The ideal White Sox lineup for 2025
Time to go with the flow of fandom
In the entertainment industry, whether on stage or on a screen, you often hear of people, especially members of minority groups, saying they wish they could see more people who look like them. Bear that in mind, and also bear in mind that spectator sports are first and foremost entertainment, as we consider options for the structure of the White Sox for 2025 and probably several years after that.
First, an important parameter for this team structure recommendation
This piece will deal only with position players, because it does look like the White Sox may have a sound foundation on the pitching side. Youngsters like Jonathan Cannon, Drew Thorpe, Davis Martin and Sean Burke have have shown some success at the major league level, and a host of others, led by Noah Schultz, look ready enough to put on the roster next season. Even without Garrett Crochet the pitching should be at least adequate, and ready to improve.
But, position players? Yikes.
Option 1: Go with what the we have
OK, you can stop laughing or crying or gagging or beating your head against the refrigerator door now. This is just tossed out there for humor purposes.
Instead, let’s get rid of all we the non-rookie or second-year position players we possibly can.
Luis Robert Jr. has been on the trading block and should garner a good return, even selling low after his terrible 2024. Andrew Vaughn and Gavin Sheets ought to bring something in the way of low minors semi-talent. Even Andrew Benintendi would bring a small return if the Sox eat enough of his salary (might be as much as 90%, but at least that saves 10%).
Any such players who can’t be traded? DFA ’em.
What then? Option 2: Youth
The Sox have plenty of first- and second-year players on the major league roster. Only thing is, they’re not much good.
Some, like Dominic Fletcher and Jacob Amaya, are excellent defenders but couldn’t hit a piñata. Others, like Lenyn Sosa and Oscar Colás, show occasional flashes of adequacy at the plate, but can’t catch a can (don’t fret if you don’t get that pun — readers in Alaska are howling with laughter right now — but feel free to add “of corn” if you prefer an old baseball reference). Not a one looks to be valuable in both tops and bottoms of innings.
As for the minors, other than catch Edgar Quero, there’s shortstop Colson Montgomery, and, well ... Colson Montgomery. Even Montgomery’s stock has cratered with a really bad 2024 in Charlotte. He’s hitting really well in the Arizona Fall League, but that could just be the level of pitching, Also, he’s played more third base than shortstop back in Arizona, which is in line with some prospect evaluators who say he’s really a third baseman.
Of course, the next position prospect in line is Bryan Ramos, who is also a third baseman. Whoops. There’s no rule against playing two third basemen, of course, but it’s generally not a successful strategy. Plus it would be confusing when you give an E5 because you wouldn’t know which 5.
As for other position players who haven’t yet made an appearance with the Sox, there’s Tim Elko for first base, and in the outfield there are, uh, hmm, and, uh, well ...
Anyhow going with the available youth might pay off by 2029 or so, but it’s not too hot an idea for the period before then.
Back to the first premise: players who look like us
Now we have a winner, if not on the field, at least in the hearts of fans.
Looking like us in this case deals not with race or ethnicity or such, but with another -ism — ageism.
The average age of baseball fans is 57 and rising, up from 50 at the turn of this century. But do we geezers get to see fellow geriatrics on the field? We do not.
How do we solve this? Easy. We keep all the youngsters in the minors, where the can try to actually learn their jobs. A few might even pick up a skill or two. Then, we go with not a youth movement, but a fogey movement.
It’s tempting to say just drag old Sox stars out of retirement, but they’d probably resist. And if not, they might be a tad susceptible to injury. But there’s a better way to let the aged spectators enjoy seeing people like themselves out there.
Huh?
This method won’t quite get the average age of players to match that of fans, but it’s a really good try.
What the Sox need to do is go to the list of free agents, and then sign the oldest one at each position. OK, it can’t be the best old one, because Jerry Reinsdorf wouldn’t pay for anyone good and they wouldn’t come to the Sox anyway, so let us limit our quest to those who don’t even score as half a major league starter, that is, only those with an fWAR of 1.0 or lower.
Fortunately, MLB.com has provided us with a handy list, including age next season, and you’ll see that many the Sox could end up with were once extremely good. By position:
Catcher
We’ve established we’re keeping the young catchers to grow with the young pitchers, so we’ll skip this one. Besides, the pick would be Martín Maldonado, and we’ve seen enough of good ole Martín.
First base
No Christian Walker, Pete Alonso or Carlos Santana for us, no sirreee. Instead we sign Yuli Gurriel, 2025 season age 41, and a -0.5 WAR this year. Gurriel may have slipped a bit, but he led the league in hitting with a .319 average as recently as 2021.
Second base
Forget about Gleyber Torres or Brandon Lowe, we go for Joey Wendle. He’ll only be 35, but he’ll have to do, and his -1.0 WAR and 42 OPS+ will fit right in.
Third base
Alex Bregman or Eugenio Suarez? Nah. Jace Peterson, soon 35, fWAR an even 0.0. Sure, he’s only a lifetime 80 OPS+ hitter, but he had a positive dWAR as recently as 2022, so he’s bound to be an upgrade to the White Sox infield (yeah, yeah, negative dWAR almost every other year, but we have to gather our hopes where we may).
Shortstop
Let others covet Willy Adames or Ha-Seong Kim, our parameters call for Brandon Crawford, 38 and even carrying a positive fWAR at 0.5. Crawford was an All-Star as recently as 2021, when he was fourth in NL MVP voting. There’s been a bit of a slide lately, but anybody can have a few bad years.
Left field
Say no to Tyler O’Neill, Jurickson Profar and Mark Canha, and instead make an offer to David Peralta, 37 and sporting a 0.2 fWAR (0.8 bWAR, though). Peralta is actually pretty good, as he showed in the playoffs, so may be too expensive for Reinsdorf. In that case, we may have to slide to Adam Duvall, 36, who hit .182 this year.
Center field
No Cody Bellinger for us — too young and spry, not to mention expensive. Instead, our parameters turn up an ironic result — Kevin Pillar, 36, 0.8 fWAR and with the Sox to start 2024 after being signed as a free agent. Twice in two years? Why not? Pillar had 0.0 dWAR in his short time in Chicago, which grades him as a better fielder than almost everybody else. on the team.
Right field
This is a tough one. Naturally, the Sox won’t be uselessly pursuing Juan Soto or Anthony Santander or Teoscar Hernandez, but the only alternatives listed by MLB.com who are short of 1.0 fWAR are Hunter Renfroe and Mitch Haniger, but not only are both younger than 35, but there are options involved. Given Haniger’s horrible year in Seattle, hitting .208, he may well not opt out, and if he does his pre-2024 record may encourage competition for his services. Could be we have to go back to the left field list and try for Robbie Grossman (35, -0.2 fWAR) instead. Grossman did have a 75 OPS+ in his short time on the South Side this year, so, an upgrade.
Designated hitter
Easy choice here — Matt Carpenter is 39 and produced -0.6 fWAR this year while hitting .234. Carpenter was an All-Star many times in the past decade or two, albeit not since 2016, so he has been good in the past. And he played for Tony La Russa for a few games in 2011, so Reinsdorf will definitely want him.
THERE YOU HAVE IT! THE PERFECT 2025 WHITE SOX TEAM!!
Not for actually playing baseball, of course. But being relatable to the average fan — you couldn’t do better.