 |
| Travis Ishikawa |
Adam LaRoche hasn't officially announced his retirement yet, but we'll go ahead and assume he's played his last game with the White Sox.
What impact will this have on the roster moving forward?
For starters, it likely means a full-time role for recently signed outfielder
Austin Jackson. The best guess here is Jackson is the center fielder,
Adam Eaton moves to left field and
Melky Cabrera replaces LaRoche as the primary DH. Here's the current projected starting nine, assuming
Jimmy Rollins makes the club -- and we have no reason to believe he won't:
C:
Alex Avila
1B:
Jose Abreu
2B:
Brett Lawrie
SS: Rollins
3B:
Todd Frazier
LF: Eaton
CF: Jackson
RF:
Avisail Garcia
DH: Cabrera
The four bench spots? Well, I think I have a good idea on three of them:
C:
Dioner Navarro
IF:
Tyler Saladino
OF:
J.B. Shuck
UT: ???????????
With LaRoche out of the mix, the battle is on for the 13th and final position player spot on the roster. The Sox are now without an obvious choice for backup first baseman. Traditionally, they've had Abreu DH once or twice a week for the sake of keeping him healthy over the course of a long season. I would expect that trend to continue, but who plays first base on those days?
Frazier has 83 games of MLB experience at first base, and Avila has 24. Those two are options. Or, will the Sox consider bringing
Travis Ishikawa north with the team? Ishikawa is mostly a first baseman, although he's played some games as a corner outfielder. He doesn't have much pop -- only 23 home runs in 1,050 MLB plate appearances -- but he is a left-handed hitter. Left-handedness is something the Sox are lacking in terms of position players.
Jerry Sands has gotten some playing time at first base this spring, and he has some power -- 151 home runs in eight minor-league seasons. But, the 28-year-old fits the profile of a Quad-A player, and he's an outfielder by trade. It seems unlikely the Sox will come north with six outfielders on their 25-man roster. Further, they already have plenty of right-handed hitters.
What about
Carlos Sanchez? He's a good infielder and would provide defensive versatility. However, Saladino provides those things, as well, making the two redundant on the roster. I wouldn't expect Sanchez to come north unless the 37-year-old Rollins gets hurt, or the club sours on Saladino for some reason. That seems unlikely, since the Sox spoke glowingly of Saladino's defense all offseason.
Then, there's
Matt Davidson. Were you ready to write him off after two bad years at Triple-A? Me too. But, he's opened some eyes this spring. He hit two home runs -- including a walk-off shot -- in Tuesday's
8-6 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. He is hitting .455/.478/1.045 with four home runs and only two strikeouts in 23 plate appearances this spring. That isn't enough to erase the woes of the past two seasons, but Davidson is suddenly worth keeping an eye on, just in case he pulls off some sort of career Lazarus act.
There also are outside-the-organization possibilities. The assorted rumors about
Andre Ethier,
Carlos Gonzalez and
Jay Bruce become a little more plausible, with the Sox in need of a left-handed bat and suddenly having $13 million in unexpected savings.
Or, maybe they'll kick the tires on
Justin Morneau, who is still a free agent and has health question marks. Wouldn't it be odd to see Morneau in a Sox uniform, given the mutual hatred that existed between him and the Sox during his Minnesota days?
