Grading the 2022 White Sox position players

This is the first of two installments in which I’ll be looking back and evaluating all of the players that had a significant role as members of the 2022 White Sox. These grades are more art than science due to the subjective nature of how much expectations for a player should affect their grade. My goal is to balance actual player performance against their expectations and probable role (both short-term and long-term) entering the season.

Per usual, I consider an average grade to be someplace on the C/C+ borderline. ‘A’ is the top grade on the scale, and ‘F’ is the lowest.

My typical cutoff of 100 plate appearances works out nicely this year, as the closest-without-going-over would be Lenyn Sosa‘s 36, so we’re not excluding anyone who had close to a significant role. In ascending order of plate appearances…

Danny Mendick (INF): 106 PA, .289/.343/.443, 3 HR, 21.7% K, 6.6% BB, 125 wRC+, 0.8 fWAR, 0.5 bWAR

You’d be forgiven if you forgot Danny Mendick was a part of this team given all the drama that's unfolded since he last played for it. Mendick filled in for an injured Tim Anderson in June and did what he usually does: produce in a limited stint of exposure. To Danny's credit, however, this was the longest string of success he's had in the major leagues. Unfortunately, because the 2022 White Sox can't have nice things, Mendick collided with Adam Haseley on June 22, tearing his ACL and saddling the White Sox with way too much Leury Garcia. Advanced metrics don't think much of Mendick's breakout was "real", but it wasn't supposed to end this way. Grade: B

Romy Gonzalez (UTIL): 109 PA, .238/.257/.352, 2 HR, 35.8% K, 1.8% BB, 69 wRC+, -0.1 fWAR, -0.4 bWAR

That ended badly. Gonzalez went 4-for-5 in a laugher against Oakland on September 9 to raise his line to .333/.356/.500. Despite a clutch hit the following day, this feel-good surprise didn't have staying power. Gonzalez hit just .122/.140/.184 with 24 strikeouts in 50 plate appearances the rest of the way, and didn't draw a walk after his fifth game with the team (Aug 26). Gonzalez arguably had more to play for than any other member of the White Sox during the season's garbage time, but his free-swinging ways sabotaged his inside track at a roster spot next season. Grade: D-

Reese McGuire (C): 166 PA, .225/.261/.285, 0 HR, 19.9% K, 3.6% BB, 54 wRC+, 0.4 fWAR

The Sox signed McGuire to be a light-hitting backup who could control the running game and frame pitches well, and they got exactly what they paid for. McGuire cut down 11 of 36 baserunners trying to steal, which is impressive given how poor White Sox pitchers are at holding runners. He’ll be a forgettable piece of White Sox history, but we’ll always be able to appreciate him as the man who saved us from more Zack Collins. Grade: C+

Jake Burger ("3B"): 183 PA, .250/.302/.458, 8 HR, 30.6% K, 5.5% BB, 113 wRC+, -0.1 bWAR, 0.3 fWAR

I was shocked to learn that despite Burger's penchant for game-winning hits and an overall above-average batting line, he still wound up with a Win Probability Added (WPA) that was slightly negative. Still, he was one of the only White Sox hitters to have great success hitting at Guaranteed Rate Field (.313/.361/.596). Perhaps he just happened to face more lefties at home, because 43 plate appearances against lefties (1.039 OPS) masked plenty of struggles against righties (.663 OPS). Further, he was baseball's worst third baseman with at least 100 chances, logging a -5% Success Rate Added. Even if only one of Jose Abreu or Andrew Vaughn is on next year's roster, this simply isn't a skill set the team needs right now. One wonders whether he’d have more value mashing lefties elsewhere. Grade: D

Elvis Andrus (SS): 191 PA, .271/.309/.464, 9 HR, 15.7% K, 4.7% BB, 119 wRC+, 1.7 bWAR, 2.0 fWAR

