Month in a Box: The White Sox in May 2024

At one point during the month of May, the White Sox felt like an ordinary team. A below-average team, to be clear; probably one of baseball's worst, but one that deserved to stand on the field with the 29 others. They closed out the first month of the season on a little bit of an upswing, then started May by winning three of the first four series, including one in St. Louis and another versus Cleveland.

Then the brutal part of the schedule arrived, the one Josh had been dreading on the podcast since before the season began. Their last 14 games of the month were all against contenders -- Yankees, Blue Jays, Orioles, Blue Jays again, and finally the Brewers -- and the White Sox responded by going 1-13, and heading into the following month on a losing streak that still hasn't ended.

The 9-19 record represents a massive improvement over April, yet only a 52-win pace in its own right.

WHITE SOX TEAM PERFORMANCE

• Record: 9-19
• Standings: Fifth, 23½ GB
• Longest winning streak: 4, May 8-11
• Longest losing streak: 9, May 22-31
• Largest margin of victory: 5, May 21
• Largest margin of defeat: 7, May 22 and May 31

HITTING LEADERS

• Batting average: .289, Tommy Pham
• On-base percentage: .345, Pham
• Slugging percentage: .457, Paul DeJong
• wRC+: 123, Pham
• Home runs: 5, DeJong
• RBI: 13, Andrew Vaughn
• Walks: 15, Gavin Sheets
• Strikeouts: 32, DeJong
• Stolen bases: 3, Pham and Korey Lee
• fWAR: 0.6, DeJong

PITCHING LEADERS

• Wins: 4, Garrett Crochet
• Losses: 3, Michael Soroka and Mike Clevinger
• ERA: 0.93, Crochet
• Innings: 34⅔, Erick Fedde
• Strikeouts: 38, Crochet
• Appearances: 13, John Brebbia and Tim Hill
• Relief innings: 18⅓, Jared Shuster
• fWAR: 1.2, Crochet

COMING AND GOING

• White Sox debuts: Bryan Ramos, Corey Julks, Zack DeLoach,
• White Sox departures: Robbie Grossman, Brad Keller
• Going up: Jared Shuster, Ramos, Mike Clevinger, Zach Remillard, Justin Anderson(x2), Dominic Fletcher, Julks, Nick Nastrini, Zack DeLoach, Jake Woodford, Lenyn Sosa
• Going down: Prelander Berroa, Anderson, Rafael Ortega, Braden Shewmake, Ramos

#SOXMORGUE

• Danny Mendick: Lower back tightness
• Dominic Leone: Lower back tightness, right elbow inflammation
• Bryan Ramos: Left quad strain
• Steven Wilson: Back strain
• Mike Clevinger: Right elbow inflammation

Most Valuable Player: Tommy PHam

The flip side of his world-renowned intensity wouldn't rear its ugly head until June, but Pham immediately lengthened the lineup by hitting .289/.345/.433 in the top two spots, while playing a center field that wasn't terrible, even if he's better suited for a corner.

Least Valuable Player: Andrew Benintendi

Benintendi is the flip side of Pham. He hit just .169/.213/.205 with just three extra-base hits over 89 plate appearances (all doubles), and he gave away extra bases with both his range and his arm. FanGraphs has him for -0.9 WAR in this month alone, and after the calendar flipped to June, he'd attribute his struggles to another injury that Pedro Grifol either didn't know about, or showed no inclination to manage.

Most Valuable Pitcher: Garrett Crochet

There isn't a host of competition, but it's still nice to know that Crochet thoroughly earned this honor. He allowed just three runs and 21 baserunners over 29 innings, striking out 38. He threw six innings in four of his five starts, and also picked up victories in four of five starts. Wins don't really matter, sure, but think about how difficult it is for a starting pitcher to win four consecutive decisions for a club with the league's worst record.

Least Valuable Pitcher: Nick Nastrini

He only pitched twice, and both were against the Blue Jays, but both were difficult to watch, with 10 walks and half as many strikeouts over 8⅓ innings. His control doesn't appear to be major-league ready, which is a problem when Grifol sounds committed to a non-negligible amount of starts.

