Standing just off to the side of teammates gathered around the television in the White Sox clubhouse watching a World Cup match, Jose Abreu revealed that he was rooting for France in the soccer tournament.
“I’ve been rooting for them since 1998 when they won the World Cup,” Abreu said via a team interpreter a few hours before the Sox were scheduled to face the Twins on Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field. “My favorite player is (Zinedine) Zidane.”
That begged the question: Has Abreu visited France?
“No, I haven’t,” the first baseman said. “But I’ve made a promise to my wife to bring her to France and to go to the Eiffel Tower.”
Before Abreu eventually makes the long trek across the pond it appears he will make another stop: The MLB All-Star Game next month in Washington D.C. The league released the latest fan balloting figures Tuesday and Abreu had increased his lead in the voting for American League first basemen and with more than 1 million votes, Abreu had a sizable lead over the Astros’ Yuli Gurriel.
If Abreu is voted into the game, he would be the first Sox player to be fan-selected as a starter since Frank Thomas in 1996.
That kind of national recognition is important to Abreu, a soft-spoken veteran who quietly goes about his business of being one of baseball’s top sluggers and perhaps Chicago’s most under-the-radar star.
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“I welcome that recognition and I respect all the fans that have voted for me,” Abreu said. “Even though I don’t think about that...I appreciate (it). My focus is just to get better, to get my offense to the point where I can feel comfortable with it. I’m not at that point right now but I’m working to it.”
Indeed, Abreu was enduring his most difficult stretch of the season at the plate entering Tuesday’s game. In his previous eight games, Abreu was hitting .152 to see his season average drop from .301 to .272.
The 31-year-old Abreu said the key to snapping out of the slump is to “keep doing my routine.”
“Right now, it’s just a matter of swinging at more pitches in the strike zone,” Abreu added. “That’s something I’m not doing consistently … throughout this month and that’s probably the reason my offense is not as good as it was last month. Fixing that is going to make everything OK.”
When everything does start going OK, Abreu said he will continue trying to achieve the surprising goal he set in spring training: Steal more bases. Abreu had one stolen base this season entering Tuesday and has a career-high of three, set in both 2014 and ’17.
“It has been kind of a difficult season for us and it’s a little bit reckless for me to get on base and try to steal a base if it’s not beneficial for the team,” Abreu said. “I worked hard for that during the offseason and we’ll see if in the second half I can steal more bases. The desire is there and the goal is there.”