White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu wins American League MVP

Jose Abreu

For only the fifth time in franchise history, a White Sox player has won the American League Most Valuable Player award.

First baseman Jose Abreu received the 2020 MVP honor Thursday night, joining a short list in team history that includes Nellie Fox (1959), Dick Allen (1972) and Frank Thomas (1993-94).

Abreu has been a pillar of excellence his entire career. In five of his first six seasons with the Sox, he hit 25 or more home runs and had 100 or more RBIs. Those contributions went mostly unnoticed, as Abreu toiled for some truly terrible Sox teams.

But in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, the Sox turned things around. Abreu was part of a winning team for the first time, and the Sox qualified for the playoffs for the first time in his career -- that no doubt made MVP voters more likely to cast their ballot for him.

During the 60-game season, Abreu led the American League in hits (76), RBIs (60), slugging percentage (.617), total bases (148) and bWAR among position players (2.8). 

Abreu is only the fourth player in American League history to lead the league in BOTH hits and RBIs. His .317/.370/.617 slash line features career bests in all three categories. He finished with a team-best 19 home runs.

And I should add that Abreu appeared in all 60 White Sox games this season -- not a small consideration considering the injuries and illnesses that hit teams hard around the league in 2020.

For his efforts, Abreu was first on 21 of the 30 MVP ballots. Jose Ramirez of the Cleveland Indians got eight first-place votes and finished second. DJ LeMahieu of the New York Yankees got one first-place vote and finished third.

Among other Sox players, Tim Anderson finished seventh. He got one third-place vote. Pitcher Dallas Keuchel received one 10th-place vote.

Will Jose Abreu have to take bullets for White Sox on Tony La Russa mess?

The Most Valuable Player awards for 2020 will be announced Thursday. White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu is a finalist in the American League, along with Jose Ramirez of the Cleveland Indians and DJ LeMahieu of the New York Yankees.

All three of these men had excellent seasons and played for teams that qualified for the playoffs. The race for this honor is too close to call, frankly, and whichever one of these players wins will be deserving. I have no prediction.

But what if Abreu wins and needs to hold a press conference Thursday?

It's worth noting that no high-profile member of the Sox organization has spoken to the media since manager Tony La Russa was charged with DUI in Arizona earlier this week.

Jerry Reinsdorf, the man who created this mess by hiring La Russa, has remained silent. Nothing from general manager Rick Hahn, either, and certainly nothing from La Russa himself.

It's unfortunate that circumstances are set up to where Abreu -- who has been nothing but a good player and has represented the organization with class and pride during his seven years with the Sox -- might have to be the one who faces the media firing squad first to answer questions about the La Russa debacle.

If Abreu wins this award, he would be only the fourth Sox player in team history to achieve the honor -- and the first since Frank Thomas in 1994.

It would be one of his career highlights, and a historic moment in the history of the franchise. But it would be soiled because of this La Russa mess, and because the cowardly 85-year-old billionaire who owns the Sox doesn't feel he needs to answer for his decision-making.

This whole thing just stinks.

Tony La Russa charged with DUI, and the White Sox knew this was coming when they hired him

Tony La Russa

New (old) White Sox manager Tony La Russa was charged with DUI on Oct. 28 by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office in Arizona.

According to an ESPN report, La Russa allegedly ran his car into a curb in February, leaving it smoking on the side of the road in the Phoenix area.

The arresting officer reportedly said La Russa was incoherent during the incident, and the veteran manager repeatedly referenced his credentials as a baseball Hall of Famer in an attempt to escape the trouble. 

This is the second drunken driving arrest for LaRussa. He pleaded guilty in 2007 to misdemeanor DUI in Jupiter, Fla.

I think the timeline of this arrest is a little strange. This incident occurred in February, and the charges weren't filed until eight months later. 

Definitely odd, but here's what is known: The charges were filed Oct. 28, but the Sox hired La Russa to be manager one day later anyway. 

Yuck. The Sox are taking a beating in the national media right now, and rightfully so. First off, at least one prominent free agent says he won't play for La Russa for any amount of money.