Fire Man: Jordan Leasure

His control started getting away from him by the end of the month, but aside from one bad outing in Baltimore, he had no blown leads on his record. Ten of his 12 outings were scoreless, he stranded six of seven inherited runners, and led the entire bullpen in Win Probability Added by a comfortable amount.

Gas Can: John Brebbia

Brebbia gave up 14 runs over 12 innings, but he did it in a weird way. The 10.50 ERA was matched up against a 4.80 FIP because he was either outstanding or awful. More than half his outings were easy and scoreless, but in the ones he suffered damage, he gave up a minimum of two runs, not counting the four inherited runners he allowed to score.

Bench Player: Corey Julks

You can quibble with calling him a "bench player" because he played most of the time after the White Sox called him up, but he hit .297/.395/.487 over 43 plate appearances, drawing walks, showing some power, and even robbing a homer. The immediate competence in a corner spot was refreshing.

Stench Player: Martín Maldonado

While Pedro Grifol doesn't want to admit it, Lee appears to now be the primary catcher with a 72-41 advantage in plate appearances, even counting the 15 or so that Lee has accrued as a DH or pinch hitter. Therefore, the damage of Maldonado's .051/.075/.051 line, with 20 strikeouts in 41 plate appearances, is slightly mitigated.

Gold Glove: Nicky Lopez

According to the Fielding Bible's Defensive Runs Saved team leaderboard, second base is the only position where the White Sox are a plus. It's largely due to the work of Lopez, who scored 3 Outs Above Average in the month alone.

Hands of Stone: Andrew Benintendi

What's weird about the White Sox defensively is that they don't kick the ball around like they did the last two years. Their 34 errors is just one above the league average, clustered in with seven other teams who sit within one error on either side of the median. How they fail is a steady stream of bases allowed, whether it's due to lack of range, playing out of position, or making poor throwing decisions. Benintendi gets the nod because he's actually standing in what's supposed to be his natural position. The only worse defender in left field according to Statcast is Washington's Jesse Winker, but he compensates with one of baseball's best outfield arms. Benintendi has the second-worst OAA and the second-least valuable throwing arm, so there you have it.

Timeline

A new Standard: The White Sox's seemingly straightforward transition from NBC Sports Chicago to the Stadium network is thrown off course when The Athletic reports that the obscure Standard Media Group will be partnering with the Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks on a new regional sports network. (May 4)

Worth the wait: Tanner Banks takes the mound after a three-hour, three-minute rain delay to strike out Ivan Herrera with the bases loaded, courtesy of a generous call by CB Bucknor. (May 4)

St. Louis toodle-oo: Garrett Crochet shuts down the Cardinals over six innings and the White Sox post a big crooked number in the seventh for their first road victory of the season, and a team meeting for the Cards afterward. (May 5)

Not worth the wait: Mike Clevinger gets gives up 10 baserunners and four runs over two innings of work in his season debut, an 8-2 loss to the Rays in St. Petersburg. (May 6)

Open for business: Chris Getz pulls off the rare May trade of note by sending Robbie Grossman back to the Texas Rangers for Double-A reliever Anthony Hoopii-Tuionetoa. (May 8)

The Jordan Game: Jordan Leasure enters with the bases loaded and nobody out in a 3-0 game in relief of Erick Fedde and strands them on two strikeouts and a routine groundout. He probably doesn't remember it all that well. (May 9)

Schriffen Missin': John Schriffen misses the White Sox's 7-0 Mother's Day snoozer to the Guardians a day after attending a Lot B tailgate and not checking the t-shirts of the fans he's taking selfies with. (May 12)

Revenge Game: Erick Fedde throws seven scorelss innings against his former team in a 4-0 shutout of the Nationals. (May 14)

One way to look at it: An 11-8 stretch after a 3-22 start to the season has the White Sox feeling more like a standard below-average MLB team, with Michael Kopech saying, "we were all confident that it was going to turn." (May 16)

Another way to look at it: Tommy Pham, never easy to impress, offers a warning about the White Sox's upcoming schedule.