The White Sox had zero serious options at shortstop in mid-August, so picking up a league-average shortstop who miraculously became available after the trade deadline registered at about a 10 on the no-brainer scale. Competence from Andrus was expected, but no one could have predicted that he’d become the driving force behind the White Sox’ last gasp at contention. Andrus hit a staggering .317/.359/.520 through the infamous first game of the Guardians series on September 20. He trailed off after that, but as Andrus was a rental player and the season was essentially over, nobody should care. His performance here was nothing short of heroic, and it's a shame he didn't get more help. Grade: A

Seby Zavala (C): 205 PA, .270/.347/.382, 2 HR, 31.2% K, 9.3% BB, 111 wRC+, 1.9 fWAR

After what we’ve seen from Zavala in past seasons, this type of performance came as a complete surprise. A .404 BABIP and a mere .283 xwOBA means that it’d be a mistake to assume the Sox suddenly have an above-average catcher on their hands, but Zavala registered just a .219 xwOBA last season, so this was a dramatic improvement. Seby was a plus framer behind the plate and less of a disastrous blocker than he was a season ago, so the full picture is of a guy who took a step forward in virtually every facet of the game besides power. He was good enough that the Sox felt comfortable trading away Reese McGuire at the trade deadline, who had done nothing to wear out his welcome. The grade is tempered by how much of this doesn't seem sustainable, but Zavala seems entrenched on the 26-man roster now, which was inconceivable at the beginning of the season. Grade: B+

Adam Engel (OF): 260 PA, .224/.269/.310, 2 HR, 29.2% K, 4.2% BB, 63 wRC+, 0.1 bWAR, -0.2 fWAR

That went south fast. One wonders whether the mysterious leg ailments affecting half the roster also took their toll on Engel, because he was a step slower in the outfield and was a less-obvious part of the team-wide power outage. Engel will be 31 next season and regardless of the underlying reason, he simply didn't have enough going for him to be able to afford a year like this. I wouldn't be shocked if Engel found his legs elsewhere next season and produced as a quality bench guy again, but with the Sox cutting costs and Engel yet again arb-eligible, this feels like the end of the line for his White Sox career. Grade: F

Leury Garcia (UTIL): 315 PA, .210/.233/.267, 3 HR, 20.6% K, 2.2% BB, 39 wRC+, -1.0 bWAR, -1.1 fWAR

That went south fast. The year after Garcia delivered arguably the biggest plate appearance for the franchise in 16 years, the superutility player delivered a season far from super and without much utility. You wouldn't know it from the way Tony La Russa used him, however. Garcia's name found itself penciled into the lineup far too often (even sometimes in the top three slots!) despite spending most of the year trying to remind fans what it was like when pitchers were asked to hit. Fortunately, Miguel Cairo put an end to the madness and anchored Garcia to the bench after taking over. If La Russa had more sense, Garcia's lost season might not have been much of a talking point, and we’d associate him more with his huge homer against the Astros and how good he's been for a guy who came over in an Alex Rios salary dump.

Oh well. Just two years, $11 million to go. Grade: F

Eloy Jimenez (OF): 327 PA, .295/.358/.500, 16 HR, 22.0% K, 8.6% BB, 144 wRC+, 1.7 bWAR, 1.7 fWAR

During the prospect-watching years, Jimenez always felt like he was going to be the best pure hitter of the Sox’ crop of young talent, and he may have finally arrived. Injuries and uninspired performance defined him during 2021 and the first half of 2022, but he went on a tear after returning from the IL in early July. Jimenez hit .352/.429/.568 through the unofficial end of the season in that September 20 Cleveland game. He mostly served as a DH (exclusively so after August 26), which raises the question of just how often we’ll see him in the outfield going forward. Even if the Sox decide to permanently take his glove away, the arrow is finally pointing up once again. Grade B+

Tim Anderson (SS): 351 PA, .301/.339/.395, 6 HR, 15.7% K, 4.0% BB, 110 wRC+, 1.3 bWAR, 2.0 fWAR

