Chris Getz’ Initial Defense

The White Sox off-season is off to a moderate start, I might even categorize it as fast, given the circumstances. New GM, New White Sox? I dunno about that, but in the early going Getz has sent Tim Anderson and Liam Hendriks on to new addresses. He traded Aaron Bummer, which was a hot topic of conversation. He signed a past his prime glove only middle infielder in Paul DeJong. Most recently has signed a KBO MVP in Erick Fedde and traded, basically nothing for catcher Max Stassi. That’s a lot of stuff for a guy who hasn’t reached his half birthday on the job.

But what’s really interesting is that Getz expressed to you and me and all of White Sox nation that his first order of business would be to improve the defense and he has done exactly that. Weird to take some at their word and have them deliver (at least in our neck of the woods). Let’s see what that looks like and approximately how much that is worth.

The 2023 White Sox Defense was BAAAAADDDD!!!

Well, not that kinda BAD, but you get the point. It was horrific. It was especially challenged in the positions where he’s started the off-season loading up, Shortstop, Second Base and Catcher. Let’s have a quick look.

There’s the innings and Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) by player. Using the age old equivalent of 10 Runs = a Win in the Pythagorean Theorem, I also calculate a Win Equivalent (Win Eq) right next to it. Suffice to say, Second Base held serve, but the Catchers and Shortstops (namely Yasmani Grandal and TA) cost them approximately 2.5 wins with just their defensive performance. That’s gross.

What about the NEW Guys?

Eliminating those players is half the battle, which has been successful to this point. Adding in players that won’t go back to combat the problem is the next task. Much like Kimo in Stand and Deliver, we gotta fill the hole.

Below is my estimation of DRS with the new parts. Innings played and DRS calcs are mine. For the incumbents, I used roughly their values from last year based on their innings played. When reviewing the lightly used toys that Chris Getz has brought in, DeJong, Nicky Lopez and Stassi, I used the last 3 years of DRS and created a rate for their innings played, then hair cut that by 20% (aka 80% of the last 3 years value) assuming they’ll all decline some but won’t fully fall off the table. YMMV on a calculation like this, but I wanted to evaluate using hard numbers even if they are likely to be wrong.

As you can see, the group went from -2.5 Win Eq to +1.0 Win Eq, a 3.5 game swing. That’s right, this conservative (in my mind) estimate of the talent acquired should create a 3.5 win bump with their gloves alone. That’s pretty impressive for how little this group costs both in dollars and acquisition capital (Bummer). There is of course one more frontier for Getz to tackle in adding easy wins to the roster.

Don’t Forget About Right Field

Oof was Right Field bad. And all of the negative contributors are basically still here in some shape or form so they are a risk to continue this horrendous trend. Getz’ next big chore (even before trading Dylan Cease, in my mind) is to add a Right Fielder, hopefully one that can not only hit enough to make us care, but to not embarrass themselves like this collection. FILL THE HOLE! Even bringing this back up to mediocre is worth 1.5 to 2 wins meaning the defensive improvements could yield 5 plus wins of value year over year. Wild that just cleaning up messes can improve you that much.

Anything Else?

Yes, the first question on everyone’s mind that is paying attention closely is that the DeJong, Lopez, Stassi trio doesn’t fucking hit! Won’t that hurt the White Sox. Possibly, although those positions didn’t hit much last year, so it has less downside risk than you might think. That’s not a good thing, but when you gotta turn around a 101 loss team, it’s something.

The next thing I hear / see out on the socials is “This isn’t a long-term strategy!!!”. I get the criticisms there, because none of these guys are likely to be mainstays (well maybe the unsigned Right Fielder) on this roster. I think the important approach here is that Getz learn to shop the bottom of the market, something his predecessors were horrendous at. It is also important that Getz understand how to solve roster problems as they arrive, again, another Hahnian shortcoming to remedy. Lastly, this type of short term fix will at least provide a pallet with which to evaluate everyone else more accurately as the bottom of the roster shouldn’t be so dire.

-BeefLoaf