If you missed another humdrum White Sox loss on Monday, you probably didn't miss it at all.
Still, I'd like to draw your attention to the third inning of the Sox's 9-3 defeat at Rogers Centre, in which all three of the White Sox's starting outfielders were exploited by the Blue Jays over the course of three outs.
It started when Kevin Kiermaier opened the inning by stretching a single into a double on Tommy Pham.
Kiermaier then advanced another 90 feet on Davis Schneider's flyout to left, one of two times on Monday afternoon the Blue Jays tagged up to third on Andrew Benintendi's arm.
And to cap it off, Kiermaier scored when Danny Jansen doubled to right center despite Gavin Sheets' best effort:
All three plays highlight the fundamental flaws with the White Sox's current outfield alignment: Pham doesn't have the speed to play center field on a regular basis, Benintendi's arm hemorrhages bases, and Sheets always puts forth an admirable effort for an industrial freezer. It shouldn't surprise anybody that the White Sox have the worst defensive outfield, whether you're judging by Outs Above Average or Defensive Runs Saved.
| System | LF | CF | RF | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OOA | -3 | -1 | -6 | -10 |
| DRS | -6 | -11 | -4 | -21 |
And even under these circumstances, Dominic Fletcher hasn't found his way into a lineup since returning to the 26-man roster on Wednesday.
Daryl Van Schouwen relayed Pedro Grifol's attempt at reasoning before Monday's game ...
... but the outfield alignment as Grifol described promptly undercut him. Particularly Benintendi, who had another rough game. Besides the two tag-ups on his arm, he made five outs during an 0-for-4 afternoon and also couldn't close the distance on Bo Bichette's double inside the left-field line. He's hitting .190/.218/.276, which represents the league's worst OBP and bottom-five production in the other numbers. That makes him the least valuable player in baseball by either bWAR (-1.9) or fWAR (-1.4).
This is all rehashing the points we discussed last month, when Benintendi was allowed to keep struggling while the White Sox optioned Fletcher and DFA'd Kevin Pillar. Only some of the details have changed (Fletcher is technically on the roster, and Corey Julks is the new Pillar). Still, the story remains novel because we keep seeing how thoroughly he gums up the works in his current state.
With a Benintendi-less roster, Fletcher and Corey Julks could get as much playing time as they merit while Pham moves to a corner. That still leaves Sheets as somebody out of position due to the White Sox's other active Andrew Problem, but let's not ask the White Sox to multitask just yet.
But as long as the White Sox feel obligated to salvage any sort of productivity from Benintendi -- which is natural, since more than 3½ years remain on his five-year, $75 million contract -- the effort to defend Benintendi's league-worst production will grow more and more strained. Here's Van Schouwen with the latest effort:
“You just don’t give up on players,” Grifol said after the game. “Doesn’t mean we’re not having conversations, you just don’t give up on players who have a track record. You talk to him, see what’s going on and you ride it out. I have confidence in the player. We’ll see how it goes.”
That makes sense for a player who's having a bad two weeks, but when the player is on the verge of having a league-worst two months on both sides of the ball, the actions Grifol deployed -- not giving up, riding it out -- are other ways of doing nothing, and consequently, everything involving the outfield grinds to a halt. They can't put other players in a better position to succeed. They can't evaluate Fletcher, who was acquired by trading a more valuable prospect in Cristian Mena. As long as they're tied to Benintendi as an unquestioned everyday starter, they can only be as productive on the decision-making level as Benintendi is on the field.
