With a flurry of moves, White Sox positioned to contend in AL Central
With the Winter Meetings over and the offseason at the midway point, here is a look at how one of the Indians rivals in the AL Central have fared:
CHICAGO WHITE SOX
Last season: 73-89, fourth
Indians vs. White Sox last two years: 27-11 including 10-9 last year.
What they've accomplished
The White Sox had plenty of needs going into the offseason and have accomplished nearly all of them.
The bullpen has been strengthened with the additions of Zach Duke and David Robertson via free agency. According to STATS LLC, the White Sox had the seventh highest rate of inherited runners score at 31.8 percent. In 74 appearances last year, the left-hander was 5-1 with a 2.45 ERA and allowed only 8 of 41 inherited runners to score. Robertson will be the closer after getting 44 saves for the Yankees last season.
Chicago might have one of the more formidable top half of the rotations in the American League after getting Jeff Samardzjia in a trade with Oakland. Samardzija made the NL All-Star team last season before being traded by the Cubs to the Athletics. Chris Sale, who finished third in AL Cy Young voting, will anchor the rotation followed by Samardzjia and Carlos Quintana.
In terms of the lineup, the White Sox have signed first baseman/designated hitter Adam LaRoche and outfielder Melky Cabrera. LaRoche and Jose Abreu can alternate at first base and DH while Cabrera would bat second behind Adam Eaton. LaRoche hit 25 home runs last season and Cabrera batted .301.
What remains
Expect general manager Rick Hahn to continue to look for ways to upgrade the bullpen while possibly tweaking the bench. For the most part though their major moves are done.
The manager's view
Robin Ventura on the offseason moves: "I think last year at this time it was a bit different. There would have been no way to do it last year. But you start making steps where you make a trade. And there are pieces in there that you improve over the course of the year. Even though it's not what we would have liked, we obviously wanted to win more games (last season). But you start looking at the pieces that are there and things that can help you and guys that come up through the minor leagues are pieces that you can use to go get somebody."
Early view
Many are going to pick the White Sox as the darkhorse team in the division. The Indians will see them nine times before Memorial Day but can ill afford to struggle against the White Sox early like they did last year. In the first 10 meetings last season, Chicago won seven of them.