It took a few years, but the BABIP gods finally noticed what Tim Anderson had been getting away with right under their noses. Feeling mocked, they held him down to a mere mortal .347 in 2022. Anderson was able to fight back by dropping his strikeout rate, but injuries ultimately prevented what could have been his best season yet. He was hitting .356/.393/.503 on May 29 when he frighteningly hurt himself making a throw to first from the outfield. Although he returned after missing only a few weeks with a groin strain, he wasn't the same the rest of the way, hitting just .249/.287/.290 with only one home run in his final 178 plate appearances. The slump was bad enough that when he succumbed to what wound up being a season-ending hand injury in August, it didn't feel like a crippling blow (other than the pre-Andrus fear of more Leury Garcia exposure).

The final line shows Anderson was still an above-average player when healthy, but as the guy who had been the unquestioned spark plug and emotional leader of the White Sox, Anderson's presence — production or otherwise — just wasn't the same after May. Grade: C-

Yasmani Grandal (C): 376 PA, .202/.301/.269, 5 HR, 21.0% K, 12.0% BB, 68 wRC+, -0.4 fWAR

Add Grandal to the pile of guys whose ability evaporated in 2022 due to leg problems. After being baseball's best hitting catcher in 2021, nothing about Grandal's 2022 season made much sense. He posted an isolated power (ISO) pretty close to the likes of Leury Garcia and Reese McGuire. The Sox, who seemed to have no grasp of how to handle injuries or use the IL this season, forced a clearly-hurt Grandal to go up there and take hapless plate appearances for half the season. Finally, when Grandal actually did go on the IL and had to take a rehab assignment, he absolutely murdered the ball. He clubbed three home runs in his rehab stint, including this healthy-looking 407-foot blast, only for the power and hard contact to disappear upon re-emerging in the major leagues. A healthy Grandal would be a serious boon to the 2023 White Sox, and the Sox have to figure out how to get him right. Grade: F

Luis Robert (OF): 401 PA, .284/.319/.426, 12 HR, 19.2% K, 4.2% BB, 111 wRC+, 2.1 bWAR, 2.1 fWAR

As poorly as the Sox handled Grandal in 2022, their management of Luis Robert was worse. First, there was the groin strain in April, which didn't land Robert on the injured list but kept him out of action for eight days. Then, there was his scary bout of lightheadedness in July, which started on July 15 but didn't result in an IL stint until July 22. Then, Robert strained his wrist in August and again remained on the roster for eight days without starting a game. Five days later, he was playing but appeared barely able to swing a bat. After that, he remained on the roster for another 28 days, starting only six games, logging only 23 plate appearances, recording only one base hit, and looking nothing like himself. When not incapacitated, Robert was good; he even somehow led the team in Win Probability Added, so he had plenty of clutch moments. Still, he hit well below his potential and didn't play his usual elite defense in the outfield. If he gets healthy, he still could be a superstar, which means the Sox can't make a habit of handling him like this. Grade: C+

Gavin Sheets (1B/OF): 410 PA, .241/.295/.411, 15 HR, 21.0% K, 6.6% BB, 100 wRC+, 0.1 bWAR, -0.4 fWAR

Sheets backloaded his production in 2022, hitting .263/.310/.458 after returning from Charlotte in late June. Still, as a bat-only platoon player, this is underwhelming stuff. A positive development is that he did improve as an outfielder during the year, but he's still not close to average in a corner. Amusingly, 14 of his 15 home runs came at Guaranteed Rate Field, and more predictably, all 15 of them came against right-handed pitching. The Sox are so righty-heavy as it stands that one could see a niche for Sheets next season, but that's more of a bug to be fixed than a feature. Grade: D-

Josh Harrison (2B/3B): 425 PA, .256/.317/.370, 7 HR, 16.7% K, 4.9% BB, 98 wRC+, 1.6 bWAR, 1.4 fWAR

