Braden Montgomery and the Outfield Chaos

Braden Montgomery and the Outfield Chaos sounds like a band me and BeefLoaf woulda stumbled into see at Kingston Mines at 2am, before heading to La Bamba for some questionable late night food. However, that is obviously not the case here. Instead, the White Sox may have FINALLY found their right fielder. White Sox fans could not be any happier as seen last night:

The outfield chaos we discussed at the beginning of Spring Training seems to have provided us with a good outfield by June. But the chaos continues on.

Versus Left Handers

The chaos produced an over-performing Tristan Peters and a guy who just started playing the position in Sam Antonacci. Both have been major contributors to the team and I expect them to be in Center and Left every night against RHP. But neither have been very good against lefties. With Montgomery up and right handed bench bats, I would expect to see a little more of a platoon for Antonacci. He may DH in some of those games in favor of Derek Hill and Luisangel Acuña for defensive purposes. I would prefer something like this as I don’t want to relegate him to a platoon player so early in his career. But the Sox are also trying to win a division. Man, it feels weird to say that.

The Return of Everson

To add to the chaos, Everson Pereira is playing rehab games, so his return is imminent. This brings some roster chaos with it, because you’ve run out of spots on the 26. And the guys you would consider to get pushed off are all out of options. Now, I can already here yous screaming from the back of the room that it should be Acuña, I don’t agree. I did earlier in the year when I thought he might clear waivers and you’d have some optionality. But now, he’ll get claimed. And he is valuable to a contending team, which the Sox are. His ability to play 2 of the toughest positions on the field combined with his plus speed and baserunning make him the type of guy we’d probably need to trade for if he wasn’t here.

Trading is always a possibility, but there’s not much there and it’s too far from the deadline. I know there is a thought to sell Peters while his stock is high, but it’s not that high. I doubt you’d get much for him, so it’s better to ride out whatever this is and see if it’s for real. Maybe you can get a call on Randy G, but that would happen in late July, not now.

So I think you land on letting Derek Hill hit waivers. I don’t think he’ll get through, but it’s your best option. But what makes all of this more chaotic, is that you have to do this to bring back Pereira who is certainly not a sure thing to stay on the field.

Outfield Chaos Has Delivered

Look, these are good problems to have. What looked terrifying at the start of Spring Training has become a strength of the team. I’m looking forward to what this group, especially Montgomery, can produce and for my guy Everson to come back, so I can continue to Ride The Snake.

-Chorizy-E