White Sox Middle Infield Glut

Good day everyone, it’s your pal BeefLoaf and during spring training and it is roster crunches that I have on my mind.  So pour yourself a drink (I’ll have the Turley Zin) and sit down so we can discuss a potential problem.

The White Sox have a substantial glut up the middle on offense and we are going to get to the bottom of this…….

The Incumbents

SS – Tim Anderson

Tim Anderson is the future on the Southside, at least for now, at least from a position player standpoint.  He said earlier this week that he wants to be as recognizable in Chicago as MJ.  SLOW DOWN!  How’s about we improve that walk rate a bit first………….Anywho, we don’t need to say much else.  Aside from an injury or an avant garde move like re-stationing him in CF, he’s there to stay for the long term.

2B – Brett Lawrie

Brett got hurt, then was MIA, then took down all his White Sox affiliation from twitter leading all of the White Sox twitter fam to believe that he would be non-tendered………..then he was resigned, so he’s still here.  A real, “it’s not you, it’s me”, situation, but alas, if we were penciling in a lineup this morning (I would use pencil given the situation), he’d be your starting 2B.  Guy has a pedigree, he might turn out to be something, but I don’t suspect that something has much value in Chicago.  He will probably end up playing 3B if Todd Frazier finds another home and he’ll undoubtedly get injured again, so worrying about him as part of this logjam is temporary at best.

UTIL – Tyler Saladino

Great Mustache.  Great Guy.  Not quite as entrenched as Tim Anderson, but I think Tyler Saladino has cemented his spot on this roster as the utility man.  He can pick up a glove at mostly any spot and be competent.  He also hits enough to be a true utility man.  We’ve argued internally here at the 108 about whether we think Tyler will be on the next White Sox playoff team.  About half the crew thinks he’ll be valuable in the trade market, particularly at the deadline when teams look for guys who can man multiple positions on the defensive side to set them up for a playoff run.  On the other hand, he’s contract controllable for the foreseeable future and he slots in everywhere, so he’s perfect for filling in the gaps between now and the next good team.  Once we get to the next good team, he keeps his Utility role, as playoff teams need a guy like this.  I guess we’ll see.  Until then, please do take a look at the competition that we and Tyler are putting on to inspire facial hair creativity.

The Prospect

2B – Yoan Moncada

He’s the #1 Prospect, he’s a future star, he’s got perfect teeth, not sure what else we can say about the man, the myth, the future legend Yoan Moncada.  When he’s ready to be on the big league club, erryone else can gtfo the way and enjoy the aura that will come off this future member of baseball royalty.  As of RIGHT.  DAMN.  NOW. he is slotted in for 2B, so unless some other situation is considered (moving to CF, possibly or sliding back over to 3B, unlikely), Brett Lawrie will be moving out of the way when he’s ready.  I think the White Sox will take their time with Moncada, it wouldn’t shock me if we don’t see him in Bridgeport until after the all star break.  I guess we’ll see, he might bash the ball at AAA and force his way up, I dunno.  Regardless, the glut isn’t a glut for Moncada.

The Others

2B – Yolmer Sanchez

I’m not sure why Carlos Sanchez became Yolmer Sanchez in the offseason, I mean, I know why, but not sure why now?  Anywho, Sanchez is still a baby and has hit at every level at a young age except MLB.  I noted in these pages not long ago, that I thought it made sense to trade Sanchez to another org, even if all you get is some org depth.  He’s very blocked.  His best chance to stay here and be a big league regular require some, if not all, of these things to occur.  A) Brett Lawrie injury, B) Yolmer hitting the daylights out of the ball C) Yoan Moncada gets moved to CF  D) Tyler Saladino turns into a pumpkin and can no longer hit big league pitching E) Everth Cabrera goes away/is bad and is cut.  As you can see, the path to playing time is tough for Sanchez…………I guess a Todd Frazier trade could help too, but again, we are really hoping for a bunch of stuff to happen.  Even moving him back to AAA makes no sense, I mean, i guess he could play SS there, but not 2B, since Moncada will be there logging plate appearances against crafty (read crappy) old veterans that know how to spin a curveball (with or without bardol and vagasil).

SS – Everth Cabrera

Given the “depth” the White Sox already had at the position, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this move at the time.  Maybe I’m foolish to even include him here, but you don’t make a move like this without intention, when you already have the Jake Peters of the world in your system that you can plug into a middle infield spot in the upper minors.

In the end I suspect this to play out very generically with Moncada coming up and everyone else sliding out of the way without much fanfare, but since it is spring training and we still have the whole season ahead of us, its fun to wonder.

-BeefLoaf