Secondly, one drunken driving arrest is one thing -- people make mistakes -- but two such incidents is a trend, and that's not somebody you want running your baseball team. That's somebody who has a problem.

And third, this again highlights what a flawed process the Sox used to hire La Russa. It wasn't a legitimate search, with interviews of multiple qualified candidates, with the best man earning an offer.

No, it was a crony hire by one man, owner Jerry Reinsdorf. He regrets firing La Russa 34 years ago, and he's trying to make amends for it, even if he has to undercut his baseball operations department to do it, and even if he brings shame and national disgrace to a proud fan base and every other person who works for the Sox.

Of course, there's still time to do the right thing. La Russa hasn't even hired a coaching staff yet. (What is he waiting for?) So cut ties with La Russa, start over and conduct a search the right way. Allow Ken Williams and Rick Hahn to hire a manager, not Reinsdorf. 

Will that actually happen? Don't bet on it. Oh, and Rick Renteria finished second in the AL Manager of the Year voting today. He has to be among the chorus of people laughing at the Sox right now.

White Sox center fielder Luis Robert 2nd in AL Rookie of the Year voting

Luis Robert

As expected, White Sox center fielder Luis Robert finished second in the 2020 American League Rookie of the Year voting.

Seattle outfielder Kyle Lewis won the award -- he was first on all 30 ballots. Robert received 27 second-place votes, and his name appeared on 29 of the 30 ballots.

Here is the side-by-side comparison of the two players:

Lewis: .262/.364/.437, 11 HRs, 3 2Bs, 28 RBIs, 5 SBs 

Robert: .233/.302/.436, 11 HRs, 12 2Bs, 31 RBIs, 9 SBs 

Lewis had the advantage in batting average and on-base percentage, and that clearly put him over the top in this race. If Robert had a case, it was his superior defense.

Robert was the AL Gold Glove award winner in center field and finished the season with a 3.4 defensive WAR, according to Fangraphs. By way of comparison, Lewis had a minus-0.9 defensive WAR, according to Fangraphs.

What hurt Robert most was his September slump, during which he went 11 for 81 with 32 strikeouts. The White Sox slid from first place down to third the last 10 days of the regular season, so that didn't help Robert's cause.

Worth noting -- and I didn't realize this until today -- but Lewis went 11 for 75 with 33 strikeouts in the September for the also-ran Mariners, so maybe Robert's late-season slide shouldn't have mattered so much. 

However, Lewis was batting .328 with a .945 OPS going into September, and that torrid first 35 games or so ultimately carried him to the award.

Tim Anderson, Eloy Jimenez speak about Tony La Russa being named White Sox manager

Tony La Russa

One of the big question marks about the White Sox's decision to hire 76-year-old Tony La Russa as manager is whether he'll be able to relate to players who are 45 or 50 years younger than he is.

Here's the first article I've seen with player quotes, written by MLB.com's Scott Merkin.

Tim Anderson and Eloy Jimenez are both quoted. I think it's fair to say Anderson is the face of the team at this point. With all due respect to Jose Abreu and everything he's accomplished in his career, the Sox will go as Anderson goes.

It sounds as though Anderson is waiting on a call from La Russa.

“I’m still waiting on him to, you know, reach out to me,” Anderson said in Merkin's article. “I’m excited to talk to him. I’m going to ask him if he’s been reading. … A lot of people have been saying we’re not going to get along, so I’m going to ask him why you think that.

“We’ll see. I’m excited about it. Hopefully, we can turn this negative around into a positive and keep moving, keep enjoying the game and keep having fun with it. You can’t get sidetracked from what the ultimate goal is.”

Both Anderson and Jimenez seemed well aware of what La Russa has accomplished in the game as a manager -- three World Series championships and 2,728 career victories, third-best in the history of baseball.

“He's still been watching the game, so he pretty much does know what's going on. It's not like he's got to get out there and play,” Anderson said. “All he has to do is just manage us, and I'm pretty sure he's going to know how to do that. He's in the Hall of Fame for a reason. I'm just excited to see the Tony that everybody's talking about. Learn from him and see which way this thing's going to go.”

