Don't look now, but Yoán Moncada is hitting.
Perhaps he's hitting because nobody's looking, but regardless: Moncada's raking at .356/.398/.586 over his last 25 games. He hasn't had a stretch like this since the first half of the 2021 season, when his OPS hovered around 1.000 over a 25-game stretch between May and June, and that was the the last time he was a valuable contributor.
He's homered in consecutive games, one from each side of the plate. You might argue that one of those homers came off Brady Singer and another off Jordan Lyles, part of a larger trend of Moncada facing mostly bad teams during this time.
The counterpoint is that when he's broken, he'd struggle to turn around a first pitch from Sister Jean. Right now, it appears that he's in adequate working order ...
It's a reminder that Moncada can still be an above-average MLB regular when his body cooperates, even if the $24.8 million salary he's owed next season reminds everybody that the Sox expected an impact player for 140-plus games.
We should watch Moncada -- or at least follow Moncada, for those who have tuned out -- over the remaining 22 games to see if he can bulk up this sample any further. If his hot three, four weeks turns into a hot quarter of the season ... well, the Sox will still be in the position of having to rely on the unreliable, so nothing changes all that much in terms of the product.
When you look at what the White Sox's 2024 lineup looks like with even a vibrant Moncada, it's hard to see how Chris Getz can hit the ground running no matter how impatient Jerry Reinsdorf gets:
- C: ???
- 1B: Andrew Vaughn
- 2B: ???
- SS: ???
- 3B: Yoán Moncada
- LF: Andrew Benintendi
- CF: Luis Robert Jr.
- RF: ???
- DH: Eloy Jiménez
What's worse, the actual identifiable players aren't even a core. There's Luis Robert Jr., and the rest are average guys who can't be expected to produce enough to mask weaknesses elsewhere.
Yet I'm still watching to see how Moncada wraps up his year, because his progress (or lack thereof) from one season to another might help us understand whether anything is different about the White Sox's training staff and lines of communication.
Moncada sounds like he's open to new ideas ...
“Honestly, I just need to find a different way to do things in my preparation,” said Moncada through interpreter Billy Russo. “That’s something I have to figure out during the offseason. Try to do new things that can help me to stay healthy. That’s basically where I stand.”
... but that also should be something the White Sox are helping him figure out now, and not for the offseason. Jerry Reinsdorf says there's a new sheriff in town:
"One of the things we're doing this year that's a little different -- every year we send players home with a plan, 'This is what you gotta do.' What we're going to add this year is, we're going to police these plans. We're going to make sure the players are following their plans, so when they come to spring training, they're ready. We're not going to take their word that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing."
There's no reason to believe this will unfold the way Reinsdorf envisions it, but Moncada provides a decent test case for whether the Sox can effect any kind of change at the training level. He should be motivated to try anything, the White Sox allegedly have a clearer hierarchy to make that happen. Will anything change?
I'd guess "probably not," because even if the White Sox didn't have all their inherent problems, Moncada is dealing with a back injury, and those are fickle. For those still following the White Sox, there's no choice but to wait and see. He's guaranteed $29.8 million over the next season-plus when including the buyout, and that won't have trade value unless he carries this hot streak well into the 2024 season. He remains a player to wait out, but let's see if anybody learns anything while waiting.
