Month in a Box: The White Sox in August 2023

It took until Sept. 14 for me to get around to covering everything that happened to the White Sox last month, partially because we're still working through the reverberations of the seismic changes, the latest example being the David Wilder interview out of nowhere.

The franchise spent all of the prior month trying to top itself in terms of all the ways they could be late-stage White Sox. You had:

*Keynan Middleton ripping the franchise's culture after he was traded to the Yankees.

*Tim Anderson dropping glove and squaring up with José Ramírez, only to get knocked on his rear.

*A report about Jerry Reinsdorf mulling relocation, with a reference to Nashville.

*Reinsdorf firing Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn, and eschewing a proper interview process to replace them with the only remotely qualified in-house alternative.

Still, the most insane thing to me is that two fans were struck by bullets in the left-field seats at Guaranteed Rate Field on Aug. 25, and three weeks later, nobody knows how it happened. That mystery loomed so large that Reinsdorf preceded his introduction of Chris Getz by insisting the bullets came from outside the stadium, and he didn't even work on padding the transition to separate Getz from a discussion about a crime scene. This is the job Getz apparently wanted, perhaps because it'd be the only way he'd ever get one.

The lowest moment of any other month might be the fifth-lowest for the White Sox August, that's how overstuffed it was -- and none of it had to do with the on-field play, which remained abysmal. I just think we can't allow the shooting to take second billing, because it truly broke new ground for the kind of bad this franchise is capable of reaching.

(In hindsight, Anderson picked the best possible month to get KO'd, didn't he?)

WHITE SOX TEAM PERFORMANCE

• Record: 10-17
• Run differential: 112 RS, 163 RA
• Standings: Fourth, 16 GB
• Longest winning streak: Three, Aug. 5-7
• Longest losing streak: Four, Aug. 1-4
• Largest margin of victory: 7, vs. Yankees Aug. 9
• Largest margin of defeat: 14, at Colorado Aug. 18

HITTING LEADERS

• Batting average: .346, Elvis Andrus
• On-base percentage: .370, Andrus
• Slugging percentage: .573, Luis Robert Jr.
• wRC+: 151, Andrus
• Home runs: 6, Robert
• RBI: 16, Andrus
• Walks: 8, Andrew Benintendi
• Strikeouts: 30, Yoán Moncada
• Stolen bases: 5, Andrus and Robert
• fWAR: 1.0, Andrus

PITCHING LEADERS

• Wins: 2, Dylan Cease, Mike Clevinger, Sammy Peralta
• Losses: 3, Cease, Touki Toussaint, Jesse Scholtens
• ERA: 2.70, Clevinger
• Innings: 32.1, Scholtens
• Strikeouts: 33, Cease
• Appearances: 13, Bryan Shaw
• Relief innings: 16.1, Shaw
• fWAR: 0.7, Clevinger

COMING AND GOING

• White Sox debuts: Lane Ramsey, Brent Honeywell, Korey Lee,
• White Sox departures: Keynan Middleton, Jake Burger,
• Going up: Lee, Jimmy Lambert, Lenyn Sosa, Samy Peralta, Edgar Navarro, Carlos Pérez
• Going down: Zach Remillard, Pérez, Honeywell, Peralta, Navarro

#SOXMORGUE

• Seby Zavala: Left oblique strain

Awards

Most Valuable Player: Elvis Andrus

It took until the fifth month, but Andrus finally started resembling the player who was supposed to be an adequate patch for the Sox's middle-infield depth. He hit .346/.370/.551 while handling both sides of second base due to Tim Anderson's suspension. He also looked like one of the few players giving a detectable damn at various points over the month, which is why it's understandable that Pedro Grifol wouldn't want to bench him for somebody who isn't performing.

Least Valuable Player: Yasmani Grandal

Whether age has finally taken its toll or he just packed it in after the trade deadline offered no relocation potential, Grandal's dead-cat bounce flatlined in August. He hit .180/.292/.197 over 72 plate appearances, with a hiugher number of double plays (2) than extra-base hits (1). Unlike Andrus, Grandal didn't have to play as much as he did, but Grifol doesn't trust Carlos Pérez, and Korey Lee didn't arrive until the end of the month.

Most Valuable Pitcher: Mike Clevinger

Clevinger also couldn't find a contender at the deadline, but given that he's in position to decline a mutual option at the end of the year, he still has plenty to play for. He pitched at least five innings in each of his five starts, and three of those five starts were excellent, including seven shutout innings against the Cubs, seven one-hit innings against the A's.

