22 potential free-agent targets for the Sox this offseason
Welcome to Hot Stove season.The White Sox are in win-now mode after an ascendant 2020 campaign that saw them go from rebuilders to contenders. Now they’re trying to make the vault to champions.They’ve already hired their new manager, bringing in Hall-of-Fame skipper Tony La Russa. Next up? Roster upgrades.General manager Rick Hahn said the team will be on the hunt for starting pitching, a right fielder and a DH. While some of those needs might have internal solutions, the free-agent market is always a focal point.So here’s a look at 22 guys who could wind up on the White Sox radar this winter.
Bauer is the no-doubt top starting pitcher on the free-agent market, and he’s sure to have his share of suitors looking to install an ace at the top of their rotation. He just wrapped up a spectacular year with the Cincinnati Reds that has him as a favorite to win the NL Cy Young Award. With Bauer, who’s an entertaining watch both on the field and off it, the White Sox could form a championship-caliber 1-2-3 pitching punch with Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel. All three guys were among the finest arms in baseball in 2020.
Springer has been one of the most impactful hitters for the Houston Astros during their recent run of dominance in the AL. Though associated with the team’s sign-stealing scandal, that doesn’t seem likely to limit his destinations in free agency. He’s been a force in the postseason, too, and has the ability to play numerous positions in the outfield. After failing to get what they’d hoped out of Nomar Mazara in 2020, installing Springer in right field would be the kind of long-term fix the White Sox already have just about everywhere else on the diamond.
Ozuna’s a left fielder, and obviously the White Sox have that spot covered with Eloy Jiménez. But Ozuna played most of his games during the 2020 season at DH, so if the White Sox were looking to make a long-term splash at that position — and eschew promoting Andrew Vaughn to the spot in 2021 — Ozuna could indeed be an option. He had an MVP-caliber 2020 season, leading the NL in home runs and RBIs. He’ll turn 30 in a few days. The more important number? The 1.067 OPS he posted this year.
Vaughn would certainly seem to be the favorite to take over the White Sox everyday DH spot at some point in 2021. But if the team is looking for a more short-term solution, Cruz, who tormented them as a Minnesota Twin, is out there. Considering he’s so integral to that Twins lineup — and has shown no signs of slowing down his offensive barrage at age 40 — he could very well end up back in the Twin Cities. But if you can’t get ‘em out, why not sign ‘em up?
The White Sox former division foe from his lengthy tenure as a Cleveland Indian, Brantley has only played nine games in right field in his illustrious career. But he’s still swinging an excellent bat, as he showed over the last two seasons with the Astros, during which he racked up plenty of playoff experience — and playoff success. He might not be the obvious solution in right field, given his history in the other corner, but he’d be a heck of a boost — and provide one of the win-now White Sox most sought after attributes, dependability — in the lineup.
Hendriks was perhaps the best closer in baseball during the 2020 season, and despite the curious choice to have him throw a ton of pitches in Game 2 of the AL Wild Card Series, White Sox fans got to see just how electric he can be in his three-strikeout ninth inning of the deciding Game 3. Hendriks has a 1.79 ERA over the last two seasons. If the White Sox can’t maintain their bullpen status quo by bringing back Alex Colomé, Hendriks is a smashing alternative.
Hendriks is perhaps the more tantalizing option, with a little more heat to go along with his numbers, but Colomé was just about automatic in his two seasons on the South Side. Whether you like saves or not, Colomé is undoubtedly a save machine, with 138 of them since the start of the 2016 campaign. The White Sox ‘pen is deep enough to survive a Colomé departure, but it’s also better with him than it is without him, allowing guys like Aaron Bummer and Evan Marshall to stay in the roles they’ve mastered in recent seasons.
A surprising entry into the free-agent pool, the Indians let Hand go in a sign that teams are going to try to save anywhere they can this offseason after going through a season with no paying customers in the stands. Well, someone’s going to get a really good closer. Hand went to each of the last three All-Star Games and racked up 103 saves over the last four years with the San Diego Padres and Cleveland. In 2020? An AL-best 16 saves with a 2.05 ERA. Worth a look from the White Sox if they’re still looking for someone to fill the ninth-inning role.
The starting-pitching market drops off significantly after Bauer. For the White Sox, specifically, that means trying to figure out how many of the non-Bauer free agents are better options than what they already have, the trio of Dylan Cease, Dane Dunning and Michael Kopech. Those guys are hardly proven commodities, but the organization is confident they can all be something special. More or less special than Stroman? Good question. Stroman’s been an ace before and pitched some of his best ball with the Blue Jays in 2019, prompting a midseason trade to the Mets, with whom the results were not quite as good. He opted not to play in 2020.
Gausman had a nice year in San Francisco and was especially good down the stretch, with a 2.51 ERA in his final six games. It vaulted the soon-to-be-31-year-old up everyone’s free-agent rankings, and rightfully so. His track record isn’t the same as some of the other starting pitchers on the market, but he’s an intriguing option among the non-Bauer names. For the White Sox, though, that same question arises: How much better is he than Cease/Dunning/Kopech?
The idea of Odorizzi switching sides in the AL Central rivalry didn’t seem to thrill many White Sox fans a year ago. He delayed free agency by accepting the Twins’ qualifying offer last winter. After a good first half sent him to the All-Star Game in 2019, he only managed 13.2 innings in 2020 while dealing with injuries. Though he’ll face a more uncertain, if not tougher market this winter, he might be a more attractive option for teams in a thin starting-pitching aisle of the Hot Stove supermarket.
