The White Sox are probably the most surprising team in playoff position through the season\u2019s first two months. Chicago takes a 32-28 record into tonight\u2019s game in Minnesota, placing them three games up on the competition for the second AL Wild Card spot. They\u2019re only a game and a half back of the Guardians in the AL Central.<\/p>\n
Chicago\u2019s front office surely anticipated taking a step forward after their third straight 100-plus loss season. They added\u00a0Munetaka Murakami<\/a> to the middle of the order and took a handful of one- and two-year fliers on the pitching staff. That said, even they probably didn\u2019t project this team as an especially likely playoff team entering the season. They\u2019ve been in rebuilding mode for the entirety of Chris Getz\u2019s three-year tenure as general manager.<\/p>\n The Sox now find themselves in a different spot as teams sketch out their preliminary trade deadline trajectories. Should they look to move prospect capital for MLB talent this summer to aid a potential unexpected playoff push?<\/p>\n Getz spoke with Chad Jennings of The Athletic<\/a> last week, indicating the front office\u2019s focus remained on the longer term. \u201cIt\u2019s never been about 2026. It isn\u2019t. It\u2019s still very big picture,\u201d Getz told Jennings. At the same time, he mentioned that the club is \u201cstarting to really have this winning kind of mindset.\u201d That may be changing the front office\u2019s approach just a few days later, as Getz has already somewhat walked back last week\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are focused on 2026. I know I have stated that it\u2019s not about 2026, but this team is playing really good baseball,\u201d the GM said on Tuesday (link via James Fegan of Sox Machine<\/a>). \u201cWe know where we are in the standings, both within the division and Wild Card, and we\u2019re monitoring it. If there\u2019s opportunities to add to this \u2014 we have higher hopes than just 2026 because we want to have a continual winner here \u2014 but if there\u2019s chances to really add to this group, we\u2019re going to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Getz didn\u2019t tip his hand on what the front office would prioritize. That\u2019s fairly easy to project from the outside. The Sox have had a top 10 offense overall and are tied for third in home runs behind the Yankees and Braves. They\u2019re tenth in on-base percentage and fifth in slugging. Pitching has been the relative weakness, as they\u2019re 19th in earned run average and 20th in strikeout rate.<\/p>\n Chicago can use help in both the rotation and the bullpen. Starting pitching figures to be the biggest priority, as there are a couple obvious areas to upgrade at the back end.\u00a0Davis Martin<\/a> has had an excellent season to cement himself as the staff\u2019s top arm, tonight\u2019s ugly start at Target Field notwithstanding. Sean Burke<\/a> and Anthony Kay<\/a> have been capable mid-rotation arms.<\/p>\n Re-signing Erick Fedde<\/a> on a $1.5MM reclamation deal hasn\u2019t worked, while top prospect\u00a0Noah Schultz<\/a> hasn\u2019t been efficient enough in his first eight MLB starts. Schultz landed on the injured list with patellar tendinitis last week but should be back after a short-term absence. Another prospect,\u00a0David Sandlin<\/a>, has drawn his first two big league starts in the interim. If the Sox remain in contention, they figure to add at least one starter to take over Fedde\u2019s spot.<\/p>\n The bullpen has found its footing to an extent after a poor April. Second-year righty\u00a0Grant Taylor<\/a> is a weapon at the back end. Sean Newcomb<\/a>,\u00a0Seranthony Dom\u00ednguez<\/a> and\u00a0Bryan Hudson<\/a> are all effective and in the mix for leverage roles. They could use another arm or two in the middle innings, however.<\/p>\n There\u2019s not as much to be done on the position player side assuming Murakami and Kyle Teel<\/a> are back from injury, though they\u2019ll probably explore the outfield market. Sam Antonacci<\/a> has taken over left field and quickly hit his way to the top of the lineup as a strong on-base threat. They\u2019ve gotten good work from\u00a0Tristan Peters<\/a> in center field, but he entered the season without any real big league track record. Right field has been a revolving door, currently falling to a\u00a0Rikuu Nishida<\/a>\/Randal Grichuk<\/a> platoon.<\/p>\n Getz told Fegan that the Sox expect to get a look at outfield prospect Braden Montgomery<\/a> this season. Acquired alongside Teel\u00a0and\u00a0Chase Meidroth<\/a> in the\u00a0Garrett Crochet<\/a> deal, the 23-year-old Montgomery is hitting .281\/.366\/.461 over 23 Triple-A contests. He mashed in a similar amount of Double-A playing time before getting the bump to Triple-A in early May.<\/p>\n Even if the Sox bring Montgomery up before the trade deadline, they could look for a left-handed hitting outfielder from outside the organization. Montgomery is a switch-hitter who can play center or right field. Although the Sox presumably would want him playing regularly once he\u2019s up, there\u2019d likely be some growing pains. Between that and the potential for Peters to take a step back offensively, adding some kind of veteran outfield help makes sense.<\/p>\n None of that means the front office is likely to deal from the top of the farm system. The prospect cost for a back-end starter, middle relief help and\/or complementary outfield bat should all be fairly manageable. It\u2019s still too early to delineate many clear buyers and sellers, but\u00a0Mickey Moniak<\/a>,\u00a0Jake McCarthy<\/a> and\u00a0Trevor Larnach<\/a> are among lefty-hitting outfielders who seem likely to be available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The White Sox are probably the most surprising team in playoff position through the season\u2019s first two months.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,346026,591,85],"class_list":["post-711814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-braden-montgomery","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}