Least Valuable Pitcher: Michael Kopech

Dylan Cease actually had the worse ERA -- 8.07 to Kopech's 7.89 -- but it's inflated by a truly awful 1⅔ innings against the Rangers, whereas Kopech lost the ability to complete five innings after his first start of August. If you hold Cease to a higher standard, I can understand giving him the nod, but Kopech's performance is untenable as a starter, and I'd consider that the bigger problem.

Fire Man: sammy Peralta

I could've said "nobody," but it's probably best to separate Peralta from the rest of the mess. He picked up wins in two of his six appearances, including a scoreless 10th inning against the Mariners pitching well above his pay grade. He also delivered three scoreless, hitless innings against the Orioles to pick up innings after Kopech, so he turned in surprising performances at both ends of the leverage ladder. He had a spotless ERA, although that ignores a couple of unearned runs. Also, he was optioned to Charlotte in the middle of the month, so he benefited from scarcity, whereas everybody else eventually battled overexposure.

Gas Can: Aaron Bummer

Throughout the entire season, I've been wondering if Bummer's ERA would ever start resembling his fielding-independent numbers, because at the end of July, he had a 6.69 ERA and a 2.38 FIP. He closed the gap some in August, but in the wrong direction. He had a 6.75 ERA due in large part to his 12 free bases (11 walks, one HBP) over 13⅓ innings, and even FIP can't overlook that (5.06 in August). He only had one multi-appearance scoreless streak during the month, and it covered two whole outings.

Bench player: Lenyn Sosa

Sosa had his best stretch of big-league baseball, even if that's not saying much. He went 12-for-43, showing the ability to play small ball (two sac bunts) and long ball (four homers). Warts remain. He didn't draw a walk, he made some mistakes in the field, and one of those sac bunts was a very bad idea, but he didn't have a whole lot of competition here.

Stench player: Zach Remillard

Remillard also struck out 10 times against zero walks, but he can't really afford to let that happen with his lack of power. He hit .188/.188/.219 as teams realized there wasn't much to be afraid of, but it was a nice little run while it lasted.

Glove Glove: Luis Robert Jr.

Statcast says Elvis Andrus has him beat in Outs Above Average for the month 5-3, but Robert made more memorable plays, including a pair of home run robberies in center field, as well as another incredible catch at the wall in Cleveland. Considering Robert had a claim for the month's Most Valuable Player, balancing out the awards seems fair to me.

Hands of Stone: Oscar Colás

Colás went from a great month throwing to a bad month throwing, sailing cutoff men or returning the ball to vacant spots in the infield. He also finished with the team's worst Success Rate Added among regulars, so his routes remained problematic as well.

Timeline

Traders: The White Sox finish their deadline activity by trading Jake Burger to the Marlins and Keynan Middleton to the Yankees, both of which would have repercussions in the days and weeks to come. (Aug. 1)

The real Burger-flipper: Miami GM Kim Ng reveals during the broadcast of a Marlins game that she negotiated the Jake Burger trade with Kenny Williams directly. While it wouldn't be unusual to have multiple people working phones on the same day, most front offices would make sure the principal decision-makers were on the same page before pulling the trigger, which might not have been the case here. (Aug. 2)

A feel-bad story: The White Sox announce that Liam Hendriks underwent Tommy John surgery, cutting short his comeback from non-Hodgkin lymphoma. (Aug. 3)

Foreshadowing conflict: Tim Anderson steals an out call at second base by lifting Brayan Rocchio's hand off the bag. The Guardians express more displeasure with second base umpire Malachi Moore, but this wouldn't be the only dust-up in that area of a baseball field involving Anderson and the Guardians. (Aug. 4)

One day later: Tim Anderson and José Ramírez square off at second base after Ramírez slides in hard, and safely, under a hard tag. Words are exchanged, fingers are pointed, a glove is dropped, and after a few swings, Anderson is dropped by Ramírez's no-look haymaker. Somehow, they managed to end a six-game losing streak. (Aug. 5)

Winning the war: The White Sox go on to win two of three games in Cleveland with a three-run rally against Emmanuel Clase, although two Rocchio errors made it possible. (Aug. 6)

Key-clubbed: Keynan Middleton unloads on the White Sox for a lack of culture and accountability, accusing players of missing meetings, missing practices and sleeping in the bullpen with no consequences. Rick Hahn responds by attempting to damage the credibility of the plaintiff, but looks like Middleton won that one. (Aug. 7)