Tanaka has proven himself reliable for the New York Yankees in his seven years as a major leaguer. And he just had his finest season in a while, his 3.56 ERA his lowest since 2016. Newly 32, he’s hardly over the hill, but he’s long dealt with a partially torn UCL, a bit of a red flag. But while dealing with the uncertainty of still-developing youngsters like Cease, Dunning and Kopech, perhaps there’s an allure that comes with the reliability of a veteran like Tanaka for the win-now White Sox.
Plenty of White Sox fans would put McCann at the top of their lists, hopeful the White Sox can find a way to keep him on the South Side after two seasons spent turning his career around. First an All-Star appearance in 2019, then an even better offensive season — with some important defensive improvement, too — in 2020. Indeed, the White Sox would love to keep McCann, but he’s earned a spot at the top of a catching depth chart somewhere, and that’s something they can’t give him after signing Yasmani Grandal to the richest contract in franchise history last winter.
Not as productive as Cruz but a more established DH possibility than Vaughn, Santana has long plagued the White Sox with the Indians. His numbers fell off a cliff in 2020, with just a .199 batting average and eight home runs. But he still found a way to contribute, leading the AL with 47 walks. Santana is probably not the most attractive option, given that 2020 production, but he’s an established slugger with an incredible track record of durability.
Pederson lands here mostly because he’s been tied to the White Sox in rumors in past offseasons. But it’s difficult to say he’d be able to solve the right-field situation all by himself. The left-handed swinger has had tremendous success against right-handed pitching in his career but hardly any against lefties, making him a platoon player. That’s totally fine, but the White Sox might not have the ideal complement. Mazara and Adam Engel’s splits have leaned in a similar direction. Still, Pederson is now a World Series champion with a ton of playoff experience.
If you like the idea of a ninth-inning defensive alignment of Engel, Luis Robert and the famously gifted glove of Bradley Jr., then this signing would be right up your alley. Bradley Jr. quietly put up some of the better offensive numbers of his career during the shortened 2020 season, with career highs in batting average and on-base percentage for an abysmal Boston Red Sox team. A long-term solution in right? Probably not. But the White Sox could certainly do worse looking for a new option in the outfield.
The fine folks over at MLB Trade Rumors had The Big Maple landing on the South Side in their annual free-agency predictions. That’s undoubtedly a move that comes with a good deal of risk, though, as Paxton hasn’t had much luck staying healthy in his career, averaging 142 innings from 2016 to 2019. He made just five starts in 2020. All those injuries mean something like a one-year, prove-it deal could be in order, and that would obviously lessen the risk for the White Sox, though their win-now state would seemingly indicate a lower number of dice rolls and a higher number of reliable signings. Still, when Paxton’s been healthy, he’s been excellent, and the rewards of a low-risk deal could be top-of-the-rotation type production.
Happ, an Illinois native and Northwestern University product, is 38 years old. But you can't argue with the production, and only once over the last six seasons has he had an ERA above 4.00. Happ's managed to stay pretty healthy, too, with at least 30 starts in four of the last five full seasons. He got back on track in 2020, following up the 4.91 ERA he had in 2019 with a 3.47 mark over nine starts for the Yankees. Remember, with so much uncertainty behind Giolito and Keuchel, it's reliability the White Sox seek as they try for a championship in 2021. Happ could certainly fit that bill.
Walker’s only 28 years old, which should excite teams. But he’s also logged just 67.1 innings since the beginning of the 2018 season. That’s not a lot. He pitched with both the Seattle Mariners and the Blue Jays this year, making 11 starts to the tune of a 2.70 ERA. Indeed, when Walker’s been healthy, he’s been good, with a 3.28 ERA in the last four seasons. Is that appealing enough for the White Sox? It depends what the price tag looks like.
Yes, the White Sox will need starting-pitching depth. No one is suggesting this far down the list of starting-pitching options that these guys are candidates to slide into the top-of-the-rotation spots alongside Giolito and Keuchel. But considering the White Sox are looking at championship expectations with 60 percent of their rotation generally unproven, some fliers might need to be taken to provide options in case of emergency. So why not the guy who dominated them for so many years with the Indians? The 34-year-old two-time Cy Young winner pitched just one inning with the Texas Rangers this season. But if health returns, so might some of Kluber’s old magic, which wouldn’t be a bad thing to have in the cupboard.
A 37-year-old doesn’t exactly scream “rush out and get him.” But Morton had a sensational pair of seasons in 2018 and 2019 for the Astros and Tampa Bay Rays. After finishing third in the AL Cy Young vote just last year, his ERA shot up well north of 4.00 this season. But he could provide the kind of depth the White Sox are always interested in, especially in a low-risk signing.
Chalk one up to familiarity. Quintana went from the White Sox to the Cubs in one of the rebuild-bolstering deals, the same one that brought Cease to the South Side as a potential member of the rotation of the future. With Cease and several other young pitchers still figuring out what part they’ll play for these White Sox, maybe a Quintana reunion achieves the goal of building some rotation depth. He hardly pitched in 2020 thanks to a dishwashing injury. The year prior, he had a nightmarish September that spoiled what was a sub-4.00 ERA at the close of August.
