PHOENIX -- If putting together a winning MLB team never got more complicated then letting Luis Robert Jr., Eloy Jiménez and Yoán Moncada rip batting practice dingers with one another, the White Sox would be all right.
In this world, or just throughout Monday's first full-squad workout, Moncada has consistent home run power to all fields, Jiménez is lifting everything through the air, and Robert is still somehow the most gifted of the trio.
"We both are going to be able to carry this team and do everything together for this team," Robert said via interpreter of him and Jiménez.
"Play 150-plus [games], so that’s our goal," Jiménez said, echoing Robert's quest from last season. "We are in the middle of the lineup. And every time we are together, we can help more than we can being on the bench."
After an offseason where the White Sox pondered life without Jiménez and Moncada, and now tout a defense-first focus that squeezes out the former, with near-ready prospects that could easily make 2024 a South Side swan song for the latter, these comments can feel out of date. Most have moved beyond the notion of Jiménez and Moncada being core players of a perennially contending White Sox team, to wondering if a single playoff entry is possible before Robert departs. Pedro Grifol wriggled out of centering them as key players he needs to buy into the "play fast" and "respect 90" directives the second-year manager is issuing.
"The whole building needs to buy in, and it's not just my style or it's our style, it's our core values," Grifol said. "It's the whole building, so just to single out three guys and how important it is to for them to buy in, that’s not what this is about."
But view it instead through the prism of a White Sox team reporting to camp for the first time. They are refusing to resign themselves to a rebuilding year and trying to figure out how they will improve last year's second-worst scoring offense without significant offensive additions. For that narrow possibility to be realized, Moncada and Jiménez joining Robert in realizing their potential feels like the only immediate path.
"He was motivated at the end of last year," Robert said of Moncada via interpreter. "He is bringing that up to spring training."
Robert said he took off about a month after the end of the season to rest his sprained left knee, but otherwise had a normal offseason. He unsurprisingly does not feel the trade-off he made in contact for power production last season was permanent, and thinks he can chase a .300 average and 40 home runs at the same time.
Earlier in his career, Jiménez would more regularly offer peeks at his thoughtful mind for hitting, obscured from the public by a goofball, happy-go-lucky demeanor. On Monday, I asked about his offseason efforts to add loft to his swing, after posting the highest ground ball rate (53.2 percent) of his career in 2023.
"That’s a secret," Jiménez said. "You are going to find out soon."
Alas.
Quicker hits
Grifol suggested he has four leadoff hitter candidates, but wound up only mentioning Andrew Benintendi. Besides being fairly on-brand, it's also a fairly logical choice unless Grifol was willing to say something that would actually excite the fan base --blurting out "Colson Montgomery!" or the like. In what was otherwise the worst full season of his major league career, Benintendi posted a slightly above-average on-base percentage (.326) last season. While Benintendi is no burner, he is decidedly faster than someone would have to be for the 2024 White Sox to start bemoaning their "base-clogging" tendencies.
Since Grifol separately referenced the 2021 season where Nicky Lopez posted a .365 OBP, consider him a dark horse.
Trying to quantify Martín Maldonado's contributions is not the road to happiness. He's a career .207/.282/.349 hitter whose contact rates took a precipitous dip last season, and Statcast rated him as collapsing to the worst pitch-framer in the majors in 2023. Yet Maldonado was revered by pitchers and coaches in Houston for his game management, and his answer for how he can be part of reducing the bloated walk total from Sox hurlers definitely leaned cerebral rather than techinical.
"Everything starts with [pitchers] understanding what they can do, when they can do it," Maldonado said. "Go from there. Make them believe what they can do really good. That’s the best. Ask any pitcher who has had success in the big leagues, they know what they’re good at."
Ethan Katz, who was back in camp on Monday and spearheading bullpen sessions again, had Dylan Cease pitching through specific count scenarios. Cease's bullpen ended with Katz telling him to simulate an 0-2 count, and giving him his choice for how he wanted to close out the at-bat. Immediately afterward, Maldonado was chiming in to Cease about his ideas of what works best in that situation.
If wisdom is why Maldonado is here, he seems keen to share it.
He is happy to play for his old teammate, and broadly encouraged by seeing more former players in top executive roles, but Mike Moustakas has a simpler thesis statement upon his arrival to White Sox camp.
"I've got to make the team," Moustakas said. "I've got to perform, do everything I can to make a ballclub."
Chris Getz cited the 35-year-old Moustakas being motivated to extend his career, and his showing in Colorado during the first half as reasons for why the White Sox might get a better version of the left-handed veteran. Moustakas hit .270/.360/.435 in 47 games with the Rockies last year, which sounds awesome but shakes out to an even league average 100 wRC+ with the park factors of Coors Field.
"I was here last year," Moustakas said of his non-roster status. "It's the same mindset. At the end of the day, you want to keep playing major league baseball, you've got to go out and do this.
Moustakas regressed last year after a trade to the Angels to the point where he has not posted a full season wRC+ over 80 since 2020. But if the job is to simply hit righties off the bench or from the DH spot, competition is light beyond Gavin Sheets, who struggled worse last year.
With Robert speaking through an interpreter, you're swimming at your own risk when trying to interpret his tone. But this is what he had to offer when asked if his offseason switch to Boras Corp for his representation means he's thinking about his future beyond the four years of contractual control the White Sox hold over him.
"You're always thinking about your future. But I still have four more years with this organization and I don't think way ahead of that. I like to think of the present, today, because that's what I can control. You can't have a good future if you don't have a good present. That's why I don't want to think too far away."
Robert only has four more years if the White Sox pick up both of his club options. Even without great ability to interpret his tone, I am willing to go out on a limb and say that Robert is expecting the team to do that.
What is someone like Andrew Vaughn supposed to make of Grifol telling him to "play fast?
"It’s selfless, it’s aggressive, it’s fearless, it’s an enjoyable environment, one where we’re constantly learning from each other. It’s a little more complicated than just fast," Grifol said, expounding upon his idea.
However, Vaughn was adamant that he actually feels quicker after diving into offseason agility work and resistance band training. In contrast to Jordan Leasure telling me about his pilates routine, Vaughn didn't go into great detail. He also had few thoughts on the new MLB uniforms other than cautious optimism about the breathable fabric. Nor did explain why he thinks 2024 can be a breakout season for him beyond his intention to hold himself to a high standard. But he did respond to the primary motivational ploy so far of the White Sox spring.
"We talked about the whole zero percent playoff projection," Vaughn said. "I think we can just prove a lot of people wrong this year."
