Designated hitter situation likely bottomed out for White Sox in 2020

Edwin Encarnacion

When you look at the 2019 numbers for the White Sox, it's clear that designated hitter was a huge weakness for their offense. Luminaries such as Yonder Alonso, AJ Reed and Matt Skole combined to post an ugly .205/.285/.356 slash line with 17 home runs and 75 RBIs over the course of the 162-game season.

Obviously, designated hitter is a bat-only position, so there is no baseball universe where a .641 OPS is acceptable at that spot.

Last offseason, Sox general manager Rick Hahn correctly identified this weakness and signed Edwin Encarnacion to fill the void. On paper, there was nothing wrong with that decision. Encarnacion had 414 career home runs coming into the 2020 season, and from 2012 to 2019, he had hit 32 or more home runs every year.

And while Encarnacion was entering his age-37 season, he was hardly a liability in 2019 as a 36-year-old. He hit 34 home runs, drove in 86 runs and posted an .875 OPS in 109 games.

Sure, there was one warning sign: In his final six playoff games of 2019 with the New York Yankees, Encarnacion went 1 for 22 with 11 strikeouts, no doubt contributing to the Yankees being eliminated by the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series.

Still, you could have argued that slumps happen, and perhaps Encarnacion had simply gone in a funk at the wrong time. The body of work suggested that he would easily clear the low bar set by White Sox designated hitters in 2019.

So, Hahn signed Encarnacion to a one-year, $12 million deal, with a club option for 2021 -- also for $12 million.

Umm, that option will not be picked up in probably the easiest decision Hahn faces this offseason. That's because Encarnacion somehow managed to lower an already low bar for Sox DHs. While he did hit 10 home runs in 44 games in 2020, his final season slash line was a terrible .157/.250/.377.

Encarnacion's strikeout rate jumped from 21.2% to 29.8%, and whenever a man produces only 19 RBIs while being allowed to hit fourth or fifth in the batting order all season, well, that's what Steve Stone would call a "dismal" year. 

If you include all players who served as DH this season, the Sox's slash line at the position finished at .148/.238/.350. Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it did, and clearly, Encarnacion was the main culprit. 

It would be revisionist history to criticize the signing of Encarnacion, which seemed reasonable at the time. Furthermore, there is no buyout of his option, so the club can cut ties for nothing this offseason.

But here's where I will criticize the Sox: By about the halfway point of the 60-game season, it was apparent that Encarnacion had little or no bat speed left. Of his 10 home runs, only one came on a pitch of 93 mph or greater. Even casual observers could see that he couldn't handle high velocity anymore, but Sox brass lived in denial, claimed otherwise and continued to trot him out there game after game.

By the time the playoffs rolled around, it was clear that Encarnacion was not useful, and too many at-bats had been wasted on him. Could Zack Collins have helped the Sox in the playoffs as a DH? How about Andrew Vaughn, the top hitting prospect in the organization? 

We'll never know, because the Sox did not give many meaningful at-bats to Collins this season, and Vaughn spent all of his time at the team's alternate training site in Schaumburg.

Would it have killed the Sox to call up either Collins or Vaughn for the last two weeks of the regular season, give them some playing time and find out whether they were more useful than Encarnacion? I don't believe so, and I wish they would have done that. 

One of the key problems with the Sox is their insistence on sticking with struggling veterans for too long -- especially hitters. If a veteran hitter isn't setting a reasonable floor at a particular spot, what does it hurt to try a higher-ceiling young player at the position?

All Collins or Vaughn would have had to do is hit .180, and the spot would have been upgraded. There comes a time to find out what you have with certain players.

It sounds as though Vaughn will inherit Encarnacion's roster spot next season. He's a first baseman, so he and Jose Abreu will probably work in some sort of time share between first base and DH. You'd like to think those two players will combine for better than a .588 OPS, which is what the Sox got from their DHs in 2020.

White Sox option Daniel Palka to Charlotte, claim AJ Reed off waivers

AJ Reed

Catching up on some roster comings and goings before the White Sox return from the All-Star break:

After Sunday's 3-1 victory over the Cubs, the Sox optioned outfielder Daniel Palka to Triple-A Charlotte. Palka, 27, made 10 plate appearances in his latest stint on the South Side and went 0 for 10.

His line for the season is ugly. He's 1 for 45 in 52 plate appearances with 18 strikeouts. His slash line now stands at .022/.154/.022.

It's hard to believe Palka was the feel-good story of the 2018 season, when he led the Sox with 27 home runs. This season, he's not going to get 27 hits at the big-league level, let alone 27 home runs, even if he gets recalled when rosters expand in September.

And at this point, it's fair to ask whether that will happen. We may have seen the last of Palka in a Sox uniform.

At the time of Palka's demotion, the Sox said they would make a corresponding roster move before Friday night's game against the Oakland Athletics. With injured veteran catcher Welington Castillo on a rehab assignment, I was assuming he would be the one added to the 25-man roster.

Turns out, the Sox claimed left-handed hitting first baseman AJ Reed off waivers from the Houston Astros. He is expected to be on the roster Friday night.

Reed, 26, once was ranked among the top 15 prospects in the game, but he's never been able to hit major league pitching. Over parts of three seasons with the Astros, he's hitting .153/.253/.244 with three home runs, three doubles, eight RBIs and 50 strikeouts in 150 career plate appearances.

He had a decent season at the Triple-A level last year, where he made the All-Star game and hit .255/.374/.540 with 28 home runs and 108 RBIs in 123 games.

However, Reed has fallen on hard times this season -- he's hitting only .224 with 12 home runs and 35 RBIs in 56 games at Triple-A Round Rock. Numbers such as those can cause you to fall off a 40-man roster. Now the Sox are taking a flyer on Reed, and this may be his last kick at the can to stick in the major leagues.

This probably means the DH at-bats against right-handed pitching will belong to Reed, not Zack Collins. This guess here is Collins goes back to Triple-A Charlotte, maybe as soon as this weekend, whenever Castillo is activated.

Collins has had limited at-bats since the Sox called him up, but he's done little with those opportunities. He walked in his first plate appearance and hit a 3-run homer in his second, but he is now hitless in his 25 plate appearances since -- although he has drawn five walks.

Still, the .045/.222/.182 slash line is hard to excuse, and it seems reasonable to say Collins could use some more time in Charlotte. He'll likely be headed there soon.