As long as the White Sox have only two outfielders, any fourth outfielder is inherently a third outfielder until proven otherwise.
Enter Kevin Pillar. He's joining the White Sox on a minor-league deal according to MLB Trade Rumors' Steve Adams, albeit the kind of minor-league deal with a non-negligible $3 million salary if he makes the major-league roster. That's the same deal he signed with the Braves last year, and he ended up breaking camp with the club, hitting 228/.248/.416 over 81 games in a bench role. When an MLB salary is more than nominal, it often signals an intent to add a player to the MLB roster, but it protects the team against worrisome spring training developments while giving it time to sort out 40-man issues.
A .248 OBP stands out as especially woeful, even in the context of the White Sox. Pillar had the third-lowest OBP of any player with 200 plate appearances last year, and the two worse ones belonged to catchers (Austin Hedges and Eric Haase). It's also good/bad enough to be the worst OBP in a potential White Sox starting nine, even though a couple other recent additions give him some competition.
- Andrew Benintendi, .326
- Nicky Lopez, .326--- MLB AVERAGE, .320 ---
- Eloy Jiménez, .317
- Luis Robert Jr., .315
- Andrew Vaughn, .314
- Yoán Moncada, .305
- Paul DeJong, .281
- Martín Maldonado, .258
- Kevin Pillar, .248
And while it seems like Pillar shouldn't be put in a position to appear in even half of a 162-game season, he'll probably have ample opportunities with the White Sox. Prior to this signing, Gavin Sheets was the only other guy who could stake a claim to right field on the 40-man roster, and Brett Phillips and Rafael Ortega don't provide much of a threat from NRI Land.
Even if Pillar is strictly limited to the short side of a platoon with a lefty bat like Sheets, Pillar also plays center field well enough to spell Luis Robert Jr., which is another thing that will keep him in the mix from the onset. As long as Oscar Colás is confined to Charlotte, the Sox need somebody with Pillar's skills to step in when needed. Pillar is no longer the elite center fielder from his Toronto years, but he can still be expected to offer capable defense across all three positions, with an arm that can make the long throws.
Between his decent range and his steadfast inability to get on base, he carries forth Chris Getz's theme of acquiring players who will get 2024 White Sox games over with as quickly as possible.
We're also seeing a continuation of another theme, in that Nicky Lopez has taken it upon himself to be the White Sox's ambassador of spirit. He said last week that he was rounding up mean tweets from doubters ...
And he celebrated the Pillar signing with a nice tweet. The two overlapped for the second half of 2023 with the Braves, and Lopez must have liked what he saw:
On a team as talented as the Braves, they found an appropriate, judicious use for Kevin Pillar. That sort of carefully considered deployment is still possible on a team like the White Sox. If Getz happened to acquire a young right fielder with upside, then having Pillar around as a backup center fielder and ropes-shower would also serve some specific, limited purposes.
As the White Sox are currently constructed, however, the White Sox do not need a Kevin Pillar, because Getz has spent the entire winter acquiring competent defense at the expense of offense. Depending on your count, Kevin Pillar might be the fifth Kevin Pillar Getz has landed this winter. Even by Lopez's generous standards, that's four Kevin Pillars too many.
