This is the first of two installments in which I’ll be looking back and evaluating all of the players that had a significant role as members of the 2023 White Sox. These grades are more art than science due to the subjective nature of how much expectations for a player should affect their grade. My goal is to balance actual player performance against their expectations and probable role (both short-term and long-term) entering the season.
Per usual, I consider an average grade to be someplace on the C/C+ borderline. ‘A’ is the top grade on the scale, and ‘F’ is the lowest.
My typical cutoff of 100 plate appearances isn't ideal this year because Romy Gonzalez barely missed the cut, and he seems important enough to the White Sox (for some reason) to justify a write-up, but you can all grade him yourselves. In ascending order of plate appearances…
Zach Remillard (INF): 160 PA, .252/.295/.320, 1 HR, 30.0% K, 5.0% BB, 67 wRC+, 0.2 fWAR, 0.1 bWAR
At 29 years old, it was a bit surprising to see Remillard finally snag a big league opportunity. He was completely unfazed by the promotion, as BABIP-y goodness had him hitting .395/.489/.474 through his first 14 games. That stretch included some of the most clutch hits of the season, which led to Remillard somehow finishing third on the team in Win Probabilty Added. Predictably, he collapsed thereafter, as he only hit .202/.216/.266 the rest of the way. The league figured out that he was helpless against sliders, as he whiffed on nearly half of the ones he saw. Remillard provided some good defense and a fresh breath of competence when the already-flimsy depth chart was tested, but there's not much to dream on here. Grade: C-
Lenyn Sosa (INF): 173 PA, .201/.224/.348, 6 HR, 23.1% K, 2.9% BB, 47 wRC+, -0.7 fWAR, -0.8 bWAR
Predictably, Sosa was overmatched in the major leagues as he typically has been when attacking a new level. However, we're 209 plate appearances into this movie and given how far he has to go, it's fair to question if and when he's going to make what has been his usual successful adjustments to more advanced competition. On the plus side, he's only 23, and that strikeout rate is probably a lot lower than what you were thinking it was before reading this review. His .227 BABIP was pretty unlucky, and his wOBA trailed his xwOBA by about 56 points. On the minus side.... Grade: F
Seby Zavala (C): 176 PA, .155/.207/.304, 7 HR, 38.6% K, 5.7% BB, 34 wRC+, 0.1 fWAR
That Zavala posted that putrid batting line and still doesn't have a minus sign in his fWAR is a testament to his framing ability behind the plate. Alas, Zavala's quest to suppress offense on both sides of the ball ended in early September with a DFA. In the realm of stuff you probably didn't know happened, the Diamondbacks scooped him up and he drew a walk and scored in a pinch hitting appearance against the Sox during a Sept. 26 blowout. That's a Seby Zavala "revenge game." Grade: D
Oscar Colás (RF): 263 PA, .216/.257/.314, 5 HR, 27.0% K, 4.6% BB, 53 wRC+, -1.3 fWAR, -1.5 bWAR
The White Sox have made it a habit of never truly addressing their right field problem, but coming into this season, there was at least some hope that it might work out. Colás entered the season as a fringe top-100 prospect and ended it as someone who should be nowhere near the White Sox's near-term plans.
There wasn't much positive to point to besides a six-game stretch at Charlotte in which Colás hit seven home runs, which would account for half the homers he'd hit in 2023 at either level. There was palpable frustration among teammates for his lack of baseball instinct, which raises plenty of flags about the coaching in the minor leagues. His play was so unacceptable that a team with nothing to play for demoted him in the middle of September, so the writing is firmly on the wall. This was a spectacular failure. Grade: F
Jake Burger (3B): 323 PA, .214/.279/.527, 25 HR, 31.6% K, 6.8% BB, 113 wRC+, 1.4 fWAR, 1.4 bWAR
Burger took yet another unexpected leap forward in 2023, as he significantly improved his infield defense and performed much better against right-handed pitching. His improvement was enough to convince almost everyone but the White Sox, who chose to deal away five more years of Burger for some guy who's now saddled with expectations he didn't ask for and is unlikely to meet. The Sox may not have been able to see Burger significantly slashing his strikeout rate so suddenly with the Marlins, but they certainly should have understood that his .225 BABIP with the White Sox didn't scan with how hard he hits the ball and how well he runs.
We here at Sox Machine wish Jake the best in Miami and congratulate him on leading his new team back to the playoffs. Grade: B+
Gavin Sheets (1B): 344 PA, .203/.267/.331, 10 HR, 19.2% K, 8.1% BB, 61 wRC+, -1.4 fWAR, -1.4 bWAR
It's totally understandable if you didn't know before now that it was this bad. Sheets front-loaded his production in 2023 and bears plenty of responsibility for the team sinking as deep as they did into the abyss. He hit .181/.242/.295 from May 11 onward as a bat-only player, and while that would get you booted from the roster on most teams, the White Sox carried him all the way through September while tweeting videos of him and his dog and stuff. This should be the end of the line, but knowing this organization, we'll see him next year. Grade: F
Yoan Moncada (3B): 357 PA, .260/.305/.425, 11 HR, 30.0% K, 5.6% BB, 98 wRC+, 1.2 fWAR, 0.6 bWAR
Moncada was healthy to begin the season and to end the season, but not often enough in-between. An early-season bout with lower-back soreness sapped his explosiveness and he was on and off the IL for several months. He closed the season out on a really good note, hitting .330/.381/.608 over the final five weeks and belting seven of his 11 home runs in that span.
