2020 record - 35-25, 3rd place in AL Central
Key Addition - Liam Hendriks
The rebuilding days are over on South Side of Chicago and their aggressive pursuit of free agent closer Hendriks speaks to that. They gave the Australian a mammoth 3 year $54m contact this offseason to help address their need for a lights out closer after Alex Colome left, also through free agency.
The exciting, young White Sox team expect to contend again this year and they expect their new closer Hendriks to have plenty of high leverage outings in 2021.
Hendriks has been one of the best closers in baseball in the last 2 years (39 saves, 13.1 K/9), since he earned the role in Oakland, even earning MVP and Cy Young votes last time around.
Interestingly, it was Hendriks who struck out the side to knock the White Sox out of the playoffs last year. The South Siders will be hoping that he can do the same, only for them, this season.
We think he has another big season, and saves 35 games with an ERA around 3.50.
Just missed out - Lance Lynn, Adam Eaton
Key Departure - Alex Colome
This was a difficult one because we don't think that the White Sox have made any subtractions to their team which they haven't already replaced to either an equal or higher standard.
As noted above, Alex Colome was excellent in his 2 years as Chicago's closer; saving 42 games to a 2.27 ERA. But they brought in Liam Hendriks.
They lost catcher James McCann to free agency but have Yasmani Grandal set at their primary catcher and brought in Jonathan Lucroy as a non-roster invitee as backup. They've also got the in-house option of Zack Collins who can fill this role and/or DH.
They traded away the promising SP Dane Dunning to Texas, but received the veteran resurgent Lance Lynn in return.
So although the White Sox have lost some good players, they can feel confident that their team is in a better position to win than they were last season.
Just missed out - James McCann, Dane Dunning
Notable rookie cards - Nick Madrigal, Dane Dunning, Codi Heuer
The White Sox have 3 rookies in the Topps 2021 Series 1 set this year, including Dunning who has since been traded to the Rangers but appears in his old White Sox uniform.
Nick Madrigal, number 40 on this years top 100 prospect list by MLB Pipeline, looks set to begin the season as Chicago's starting 2nd baseman. He got off to a great start in 2020 when he played in 29 games, hitting .340. While his defence and baserunning might require some polish, he appears more than ready to make 2B his own for many years to come.
Pitcher Codi Heuer also made a really positive impression in his debut season last year. Chicago's 5th top prospect in 2020 pitched out of the bullpen in 21 games last time around. His 9.5 K/9, 0.887 WHIP and stunning 295 ERA+ dazzled White Sox fans in 2020.
He will likely start the season in middle relief, but if he can continue his 2020 form into 2021 then he'll be finding himself in more and more higher leverage situations.
Predicted 2021 Team MVP - Jose Abreu
How could we not pick the current AL MVP Jose Abreu for this?
Over his 7 year career with the White Sox, Abreu has been under-rated outside of Chicago. He's won Rookie of the Year, been a 3 time All-Star, 3 time Silver Slugger and averages nearly 40 home runs over a full 162 game season.
He won the AL MVP last year after leading the league in hits, RBI, total bases and slugging %. There is no reason to think that he can't produce similar results leading the White Sox in 2021.
That's not to say that there aren't plenty of other potential candidates though. Tim Anderson, Eloy Jimenez, Yoan Moncada & Luis Robert all have the potential to be their team MVP. But we couldn't overlook Abreu for this one.
Player to watch for the future - Andrew Vaughn
Andrew Vaughn is the 14th overall top prospect according to MLB Pipeline. The 1st baseman played his first professional season in 2019 and quickly moved up the ranks from rookie ball, to A ball and finally to high A ball in Winston-Salem. While the minor league season was cancelled in 2020, Vaughn made the most of his time at the alternative training site where minor leaguers could train in a team bubble.
We expect to see Vaughn called up to the big league sometime this season, where he'll likely get most of his reps at 1st and DH but possibly at 3rd or the outfield too.
His raw power and bat control will make him a fan favourite on the South Side.
Storyline to keep an eye on - Will old school Tony La Russa be a good fit with Chicago's new school players?
When the White Sox brought in Tony La Russa to be their manager, they gave him his first managerial post in 10 years, 42 years after they first appointed him manager in 1979.
La Russa finished with a managerial record just over .500 in his first stint with the White Sox but it was in Oakland and St Louis where his managerial pedigree was formed. He reached the postseason 13 times in 26 seasons with the A's and Cardinals, winning the World Series 3 times.
La Russa, who got off to an awful start after being charged for his second DUI the day before being hired, is known for his old school methods so we don't expect to see to many defensive shifts or openers on the South Side of Chicago this year.
But the biggest question is how will La Russa's approach mesh with the young, free spirited superstars on the White Sox? Players like Tim Anderson have fun with the game; just take a look at his glorious batflip from 2019. Anderson has said that he "won't change" under his new manager and we really hope that he and his teammates don't. We really don't want to see another situation similar to when Fernando Tatis Jr apologised for hitting a grand slam.
Prediction for 2021 - 2nd in the AL Central
The White Sox have a great mix of veterans and exciting young players, and we expect them to take the AL Central title right down to the wire but ultimately come up just short. We think that they still comfortably make the playoffs as a wildcard team though.
Lance Lynn and Liam Hendriks are great additions, and the young core of Anderson, Jimenez, Moncada & Robert will make the White Sox a really fun team to watch this year and many years to come.
We predict that they'll be a force to be reckoned with this season and we can't imagine many other teams wanting to face them in the postseason.
Do you agree with our predictions? Or have we got them horribly wrong?
Let us know in the comments or on twitter.
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