James McCann has been one of the surprises for the White Sox this year and Friday’s game added more success to his breakout season.
McCann had hits in each of his first two at-bats, including a two-out two-RBI double in the third inning.
After a 2-for-3 night, McCann is hitting .343. He doesn’t have enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title, but he would be second. Players need 3.1 plate appearances per team game to qualify and he’s about 40 shy. Rays outfielder Austin Meadows leads the AL at .345.
McCann, who turns 29 in less than a week, is well above his previous career highs in batting average (.264), on-base percentage (.318) and slugging (.415). After reaching base three times in Friday’s 6-4 loss to the Royals with a single, a double and a walk, his slash line is .343/.386/.510. McCann isn’t just producing a career season so far, he is blowing away his previous four full seasons in the majors.
As the White Sox are making a push for McCann to make the All-Star Game, his stats do line up with the best catchers in the AL, but he definitely has some strong competition. Mitch Garver of the Twins and Gary Sanchez of the Yankees are ahead of McCann in OPS and Robinson Chirinos of the Astros is right there with McCann. It won’t be an easy case for McCann to get the nod to Cleveland.
Regardless, the White Sox appear to have found a solid catcher from an unexpected source. As the White Sox continue to bring prospects through the minors and to the big league club, catcher has remained somewhat of a question mark. Zack Collins was a first-round pick in 2016 and has an .883 OPS for Triple-A Charlotte, but there are questions about his ability to stick behind the plate defensively. Seby Zavala is another catching prospect in Triple-A, who even saw some time with the big league club in late May, but he struck out in seven of his nine plate appearances with the White Sox and is hitting just .231 for Charlotte. McCann appears to be giving the White Sox another option for catcher going forward.
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