Chicago White Sox: Early takeaways from Spring Training

We’re only a few days into Spring Training, but here are a few, early takeaways for the Chicago White Sox.

Although the Chicago White Sox are not that far removed from missing out on Manny Machado, as they say in Hollywood, the show must go on — and baseball stops for no man.

So it was no surprise that the Sox took the field on February 23rd as scheduled to face the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland Athletics in their split-squad Spring Training opener.

Again, we’re not too far into spring festivities in general, but what, if anything, can we glean from just a few days of otherwise meaningless Spring Training games?

Well, there are a few things worth noting following the first weekend of formal games and we break them down below.

A pleasant surprise

Again, it’s important to approach the Spring with extreme caution. Players, and particularly pitchers, are working on various things, as well as conditioning their arms for a long season. Needless to say, some hitters may not be getting an opposing pitcher’s “A-level” stuff. So while results may need to be taken with a grain of salt, it is always better to get off to a hot start than a slow one.

Such is the case for outfielder Blake Rutherford. You may remember Rutherford was the player the New York Yankees sent to the White Sox in exchange for Todd Frazier, David Robertson, and Tommy Kahnle.  In 2018 Rutherford had a fine season with the Winston-Salem Dash, hitting .293 with seven home runs, 78 RBIs, and 15 steals.

Against the Dodgers, he went 1-2. The following day, he faced the San Diego Padres and stayed hot, going 3-4 with an RBI. Getting off to that kind of a start will certainly earn him a greater look and it will be interesting to see how he responds.

Early injuries

The Sox got some unfortunate news when one of their young prospects, outfielder Luis Basabe suffered a broken hand and will be sidelined for 12 weeks. Though he was likely going to start the season in Double-A, these swings and reps in Spring Training can be invaluable for a young player — so it’s a shame he’ll miss them.

In addition, Chicago’s surprise rookie last year, Daniel Palka, left yesterday’s game against the Padres with an apparent hamstring injury. However, he later indicated it was more of a dehydration cramp than a hamstring injury, which would be good news, as hamstring injuries can linger.

Palka is looking to build off his very good rookie campaign in which he clubbed 27 home runs, drove in 67 runs and scored another 56. Look for Palka to return very soon if that is, in fact, the case.