The White Sox are reportedly interested in Bryce Harper, and so White Sox fans are already planning for one of the game's elite talents to be patrolling right field at Guaranteed Rate Field for the foreseeable future.
But, as hard as it might be, forget about Harper for a moment and look at the White Sox as they stand.
There was a belief at this time last year that the White Sox might have been able to be a pleasant surprise from a win-loss perspective during the 2018 season. And that obviously did not end up being the case. They lost 100 games in what general manager Rick Hahn dubbed “the toughest part of the rebuild,” while the organization waited for many of its highly touted prospects to develop in the minor leagues. Hopes of everything going right, prospects arriving early, everyone staying healthy and the White Sox making a run at a playoff spot were dashed in emphatic fashion.
That waiting game isn’t over, as Michael Kopech became the only one of the organization's highest-rated prospects to reach the majors in 2018 — only to require Tommy John surgery after just four starts. For the time being, the roster looks very much the same, with many of the young players at the big league level going through their own developmental growing pains. And a large number of those much-ballyhooed prospects suffered significant injuries last season, significant enough to throw the entire timeline of this rebuilding process into question.
Yes, there will be offseason additions. They might or might not include Harper, as being interested in one of the game's best players and being able to convince him to sign on the dotted line are two very different things. The White Sox sure seem to have a willingness to spend and spend big, but that opportunity to make a huge splash might not come, in which case the offseason additions could be helpful but not quite as impactful on the long-term status of the franchise. That kind of move might have to wait another offseason.
So what does 2019 hold? Will the White Sox be better next year? Let’s let Hahn answer that one.
“We would expect it at this stage,” Hahn said last week at the GM Meetings in Southern California. “Having a full year of — knock on wood — a healthy (Jose) Abreu and having Welington (Castillo)'s offensive contribution hopefully for a full year, Carlos Rodon for a full year. Those should all be, from strictly a lineup standpoint, things that we should see improvements from.
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“You add in Eloy (Jimenez) likely spending the bulk of the season, if not all of the season in Chicago, that's going to be an upgrade for us as well. Having (Tim Anderson), (Yoan) Moncada continue their development, (Lucas) Giolito, (Reynaldo) Lopez, continuing their development, those are all reasons to believe that there should be reasonable improvement. That's even before we start augmenting the roster with guys who obviously we're bringing because we think they're going to make us stronger.
“I do think it's reasonable to enter next year, even before we're making any of these additions with expectations that there's going to be a step forward.”
Time alone would make that seem to be a fair assessment. While White Sox fans might have been a bit frightened by Giolito’s high ERA and Moncada’s near-record number of strikeouts, Hahn and the White Sox still have the utmost confidence that these young players can reach their high ceilings. Getting more experience for Rodon, Giolito, Lopez, Moncada and Anderson — all planned to be key contributors for this team for a long time — should make them and therefore the team better.
Abreu, the team’s most reliable hitter, was bothered by two freak injuries and an uncharacteristic slump last season. And Rodon didn’t start his season until June while recovering from shoulder surgery. The same can be said for Avisail Garcia, who was bothered by a knee injury from Opening Day on, though Hahn did not include him in that list of players above. A report Tuesday indicated the White Sox are trying to trade Garcia and presented the thought that they might not even tender him a contract if no trade materializes.
But the most impactful reasoning Hahn gave was the arrival of more of these prospects to the South Side. Jimenez is the main example, as he’s expected to be called up early in the campaign. He’s one of the top three prospects in baseball, and that kind of addition can only be a positive one to the White Sox lineup. But he shouldn’t be the only prospect to make his White Sox debut in 2019, as Dylan Cease could be on a track similar to the one Kopech was on last season. Zack Burdi, the potential closer of the future, could arrive, too, after spending the last year-plus recovering from Tommy John surgery.
And then there are those offseason additions. Even if they don't include Harper, expect to see two new starting pitchers fill the holes in the rotation and a new face or two out in the bullpen. Those units can only get better after the rotation led baseball in walks last season and the bullpen ranked 25th out of 30 teams in ERA.
See, it was even difficult for this writer to forget about Harper long, as he's mentioned in here multiple times. But the point is that even if the White Sox don't make an earth-shattering addition this winter, they still expect to be better, which can only come as good news to those who sat through the 100-loss campaign in 2018. Will we once again be talking about a surprise playoff appearance in spring training? That's doubtful. But even without a huge move like signing Harper, the rebuilding plan is still firmly on the track.