Harrison was hitting .172/.255/.263 through May, so that final slash line rates as something of a triumph. He was a net positive offensively over the season's final four months and played good defense throughout, often filling in for Yoan Moncada or playing when Tony La Russa gave Leury Garcia a rare day off. The overall season line was more or less in line with expectations, but because the Sox made such a low-upside play at second base, there was virtually no chance of Harrison putting together a season that could compensate for shortcomings elsewhere. When assessing the 2022 White Sox, Harrison was definitively Not The Problem, but that's about the best you could hope for from a signing like this. Grade: C+

Yoan Moncada (3B): 433 PA, .212/.273/.353, 12 HR, 26.3% K, 7.4% BB, 76 wRC+, 1.0 bWAR, 0.9 fWAR

The criticisms of 2021 Yoan Moncada never really hit home for me, because that guy was a good player. Now, we see what true disappointment looks like. There's a pretty good chance that lingering leg issues are partially to blame (forgive the familiar refrain). After missing the first month of the season with an oblique strain, quad injuries limited his playing time and effectiveness until he eventually went on the IL with a hamstring strain. After returning, Moncada was better the rest of the way, but only to the tune of a .663 OPS. Following a 2021 season in which Moncada had surprising success against breaking pitches, they once again reverted to being his Kryptonite, and he didn't punish fastballs with anywhere near enough authority to compensate. If you want signs of hope, the defense was still good, and plenty of other hitters across the White Sox roster looked like the Monstars stole their talent, so there is some possibility that an improved conditioning program could get Moncada to produce again. Grade: D–

A.J. Pollock (OF): 527 PA, .245/.292/.389, 14 HR, 18.6% K, 6.1% BB, 92 wRC+, 0.6 bWAR, 0.5 fWAR

When the Sox traded for Pollock, the thought was that they had acquired a bat who would produce when healthy but might not be healthy all that often. They got the opposite of that. Pollock had only a brief stint on the injured list and spent most of the season looking like a shark against lefties (.935 OPS) and a minnow against righties (.593 OPS). La Russa's failure to notice that trend led to fishy lineup decisions that made some waves among the fanbase. His player option for 2023 is worth an ocean of cash, so the Sox are on the hook for it. The sole ray of hope is that Pollock will skate back to his perch as a cold-blooded power hitter, but if he continues to flounder against righties, the Sox might have to cut bait. Grade: D

Andrew Vaughn (1B/DH): 555 PA, .271/.321/.429, 17 HR, 17.3% K, 5.6% BB, 113 wRC+, -0.2 bWAR, -0.4 fWAR

Vaughn took a real step forward at the plate in 2022, but you wouldn't know it from looking at the WAR totals. He was *by far* the worst outfielder in the major leagues in 2022. We can forgive Vaughn for that because he didn't belong there, but not White Sox management for giving him 79 starts in the pasture.

Vaughn dramatically improved against right-handed pitching; he hit 16 of his 17 homers off righties and no longer has the splits of a platoon player. However, he still hits grounders too often and doesn't pull the ball enough. The hope is that taking his focus away from playing the outfield can allow him to concentrate more on his hitting, because the Sox haven't given Vaughn the opportunity to be himself yet. Grade: D+

José Abreu (1B): 679 PA, .304/.378/.446, 15 HR, 16.2% K, 9.1% BB, 137 wRC+, 4.2 bWAR, 3.9 fWAR

Ol’ Reliable was the Sox’ most productive player in 2022, though that production took an unfamiliar shape. Abreu posted the lowest strikeout rate and second-highest walk rate of his career, but the change appeared to come at the expense of power. The .446 slugging percentage is the lowest he's ever posted, but the improved on-base skills still pushed 2022 into the upper half of Abreu seasons. In a year defined by injuries, José was the one guy who stayed in the lineup and kept himself healthy. If this is the end of the road for Abreu's White Sox career, it's been a hell of a ride. Grade: A

(Photo by David Banks/USA TODAY Sports)