth and three in the ninth to shock the Dodgers. (June 14)
Rookie mistake by veteran: Elvis Andrus is the stolen-base leader among all active players, and yet he got fooled by a catcher faking a throw to second base to get picked off third base in the late innings of a tie game. (June 15)
Finally: After 264 plate appearances, but Andrew Benintendi homers for the first time in his White Sox career, the lone bright spot in a game where they struck out 16 times without a walk. (June 16)
Double clutch debut: Zach Remillard comes off the bench to relieve Tim Anderson due to Anderson's lack of effort trying to hustle back to first base on a pop-up sore shoulder and goes 3-for-3 with a walk. His second hit ties the game in the ninth inning, and his third hit scores the winning run in the 11th inning. (June 17)
That's harsh, man: Lance Lynn ties Jack Harshman for the White Sox single-game strikeout by fanning 16 Mariners over seven-plus innings, but he fell behind 2-1 due to an unsuccessful two-batter sequence in the third inning, and that was enough to send him to the loss, regardless. (June 18)
A sight for sore backs: After missing the first 2½ months of the season due to a back injury, Colson Montgomery finally appears in regulation-game action in the Arizona Complex League, so all their top prospects were finally playing in games at the same time. (June 19)
Hey, man, that's uncalled for: Rick Hahn goes off on Jon Heyman for agreeing to the idea that Pedro Grifol could be one-and-done during a Chicago sports radio appearance, even though Bob Nightengale basically said the same thing the week before. (June 19)
Victory via violation: Just when it looks like Elvis Andrus made the final out at home plate on a Great Baseball Play™ to keep the White Sox-Rangers game tied at 6 going into the ninth inning, New York overturns the call due to a plate-blocking violation by Jonah Heim, who seemed to violate the letter of the law more than the spirit of it. It gave Zach Remillard another go-ahead hit, if nothing else. (June 20)
New position, same result: Tim Anderson makes his MLB debut at second base as he tries playing through a sore shoulder, but the arrangement offers no immediate dividends. Both he and Elvis Andrus made errors to put a pair of unearned runs on Lucas Giolito's tab in a game that they end up losing to the Red Sox by two. (June 23)
Wrong side of #WILDPITCHOFFENSE: Aaron Bummer yields the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning in the most Aaron Bummer-way possible, giving up an easy stolen base attempt to put the runner on third, followed by a wild pitch. (June 26)
Sho-time: The White Sox are no match for Shohei Ohtani on either side of the ball, as he hits two homers at the plate while striking out 10 over 6⅓ innings on the mound. (June 27)
An unfamiliar finish: For the first time all month, the White Sox finish a game with a margin larger than four runs on either side of the score in an 11-5 victory over the Angels in Anaheim. (June 28)
The Menechino Method: The White Sox overcome an early 4-1 deficit by scoring six runs in third inning without anything bigger than a single. They also drew a walk and took a plunking. (June 29)
Second thoughts: Tim Anderson goes 0-for-5 with four strikeouts out of the No. 2 spot in a 7-4 loss to the lowly Athletics. The final K ended the eighth inning with two on, and Luis Robert Jr. led off the top of the ninth with a solo shot that didn't matter. (June 30)
