White Sox: Is Zack Collins set to replace Jose Abreu?
By Ryan Sikes
With James McCann seemingly the future at catcher, would the White Sox could permanently moving Zack Collins to first base?
Zack Collins was supposed to be the future at catcher. The former first-round pick in the 2016 MLB Draft out of Miami put up great numbers throughout his collegiate career but it was James McCann who stole the show for theChicago White Sox. The 29-year-old was a second-round pick in the 2011 draft and came up with the Detroit Tigers but was picked up on a one-year deal prior to the 2019 season.
He slashed 0.273/0.328/0.460 with 26 doubles, 1 triple, 18 home runs, and 60 RBI in 118 games. McCann has firmly locked down the catcher position which raises two questions. What will the White Sox do with Jose Abreu and might they consider replacing him with Zack Collins? Abreu, 32, is set to become a free agent on Monday and could command approximately $15 million per year. The American League leader in RBI’s for the 2019 season signed with the White Sox after defecting from Cuba in 2013.
He’s been a terrific player for the team but it might be time for him and the team to move on. Especially, if they want to spend that money elsewhere to improve the roster. It would appear that Zack Collins would be his immediate successor, given that catcher may no longer be an option for him. Perhaps Collins has been preparing for this because he played 20 games at first for Triple-A Charlotte last year.
His offense hasn’t quite been there in the big leagues but he has just a 27-game sample to go off. Still, he slashed an unimpressive 0.186/0.307/0.349 with 3 doubles, 1 triple, 3 home runs, and 12 RBI. He played very well in Triple-A with a 0.282/0.403/0.548 line to go along with 19 home runs and 74 RBI in 88 games but the White Sox need that to transition to the big league club.
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They’ll have a difficult decision to make prior to Monday’s deadline but it might make some sense to give Zack Collins a shot at first given that 2019 first-round draft pick, Andrew Vaughn, is coming.