“We’ve got a tough schedule coming up, so it’s going to take a lot of good baseball played by us to beat some of these teams,” said Pham, who is hitting .319/.365/.464. “Offensively there are a lot of things we have to do to get better. Too many easy outs.

“Usually when you’re swinging at the first pitch, you want to get off your A-swing. Too many first pitch rollovers. It happened to me yesterday, but when you swing at first pitch, man, you’re looking to do damage, you’re looking to hit balls 95-plus mph. No jam shots, rollovers, stuff like that. You want to be a tough out. That’s something we’re trying to improve on as a team.”

End of an era: Brad Keller gives up four homers over four innings to the Yankees in what turns out to be his last appearance in a White Sox uniform. (May 18)

Julks! Julks! Julks!: Corey Julks, acquired days earlier in a deal for a rookie-ball righty, hits a homer and robs a homer in the same game at Yankee Stadium. The Sox still lose, but, hey, good for him. (May 19)

A completely incomplete outfield: The Blue Jays take advantage of Tommy Pham, Andrew Benintendi and Gavin Sheets in a two-run third inning that gives Toronto all the runs it needs in a 9-3 victory to open a series at Rogers Centre. (May 20)

Eloy('s adductor), Eloy('s adductor), lama sabachtani: Eloy Jiménez once again hurts himself sprinting, this time between third and home while scoring a run. This injury puts him on the shelf for a projected four-to-six weeks, casting a pall over a 5-0 victory that turns out to be their last one of the month. (May 21)

He's nobody's Valentine: The White Sox's surprising, exciting ninth-inning rally is cut short when umpire Junior Valentine rules that Andrew Vaughn interfered with Gunnar Henderson as he caught an infield fly with the tying runs aboard in the ninth inning, ending the game. Chris Getz says a day later that the umpires misrepresented their ability to use discretion. (May 23)

Another rough ending: The White Sox erase a 4-0 deficit against Corbin Burnes and Co., fall behind 6-4, then see another potential ninth-inning rally thwarted, this time by Colton Cowser's game-ending home run robbery. (May 24)

And another one: The White Sox carry a 3-0 lead into the eighth inning against the Orioles, only to watch Jordan Leasure and Michael Kopech give up three homers in a five-run eighth that gives Baltimore a third straight victory. (May 25)

Flat-shaming: Danny Mendick's eighth-inning pinch-hit homer spoils Baltimore's no-hit bid led by Kyle Bradish, but the White Sox still lose 4-1, and Pedro Grifol unloads on his players after the game by calling them "fucking flat." A number of White Sox players push back, with Korey Lee dropping the universal euphemism when having nothing good to say about somebody you can't directly criticize by responding with, "He is entitled to his own opinion." (May 26)

JFC Double Down: Despite the united disagreement, Pedro Grifol doubles down on his comments by literally saying, "I'm doubling down." (May 27)

Insult to injury: The White Sox are forced to wait out a 70-minute rain delay before letting the Blue Jays retire them 1-2-3 in the ninth inning to close out a 7-2 loss. Tim Hill gives up six singles in an inning. (May 28)

Ask me after 300: Pedro Grifol defends the miserable starts from Andrews Benintendi and Vaughn by saying that he'd neither overreact to "a couple months" or "150, 160 at-bats." (May 29)

HISTORY: By losing 3-1 to Toronto to cap off a four-game sweep, the White Sox go winless over an entire homestand lasting at least seven games for the first time in the 124-year history of the franchise. (May 29)

23 skidoo: The White Sox close out May with a nine consecutive loss, this one a 12-5 defeat to a Brewers team that pounded out 23 hits, 18 of them singles, good for a .658 BABIP. White Sox pitchers hadn't allowed more than 13 in a game before this. (May 31)