5 things that went wrong for the 2022 Chicago White Sox
By Tim Healey
3. Roster Construction
The Chicago White Sox simply didn’t have a good enough roster this year.
Tony La Russa didn’t put together the roster. Rick Hahn did. Yes, rumors suggest La Russa may have had more influence in the process than Hahn would like – same for Kenny Williams – but whether that’s true or not, the Sox roster had holes to fill going into 2022 and the team fell short.
Josh Harrison and A.J. Pollock should have probably been players off the bench. Yet Harrison played 119 games, and Pollock appeared in 138.
Some of this was injury-related, of course. And again, the fact that Leury Garcia played so much is the manager’s fault. But Hahn never got a solid starter for right field or second base.
The presence of Abreu at first base and the lack of a solid right fielder meant that young hitters Andrew Vaughn and Gavin Sheets – both of whom are first basemen – had to play right field. Both, predictably, struggled defensively.
Had the Sox had a reliable starting right fielder with pop in his bat along with a healthy Eloy Jimenez, Abreu could’ve DH’d and Vaughn/Sheets could’ve platooned at first.
If Eloy is better suited to DH, as some believe, he could’ve played there with Pollock in left, Abreu at first, and Vaughn and Sheets coming off the bench to pinch hit.
There were other problems with the roster construction. Some things made sense on paper – such as trading for Jake Diekman – but the moves simply missed.
Finally, this is a roster that emphasizes power-hitting and pitching as ways to overcome poor defense and baserunning. But the Sox had no answer, due to a lack of roster balance when the power went out and the bullpen didn’t play well.
A contending team should be able to adjust its approach when strengths fail to overcome weaknesses and/or injuries happen. The Sox had no such ability.
The problem for 2023 is that the roster won’t be easy to fix. For example, the Sox face a difficult decision with the future of Jose Abreu. And they are stuck with some contracts for at least one more year.