According to FanGraphs, Andrew Vaughn is the least valuable regular in Major League Baseball through 50 games, just like he was through 20 games, 30 games and 40 games. Baseball-Reference.com doesn't have the capacity to search its WAR leaderboard by date ranges, but considering he also ranks dead last (-1.6 bWAR, compared to -1.3 fWAR), the story wouldn't be much different from the other leading brand.
Vaughn's slide has continued despite an uptick in power this month, because no other part of his game has improved. He's gone without a walk in 18 consecutive games, he's rated as one of the 10 most conservative baserunners in the sport and also is tied for the AL-lead in outs made at home plate, and he remains the same underwhelming presence in the field.
All of this raises the question of why Will Venable continues to write him into the lineup card as often as he has. Vaughn has started 47 of 50 games this season, including 27 of the last 28, and he appeared as a pinch-hitter in the one game he sat. That puts him on pace for a career-high 625 plate appearances, so he appears to be ever the fixture despite the paucity of production. He's hitting just .189/.218/.314, and that would normally spell doom without much debate.
But while Vaughn remains in the lineup, his appearances in the field have dried up as of late, and that might be the first sign of the White Sox closing a chapter.
The White Sox called up Tim Elko on May 10 to give the 26-man roster a second first baseman, and Venable offered his initial vision for the position before that night's game:
I think we are going to take this day by day, but I think you expect to see both Tim and Vaughny at first base.
And initially that plan held up, as Venable toggled between them over their first week coexisting on the roster:
But over the last week, it's been a different story:
After starting 23 of 28 games at first base through April, Vaughn's share of playing time at first base in May is at 40 percent and falling. Moreover, Venable has twice subbed out Vaughn solely for defensive purposes with late-inning leads, as opposed to being pinch-run for.
(Here's where we note that Vaughn could be playing through some kind of injury that he and the White Sox are loath to admit, but both Venable and Vaughn have bypassed opportunities to disclose it, so it wouldn't be a lie of omission.)
This development, while limited, is worth tracking, because if the White Sox are plotting out an exit strategy for the Vaughn Era, this is the first off-ramp that's naturally presented itself with a viable alternative. In previous years, Vaughn was considered the default option at first base because nobody represented a meaningful upgrade offensively or defensively, unless you really bought into Sosa's furious finish to the 2024 season.
Elko's had enough confidence-rattling chases at pitches well off the plate to question the hitting half of the equation, but while the White Sox are testing his ability to tighten up his approach, they figure they may as well take advantage of having a superior glove at first base, and Elko has smothered just about everything that's come his way:
You could argue that Vaughn is even more miscast as a DH in his current state, but I would argue to wait on arguing. The White Sox lineup card doesn't run nine bats deep, and of the players who aren't handling a position, Vaughn has superior case for being the guy who might start hitting, at least as long as Venable would prefer to avoid playing his catchers all of the time.
However, this plot could thicken like Quikrete as members of the White Sox's original 26-man plans wrap up their rehab assignments at Charlotte. Mike Tauchman is due back any day now, and Andrew Benintendi won't be far behind. That will give Venable has two more DH options he currently lacks, and that's where the calculus will be revealing.
In previous years, the sequence would probably be simple: Elko heads back to Charlotte, Vaughn returns to first base, and Benintendi leads the rotation at DH. In a world where Vaughn is no longer considered a part of the future, and Venable is merely looking for the nine players most capable of providing some kind of support toward a winning effort, the possibilities suddenly open up. The best possible defensive infield has Sosa at first base. The best defensive outfield relegates Benintendi to DH. What if those defensive options are also equally valid offensively to Vaughn, if not outright superior? That would be asking a question Vaughn doesn't want to know the answer to.
The safer bet is that Vaughn will retain his prominent part of the lineup, whether because the White Sox truly can't give up on him, or merely because Benintendi, Tauchman and/or Austin Slater keep getting hurt. It's just no longer a lock, which is news in its own right. Assuming Venable's brand of "leading with empathy" and "relentless positivity" precludes him from throwing a well-meaning player off the side of the boat, the aggrieved portion of the White Sox fan base may never get the cathartic changing-of-the-guards moment it seeks. Any turning of the page will probably just sort of happen. Maybe it's already started.
