Is Kevin Pillar the White Sox Right Fielder?
The reports we have so far are that if Kevin Pillar makes the roster, his contract is worth $3M. It has not yet been reported if there is an opt out at some date if he isn’t added to the 40 or 26 man roster, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that were included. This is a pretty typical non-roster invitee minor league deal for a veteran, so why write a blog about it? Well, to me, this is going to be interesting to see how this regime handles a player like Pillar.
Strengths and Weaknesses
If you quickly jumped to your favorite site for stats when you saw this signing, you probably looked and went “meh”. And rightfully so, since Pillar has only played in 85 games over the past 2 seasons and in his last full-ish season in 2021, he played 124 games for the Mets with a .692 OPS heavily propelled by 15 HR and not so much by his .277 OBP. You may have also looked at some defensive metrics and again had the same feeling as he’s bounced between -2 DRS and +2 DRS over the past 4 years.
But let’s look just a layer deeper. Pillar has pretty positive splits against left handed pitching. For his career, his OPS against LHP is .769 and last year it was a respectable .734. Additionally, one of his assets in the field is his arm strength and his routes. In a small outfield in Sox Park, that’s valuable. And just seeing that he takes good routes to the ball makes me breathe a little easier, because I gotta watch that up close every home game. He can also play CF reasonably well, making him the best current option (that isn’t an automatic out) to back up Luis Robert.
There is utility in a player like this. He’s a good player to have on your team.
How will the White Sox use him?
This, to me, is the most important question. At the start of this off-season, with Jason Heyward available on the free agent market, many Sox fans including myself dismissed him because we were not confident the White Sox would properly use him in a platoon. When a player like that is not put in a position to be successful, especially older players where we have a good idea of who they are, they are typically not successful. It’s like using a tesla to pull a semi trailer, sure it can be done, but it’s certainly not optimal.
BeefLoaf and I recently discussed the bullpen and how Brian Bannister is assembling something different than what we’ve previously seen. This is similar, in Chris Getz going out and getting a guy he played with who he knows can do a few specific things well. If Pillar is used mainly against LHP, a defensive replacement in RF in late innings, and Luis Robert’s back up, he can be effective. However, if he’s your every day right fielder, he probably won’t perform very well and it’s questionable if he’ll be able to endure that much playing time. His usage falls on the shoulders of Pedro Grifol, much like the bullpen usage. Or does it?
This single move might give us the best insight into who is making the lineups, who is providing the tactics in late innings, and maybe even why Pedro was kept around. We’ve seen a full year of Pedro lineup cards. If Kevin Pillar is successfully used as a platoon and defensive replacement OF in 2024, who would you think is filling out the lineup card each day?
-Chorizy-E
We will be live at Ramova Loft on Opening Day Eve 3/27/2024 at 7pm with our friends over at Sox Machine. Get your tickets at the link below:
About The Author
chorizy
Section 108 Row 13, Bassist for Barren Plains, Acclaimed drunkard