Chicago White Sox: Can their youth handle all the upcoming hype?

The Chicago White Sox appear to be a team on the rise in the American League Central, given all their young, promising talent. That is of course, if they can block out all the fan-fair noise.

While the Chicago White Sox might still be a year or two away from making a serious playoff push, there is plenty of young talent on their roster and inside their minor-league system that can make an immediate impact this season and beyond.

Starting with the players on their roster: Yoan Moncada, Carlos Rodon, Lucas Giolito, and Tim Anderson to name a few, are still very promising players who have yet to scratch the surface in figuring out how good they can be in a major league uniform. All four of these players were hyped as highly regarded prospects before hitting the majors, and while they’ve struggled at times during their brief careers, they’ve also displayed flashes of brilliance.

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Flame-throwing starting pitcher, Michael Kopech, while he won’t pitch a single inning in 2019 due to recovering from Tommy John surgery, showed plenty of promise during his brief time in the majors last season. He’s expected to be ready to pitch again in 2020, and the elite velocity, movement, and deception of his pitches will all likely still be there, awaiting fearful opposing batters.

Two of the top minor-league prospects in baseball, Eloy Jimenez and pitcher Dylan Cease, have displayed immense ability since joining the White Sox farm system in 2017. Both players may soon get called up to the majors given their recent success. The Chicago Cubs’ front office is likely dreading to this day, parting ways with them for Jose Quintana.

Even with all the up-and-coming talent, there is still no guarantee that all or even some of these prospects and young players will pan out as pros. For players like Moncada, Rodon, and Giolito, their recent growing pains in the majors serve as a clear warning sign that having sustainable success is far from a sure thing just because they’ve been hyped up throughout the minors.

All of the players mentioned above have all-star level talent, no doubt. But having talent is only one part of the equation that every major-league player has to solve in order to be successful. The mental side of playing baseball is where the real challenge lies.

Having elite physical talent to hit a baseball 400-plus feet, along with throwing 100 miles-per-hour with ease on the radar gun is nice. But if you don’t have the mental makeup to withstand the pressure that comes with being a highly regarded prospect, along with having to deal with a passionate fan-base that is starving for their beloved team to become a World Series contender once more, then this game will eat away even the best prospects to come around.

The White Sox organization can look no further than at their North Side rivals for this cautionary tale. A few years back, the Chicago Cubs were in the midst of a rebuild. Like the White Sox are beginning to experience now, the Cubs had a bunch of young, talented players come up from their farm-system, ultimately playing key roles in bringing a championship back to Chicago.

While that’s all the White Sox want to see happen to them as well in the near future, the cautionary tale is that players like Addison Russell and Kyle Schwarber, while they’ve at times shown flashes of brilliance as members of the Cubs, simply haven’t lived up to the buildup in hype that surrounded them since they starred in the 2016 World Series.

Schwarber, Russell, and Ian Happ were all once top prospects at their respective positions who just haven’t been able to put it all together in the majors to this point. Injuries can obviously play a contributing factor in stunting a player’s growth, but over the past few seasons, all three of these players have been relatively healthy. It’s the mental side that has likely hampered their growth as of late.

Being able to handle signs of adversity effectively is what makes or breaks a player’s career, in any sport. How one handles and responds to added pressure is key. Some players, because they’ve been the most talented growing up, haven’t had to deal with the constant pressure that originates from having to prove yourself against others that represent equal or greater competition until they reach the majors.

If the White Sox want to become World Series contenders, they’ll need their younger players to not get all caught up in the hype that naturally comes with being immensely talented.

Don’t let the first signs of adversity affect your level of play. Furthermore, don’t let the non-stop praise from fans and the media get into your head, making you feel conceded, to the point where players feel they can continue playing at a high level without putting in the daily work to make necessary adjustments.

If the young players can consistently follow these guidelines, the White Sox may be a lot closer to playing winning baseball than originally anticipated.