Chicago White Sox: Team declines option on Geovany Soto
By Eric Brown
After an injury plagued 2017 season, the Chicago White Sox announced on Thursday that they will decline their option on catcher, Geovany Soto.
When Geovany Soto signed with the Los Angeles Angels for the 2016 season, maybe he knew deep down in his heart that he was making a mistake. Chicago was his home, after all, the Chicago Cubs drafted him in 2001 at the age of 18. He has played all but 3 seasons of his professional career in the windy city, 5 years with the Cubs, and 2 with the White Sox.
After spending the aforementioned 2016 season in LA, Soto made the decision to come to his second home one more time. He signed with the Chicago White Sox for the second time in 3 years, on a 1 year guaranteed contract for $2 million, with a team option for the second year.
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Dan Hayes of NBC Sports Chicago tweeted that the second year of the contract was worth $3.5 million with a $250k buyout clause. Instead of paying over 3 million for a 35 year old veteran catcher, the White Sox decided to part ways.
It is unclear if Soto retires, but the fact that he will be turning 35 over the winter does not bode well for his hopes of a new contract. Along with his rising age, production is another factor that will possibly halt some team from giving Soto a contract. Geovany has not had a 300 at bat season since his last full season with the Chicago Cubs back in 2011.
The move of not picking up the contract of a catcher is some worrisome news for any White Sox fans out there. The departure of Soto means that the team will likely go with some combination of Kevan Smith, and Omar Narvaez at the backstop position in 2018.
Both are good enough to start for the White Sox, who are rebuilding. Given Kevan Smith’s age of 30, it looks as if Narvaez will be the teams main catcher next season.
Of all the problems that the Chicago White Sox have, catcher is the least to worry about. The catcher position is usually a teams weakest batter, and the Sox have plenty of weak batters at other positions that greatly need upgrades.
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Maybe they will finally spend some money on pitching this offseason. What do you think the release of Soto means for the White Sox? Have they finally committed to the rebuild?