We know that a banged-up Moncada has no ability to punish a fastball; he's finished with a negative run value against the fourseam in each of the last three seasons. He's a fantastic player when his body is cooperating, but that caveat is doing a lot of work. Grade: D+
Yasmani Grandal (C): 405 PA, .234/.309/.339, 8 HR, 21.2% K, 8.9% BB, 80 wRC+, -0.1 fWAR
Grandal didn't give the Sox the bounce-back season they were hoping for after his production dove off a cliff in 2022. He did put together a more passable batting line, but further erosion to his exit velocity, framing ability, and walk rate prevented him from providing any real value. Further concerning were the rumors that he fought with Tim Anderson after asking to leave the team early for the All-Star break and that he's "no friend to the pitchers," the latter of which might partly explain why the pitchers have dropped such positive comments about James McCann and Seby Zavala these last four years. It seems like Grandal won't be missed. Grade: F
Elvis Andrus (INF): 406 PA, .251/.304/.358, 6 HR, 17.5% K, 6.2% BB, 81 wRC+, 1.1 fWAR, 0.6 bWAR
As someone who has done his fair share of procrastinating, I can appreciate Andrus' approach to 2022 and 2023. He didn't get a whole lot done in the first four months of either year, but then turned on the gas in August and September when it looked like the lethargy might come back to bite him. His .318/.330/.480 line down the stretch will likely be enough to get him to stick on someone's roster for most of 2024. With a sea of chaos surrounding him, Andrus conducted himself as a professional and gets further points for performing actual acts of leadership on a team notoriously devoid of it. Grade: C-
Eloy Jiménez (DH): 489 PA, .272/.317/.441, 18 HR, 19.0% K, 6.1% BB, 105 wRC+, 0.4 fWAR, 0.3 bWAR
Jimenez' 489 plate appearances were the most since his 2019 rookie season, but he didn't do a whole lot with them. Contact quality became an issue, as Jimenez increased his already-problematic ground-ball rate, hit more popups, and had significantly fewer barrels. Jimenez has been with the White Sox for five years and has yet to clear 2 WAR in a season, and he looks to be on track for the White Sox to buy him out after 2024. That is, unless he finds a way to combine health and effectiveness for the first time in his career. Grade: D-
Tim Anderson (SS): 524 PA, .245/.286/.296, 1 HR, 23.3% K, 5.0% BB, 60 wRC+, -0.5 fWAR, -2.0 bWAR
How did we get here? Maybe it's a combination of the groin and hand injuries Anderson sustained in 2022, plus a knee injury sustained when he collided with Matt Wallner on April 10 of this season. Maybe his off-the-field situation has reduced his focus on baseball. Maybe -- and this is speculation -- he's just not happy here? In any event, he has hit just two home runs in the last 10 baseball months and has seen his defense significantly deteriorate. Tim Anderson has been behind some of the best moments of the last eight years for the White Sox, but this relationship feels like it's over. Grade: F
Luis Robert Jr. (CF): 595 PA, .264/.315/.542, 38 HR, 28.9% K, 5.0% BB, 128 wRC+, 5.0 fWAR, 5.1 bWAR
We've been waiting to see what Robert looks like over a full, healthy season, and with the exception of a few weeks scattered in there, we finally got it. Robert was a beast in 2023 and would have easily eclipsed 40 homers if not for those few aforementioned weeks. He regained the speed and agility that he seemed to be lacking in 2022, and as a result, he graded out as one of the league's best outfield defenders. It was a masterful breakout, and one we can only pray his oft-injured body allows him to repeat in the coming years. Grade: A
Andrew Vaughn (1B): 615 PA, .258/.314/.429, 21 HR, 21.0% K, 5.9% BB, 103 wRC+, 0.2 fWAR, 1.0 bWAR
Vaughn got the opportunity to move to his natural position in 2023. Many hoped this would help him focus on his offense, but score yet another point for those who believe hitting ability is independent of the place you stand on defense. Vaughn gave us more of the same at the plate and only improved his WAR metrics because he stopped hemorrhaging runs with his brutal outfield play. A sluggish baserunner who doesn't play first base particularly well simply has to hit more than this to have any semblance of value. Grade: D-
Andrew Benintendi (LF): 621 PA, .262/.326/.356, 5 HR, 14.3% K, 8.4% BB, 87 wRC+, 0.0 fWAR, 0.2 bWAR
There were a lot of similarities between Vaughn and Benintendi's seasons, both of which I'd describe as "watchably bad." Both guys gave competitive at-bats, made plenty of contact, and hit for a respectable batting average. Both guys played mostly clean defense, but rated as pretty bad defenders because of all the plays they didn't make that couldn't be considered errors. These aren't the players who were maddening because of strikeouts, sloppy fielding, or mental lapses. They hurt the team because of all that they didn't do.
It's easy to watch the games and look past Benintendi's lack of home runs because no one watches an individual plate appearance expecting a player to hit a home run. As long as the player delivers a good at-bat, makes contact, and succeeds a reasonable percentage of the time, he'll successfully avoid the boo birds. Homers are a low-percentage outcome, and they're a pleasant surprise when they happen. However, when your 621 plate appearances are this devoid of pleasant surprises, and you can't point to anything else you did at a high level, you didn't do your job. Just four years, $64 million to go. Grade: F
THE CLASS RANK
- Luis Robert Jr. - A
- Jake Burger - B+
- Elvis Andrus - C-
- Zach Remillard - C-
- Yoan Moncada - D+
- Seby Zavala - D
- Andrew Vaughn - D-
- Eloy Jimenez - D-
- Andrew Benintendi - F
- Yasmani Grandal - F
- Lenyn Sosa - F
- Tim Anderson - F
- Gavin Sheets - F
- Óscar Colás - F
(Photo by Kamil Krzaczynski/USA TODAY Sports)
