Should Chris Getz have done more about the bench?

Last weekend, Scott Merkin dropped the tweet below:

Not the most impactful thing, but a lot of White Sox Twitter had fun with it and as expected this week, Oscar Colas was sent to Charlotte. But the tweet did turn my attention to the fact that Chris Getz has done very little to fill the role of back up first basemen and/or bench bat that can hit righties proficiently.

Right now, I think we’d all assume that this role is going to Gavin Sheets. Sheets only needs to outlast Mike Moustakas, who at 35 is cruising through Spring Training with a .285 OPS. The problem is that Gavin Sheets, about to turn 28, has had over 900 big league plate appearances and has only a .690 OPS to show for that and just last year when facing RHP, only a .630 OPS. Look, I am rooting for Gavin Sheets, he seems like a nice guy and he’s hit some home runs for the Sox. But why not really force him to make the team? He still has a minor league option, so it’s not even like you’d have to get rid of him.

You may be saying to yourself “who cares? it’s just a bench bat.” To that I’d say, this is the kind of thing that led to the first rebuild. Rick Hahn could not fill in the pieces around Chris Sale, Jose Abreu, Adam Eaton, and Jose Quintana. Chris Getz not only has to acquire or develop stars not named Luis Robert, he also needs to be able to fill in the all the spots and depth around those stars. No better time than now to learn how to do that.

And this isn’t some impossible task like me asking him to sign Blake Snell. Even now, there are guys who would fit this role. Brandon Belt is still out there and while some thought he’d retire, he’s saying he wants to play. J.D. Davis also just became available and while right handed, hits right handed pitching better than Sheets. Of course, coming into the off-season, there were many other options. At the end of the day, there should have been more done for a roster spot that will get 300+ PAs in 2024.

-Chorizy-E

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