Out of the 20 teams who failed to reach the postseason in 2019, it’s easy to argue the two teams who made the biggest offseason improvements were the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds.

The White Sox, who last reached the postseason in 2008 and haven’t had a winning season since 2012, made three notable acquisitions. At catcher, Chicago added former Brewer Yasmani Grandal. Since 2015, he’s posted the most fWAR amongst catchers and ranks third for OPS. Second, they added Edwin Encarnacion who should provide a huge power boost to their lineup. Encarnacion, who has notched 30 homers every season since 2012, was acquired to improve an underwhelming Chicago offense that finished 2019 ranked 24th in OPS and 25th in homers. Meanwhile, their rotation was bolstered with 2015 Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel. While the former Astro has never quite regained his 2015 form, his successive four seasons have produced a perfectly solid 3.77 ERA.

(You can discuss this on BSL Board here.)

Over in Cincinnati, the Reds are looking to return to the postseason for the first time since 2013 with a pair of key signings from their NL Central rivals: former Brewer Mike Moustakas and former Cub Nicholas Castellanos. Moustakas, who provided a very solid .824 OPS in his one and a half years as a Brewer, was signed to play second base after playing 47 of his 139 games in the field there last year. Castellanos only spent 51 games as a Cub after a deadline trade with the Tigers, but he made his time at Wrigley count with 21 doubles and 16 homers, producing a 1.002 OPS.

So, with each team having played nine games as of Sunday night, how are they doing?

In Chicago, the White Sox are 5-4, with an offense that’s doing much better than its pitching. Top prospect Luis Robert has wasted no time demonstrating why his expectations were so high, delivering a .979 OPS thanks to three doubles and a pair of homers. Robert is joined by Eloy Jimenez, who has an even better .997 OPS. The 23-year-old acquired in a trade with the crosstown Chicago Cubs for Jose Quintana has provided the White Sox with two doubles and two homers in seven games. Contributions from others like Tim Anderson and Yoan Moncada have helped give the team a .797 OPS, which trails only the New York Yankees in the American League. What makes this production especially impressive is almost none of it has from Encarnacion. The slugger has gone yard only once and is off to a slow start, with a .519 OPS. If Encarnacion starts walking the parrot more often the rest of this season, Chicago’s offense could be the best in baseball.

When your offense is one of the best in baseball but you’re only one game above .500, there have to be some pitching struggles. The White Sox rank 24th in the league with a 5.13 ERA and are one of eight teams with a team ERA currently sitting above 5.00. The only starter who has had a successful start to the year is the new guy, Dallas Keuchel. He’s been the winning pitcher for each of his first two starts, providing a 3.38 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP.

Most of the damage to Chicago’s pitching came from the opening series against the Twins, where Minnesota bludgeoned the White Sox for ten runs on July 24 and 14 runs on July 26. While they held Minnesota to just three runs on July 25, it still identified a major concern for Chicago: if you can’t slow down the best team in your division, you don’t have much of a chance to win it.

16.7 percent of Chicago’s schedule will be against Minnesota’s Bomba Squad, an increase from the typical 12 percent against an opponent in your division. This points to a larger issue with a 60-game schedule with 40 games in the division: there’s less margin for error. The increased frequency of meetings between the Twins and White Sox this year could give Chicago a chance to gain ground on the AL Central favorite or have their remaining meetings prove their pitching staff can’t handle the big bats of people like Nelson Cruz. The 16-team playoffs mean the White Sox gave a great chance to make the postseason, but the remaining seven clashes with Minnesota will require better pitching if they want to win the AL Central.

Over in Cincinnati, the Reds find themselves already chasing the 7-2 Cubs for first place, sitting at 4-5. While there are early concerns with Cincy, the offseason acquisition of Castellanos hasn’t been one of them. He’s gotten off to a scorching start to the season with a 1.343 OPS and seven extra base hits in his first nine games while leading his team with 11 RBIs. While Castellanos has been clobbering the ball, Eugenio Suarez has been doing the opposite. After delivering 49 homers and a .930 OPS last season, he’s failed to provide a long ball this year and has an OPS below .400. This is another case of just how important the 60-game season is: a slow start from last year’s best slugger becomes much meaningful when he’s already completed 15 percent of his season.

Suarez’s slow start is not nearly as concerning of an issue compared to Cincinnati’s bullpen. The Reds started the season dropping two-of-three at home against the Tigers thanks to runs allowed late in both losses. Six strong innings from Luis Castillo went to waste after the bullpen allowed five runs in three innings on July 25, while July 26 saw the Reds lose thanks to a ninth-inning homer allowed by Michael Lorenzen. Lorenzen has struggled in his three appearances so far this season, dealing with a massive 16.88 ERA in 2.2 innings. While it seems highly likely he won’t finish the season with a double-digit ERA, it’s still concerning to see a normally reliable reliever struggle through his first three outings, especially when he’s allowed a homer during each of them.

While this early season has been a mixed bag for both of these teams, there’s also the chance that the season won’t last much longer. We’ve already seen the coronavirus issues from the Miami Marlins, there have also been multiple cases from the St. Louis Cardinals, who suspended their weekend series with the Milwaukee Brewers. As of now, the season is still trying to go on as planned, but there’s still the everpresent chance we could find ourselves waiting until 2021 to really see the impact of the moves by the Reds and White Sox.

Rose Katz
Rose Katz

BSL Analyst

Rose Katz is a recent graduate of the University of Maryland’s journalism school, where she worked for The Diamondback as the online managing editor and a sports blogger. As a student, she spent almost all of her time on campus in The Diamondback’s newsroom or at Xfinity Center, Ludwig Field and Maryland Stadium. Rose gained intern experience with the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN).

X