There's obviously no use in extrapolating significant meaning from the first spring training game, especially one where the four of the team's top hitters didn't play, only one of the eight White Sox pitchers was on the 40-man roster, and most fans had probably never heard of him (Alex Speas).
BUT.
If you took a team as flawed as the 101-loss White Sox were last year and spent pretty much all of the offseason concentrating on upgrading the defense, their 8-1 loss to the Cubs in the Cactus League opener on Friday afternoon is what a typical loss in 2024 could look like.
Cubs pitching limited the Sox to a Tim Elko solo shot and three other hits over nine innings. The Sox waited until the ninth inning to draw their only walk (congratulations to Danny Mendick) while striking out 12 times. Meanwhile, Jesse Chavez matched his age with 40 first-inning pitches, which will probably be the first of many outings where a White Sox pitcher has to wear it.
At least the defense was fine. White Sox defenders played clean, error-less baseball. They turned a double play. Gil Luna picked off a baserunner, and Martín Maldonado tried a pickoff at second without messing anything up. Playing right field, Kevin Pillar actually beat a slicing fly ball to its spot down the line. The ball landed in the elevated foul territory, but it was a refreshing change from wondering whether Gavin Sheets would be able to stop before smashing into the rail.
During the game, Steve Stone predicted that the White Sox would be at least 10 wins better than last year based on improvements to the defense and clubhouse. One exhibition game in, here's an idea of what it looks like when none of those are enough to make a widescale difference. The White Sox defense might not make matters worse, but worse implies that the present situation is already bad, and that tension will likely follow the Sox over the course of the season.
But how about Bryan Ramos?
When it comes to the defense, it's not necessarily newsworthy and Pillar would take a direct route, or Maldonado would make a risky throw with confidence. It's slightly more noteworthy that Dominic Fletcher played center instead of Pillar and didn't stand out -- in the good way.
For somebody like Bryan Ramos, whose profile would get a boost if he could be relied upon for plus defense, his strong afternoon at third base gave those who haven't been able to see him play a better sense of what's possible.
Ramos handled three routine chances with ease, and also made a couple of fine efforts -- one to his left, and one to his right.
In the third inning, he smothered Matt Shaw's hot shot for the final out in a play that also gives you a sense of his biggest knock -- the propensity for the weird throw.
But that criticism is rooted in the way he occasionally makes routine plays more adventurous than need be. Throwing a wicked two-seamer to first base because it's the only grip he could get on the ball after hitting the dirt doesn't fall under that category.
In the fifth, another stellar effort ended in a less-than-stellar throw when he gloved Joe Hudson's hot shot down the line, but it's a lot easier to understand why he couldn't get sufficient oomph on the heave, as his plant foot slipped on the grass in foul territory.
It's only one game, but you can see the reaction time and hands that have evaluators believing he can play a big-league third base, as well as some of the skills that make above-average defense possible. He'll have to prove over the course of the season that he can convert an above-average number of chances by sprinkling the occasional highlight in among all the normal plays that don't require a second look, and he completed the other three opportunities with on-target bullets.
Ramos embodies the White Sox's greater struggles, in the sense that even if he does deliver the glovework that's possible, he'll also need to hit enough for it to register. The glass-half-full outlook is that if you believe in his bat -- and I ranked him as my No. 2 prosect -- then his defensive strides should be able to buy him the time he needs to make the necessary adjustments elsewhere.
