Chicago White Sox: Five bold predictions for 2019 season
No. 5: The White Sox finish with a 72-90 record, have three All-Stars
Last season’s 62-100 record was disappointing, regardless of the White Sox expectations. This season, while the White Sox aren’t quite at a .500-level roster yet, I think we’ll see at least a ten-win improvement.
As for the on-field play, the White Sox number of all-stars will increase from just Abreu last season, to three this season. Those all-stars will be Alex Colome, Yoan Moncada, and Eloy Jimenez.
Colome was acquired from the Seattle Mariners this offseason. A former All-Star closer, Colome will return to the closing role for the White Sox this season. He’s shown no signs of regression and should feed off of the White Sox easy April schedule, and weak competition in the AL Central. The save opportunities should be abundant, giving Colome a great opportunity to cash in.
I already discussed why I think Moncada will improve. This one is more of a combination of Moncada’s obvious projected improvement, and a weak group of third basemen in the American League. Houston’s Alex Bregman and Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez are the only players that you can lock in to produce better than Moncada. I think Moncada will be the third baseman on the American League All-Star roster.
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Finally, here’s the wild card here. In order to be really considered, Jimenez will have to put up big numbers in his debut months. He’ll be at about a 20 game disadvantage due to his call-up date, but I think Jimenez will produce regardless. The outfield is always the most competitive pool when it comes to the All-Star game, but Jimenez is a special talent and has as good of a chance as anybody to be right up there with the best players in the sport in July. Pending his call-up date, Jimenez is my third and final pick to be an All-Star from this White Sox team.