Chicago White Sox trade deadline recap and analysis
Jake Diekman (Getty Images)
Tweet notifications are always on during this time of year for baseball fans. Whenever insiders like Jeff Passan or Ken Rosenthal start a tweet with “BREAKING:” fans of every team are eager to jump into their phone or computer screens and see who got traded where. The MLB trade deadline is an exciting period of activity where postseason-hopeful teams bolster their lineups, pitching staffs, or benches with players who usually are putting up numbers for bad teams.
Going into 2022, the Chicago White Sox were expected to be a World Series contender. However, with a record barely over .500, they have fallen short of those expectations so far. Surprisingly, the front office chose to stand pat at the trade deadline instead of adding pieces from outside the organization to help supplement the holes on the roster. So let’s look at what the White Sox did and what they could have done to give them a better chance to win their division.
The team’s only notable move was to add a bullpen arm in Jake Diekman from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for third-string catcher Reese McGuire. A bullpen arm was a need, especially from the left-handed side, but there were more pressing needs with the way they had been playing. In addition, starting pitching has been a little inconsistent for the White Sox this season, specifically with Lucas Giolito, Lance Lynn, and Michael Kopech.
Kopech has not been a starter since 2018 when he was in the minors for most of the season, so the White Sox would like to limit his innings and not tax him. With that being said, it was very surprising the team did not trade for another starter to provide more depth. An acquisition like Jose Quintana from the Pittsburgh Pirates would have been nice to eat innings and give Kopech the occasional rest, but he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals.
The White Sox offense has also been struggling lately, despite playing teams with poor records.
A left-handed corner outfielder would have been a quality addition to the roster because the use of certain players has been puzzling. Players such as Andrew Vaughn and Gavin Sheets have had to play right field nearly every game because they can’t always play their natural position of first base. Vaughn has been one of the team’s best hitters, but he struggles to read fly balls occasionally and does not communicate well with center fielders. It’s not his fault he has to play right or left field, but having an actual outfielder out there would help defensively and allow Vaughn to focus more on his strongest trait, hitting.
Two players that come to my mind who could have helped were Joc Pederson and David Peralta. They would have provided left-handed power to the plate while also being adequate options in the field, and that is really all the team could want. In the White Sox’s current everyday lineup, they have too many right-handed hitters and don’t have good lineup balance, causing them to often look putrid against mediocre right-handed starters.
It likely would’ve helped the White Sox’s playoff chances if they made one of these moves, but general manager Rick Hahn showed that he has faith in the current players to make a run. The roster is almost the same as last year, so we’ll see if Hahn’s risky bet paid off in the coming weeks.