The Wright stuff: Dylan Cease is the first pitcher since Danny Wright in 2001 to walk seven batters and not allow a run when he throws 5⅓ scoreless innings against the Yankees. Pedro Grifol spends the game serving his suspension for the Anderson-Ramírez fight in Jerry Reinsdorf's suite (Aug. 7)

Unlucky 14: The White Sox fall to 0-11 when striking out at least 14 batters in a game in a 7-1 loss to the Yankees. (Aug. 8)

Changing the locks: The White Sox scoreboard doesn't show Keynan Middleton during his only appearance of the Yankees-White Sox series, which the White Sox attribute to Middleton wearing a redunant number on preloaded rosters. (Aug. 9)

Immediately regrettable quote: Responding to why guys like Elvis Andrus and Yasmani Grandal are still getting lots of playing time for a team that sold at the deadline, Pedro Grifol says he will "never compromise a major-league win for development." (Aug. 10)

Why: Grifol tries to get a seventh inning out of Jesse Scholtens for no good reason, only for Scholtens to go from leading 2-0 to trailing 3-2. If he were trying to develop Scholtens into somebody who could throw seven, he'd have a defense. (Aug. 12)

Leading by doing: Luis Robert Jr. causes pregame consternation when he says, "I don't see myself as a leader," only to go out and hit a Wrigley-silencing two-run shot that makes the difference in a 5-3 White Sox winner. Robert shushing Cubs fans should've been a much cooler moment. (Aug. 15)

Surrendering the cup: The White Sox's dreams of splitting the season series and retaining the Crosstown Cup go up iun smoke when Gregory Santos allows a double, walk and a three-run walk-off homer by Christopher Morel without recording an out. (Aug. 16)

Correction: Grifol walks back his quote about development, although it's not nearly as pithy. (Aug. 17)

“I don’t ever want to compromise a major-league win to find out what somebody can do,” he said Tuesday. “However, that’s important for us too, moving forward. There’s a fine line we have to walk through to get to where we need as far as evaluation purposes.”

Stop the count: Elvis Andrus homers on the first pitch of the game, making it perhaps the saddest possible way to lose a game to the Rockies by a score of 14-1. (Aug. 18)

Running up the scores: During a marginally more watchable 14-2 loss to the Mariners, Luis Castillo taunts the White Sox offense by throwing 47 consecutive fastballs. (Aug. 21)

Playing the hits: Crain's Chicago Business reports that Jerry Reinsdorf is exploring sites for a new home for the White Sox, both outside Chicago and outside Chicagoland, specifically mentioning Nashville. (Aug. 22)

Hell freezes over: Shortly before the second game of a three-game set with the Mariners, the White Sox announce that Jerry Reinsdorf has fired Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn. (Aug. 22)

Thirteen hours later: Bob Nightengale reinforces his earlier report calling Chris Getz the most likely internal candidate to replace Williams and Hahn, writing a story that says Getz is already the guy Reinsdorf has in mind, with Dayton Moore potentially coming in to assist. (Aug. 23)

A better head shot: Tim Anderson once again gets knocked in the head on the field, but this is by a throw that caroms into foul territory and allows him to score the winning run, preventing the White Sox from being swept by the Mariners. (Aug. 23)

New series, new embarrassment: The White Sox give up five homers to the worst team in baseball, even with Luis Robert Jr. robbing Brent Rooker of a homer, in an 8-5 loss to the Oakland A's. (Aug. 24)

It gets worse: Fans who endured an even more humiliating 12-4 loss to Oakland aren't even treated with the postgame concert they came to see. They're told the Sox cancelled the Vanilla Ice/Tone Loc/Rob Base show due to "technical difficulties," but it's really because two people were struck by bullets in the bleachers. (Aug. 25)

Immediately regrettable quote: Pedro Grifol says about Michael Kopech, "Him not being a starter is not anywhere close to what we’re thinking and anywhere close to what he should be thinking.” (Aug. 26)

Refuse to lose (three in a row): The White Sox lose the first two games against Baltimore by a score of 18-3 and immediately fall behind 4-0 in the first, only to rally for a 10-5 victory. They were previously 0-13 when trailing by three runs or more in the first inning. (Aug. 30)

It's official: The White Sox announce Chris Getz as the new senior vice president/general manager of the White Sox. Jerry Reinsdorf speaks to the media and makes it clear that he didn't bother interviewing anybody else. (Aug. 31)