“What can I say? Tony is one of the greatest managers in the history of the game,” Jiménez said through an interpreter. “When I saw the news, I was excited to be managed by a guy like him. At the same time, it was kind of bittersweet news because I love Ricky [Renteria], too.” 

Whatever personality differences exist -- or generation gaps, as the case may be -- I'm going to try to stay optimistic that these guys will work this stuff out. There's a lot at stake here. 

La Russa is going to be motivated to win one more championship for his buddy, Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf. And Sox players have never been shy about saying their goal is to bring a World Series title to the South Side of Chicago. 

I think the potential exists for these guys to get on the same page. Let's hope they do.

Jose Abreu, Tim Anderson, Eloy Jimenez win Silver Slugger Awards

Tim Anderson

For a change, the White Sox had a good offensive team this year, so it should come as no surprise that their three best hitters won American League Silver Slugger Awards at their respective positions.

First baseman Jose Abreu won his third career Silver Slugger. The MVP finalist led the AL in hits (76), RBIs (60) and slugging percentage (.617), while hitting .317 with 19 homers. 

At shortstop, Tim Anderson fell short of defending his 2019 AL batting championship, but he had another good season, batting .322 with 10 home runs and 11 doubles. He led the league with 45 runs scored. He also had nine hits in three playoff games against Oakland. Anderson wins his first Silver Slugger Award.

Left fielder Eloy Jimenez also is a first-time Silver Slugger Award winner. He batted .296 with 14 home runs, 41 RBIs and an .896 OPS. It's too bad he wasn't healthy for the playoffs. One thing we'll always wonder is whether the Sox could have advanced one more round in the postseason with a healthy Jimenez.

Here's the full list of winners: 

American League

C: Salvador Perez, Kansas City

1B: Abreu, White Sox

2B: DJ LeMahieu, N.Y. Yankees

SS: Anderson, White Sox

3B: Jose Ramirez, Cleveland

OF: Jimenez, White Sox

OF: Mike Trout, L.A. Angels

OF: Teoscar Hernandez, Toronto

DH: Nelson Cruz, Minnesota

National League

C: Travis d'Arnaud, Atlanta

1B: Freddie Freeman, Atlanta

2B: Donovan Solano, San Francisco

SS: Fernando Tatis Jr., San Diego

3B: Manny Machado, San Diego

OF: Juan Soto, Washington

OF: Mookie Betts, L.A. Dodgers

OF: Ronald Acuna Jr., Atlanta

DH: Marcell Ozuna, Atlanta

In the only vote that matters Tuesday night, Luis Robert wins Gold Glove

Luis Robert

Presidential election? Whoop dee doo, I'm not paying attention. Here at The Baseball Kid, we're focused on the votes for Gold Glove. And our congratulations go out to center fielder Luis Robert, who became the first White Sox rookie to win the honor.

Robert, who beat out Minnesota's Byron Buxton and Oakland's Ramon Laureano for the award, racked up eight defensive runs saved and tied for the lead among all MLB center fielders in Statcast's Outs Above Average metric at +7 this season.

The good news about this is Robert still has room for improvement, despite playing excellent defense during the 2020 season. He needs to get better on plays close to the wall, and needs to improve his timing when he jumps to try to make catches at the fence. He has the athleticism to makes plays like that, and there's reason to believe he'll get better with experience.

The Sox had four other finalists: second baseman Danny Mendick, third baseman Yoan Moncada and catchers James McCann and Yasmani Grandal. None of those four were expected to win, and none did.

Here is the complete list of 2020 Gold Glove winners:

American League 

P: Griffin Canning, L.A. Angels

C: Roberto Perez, Cleveland

1B: Evan White, Seattle

2B: Cesar Hernandez, Cleveland

3B: Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Texas

SS: J.P. Crawford, Seattle

LF: Alex Gordon, Kansas City

CF: Robert, White Sox

RF: Joey Gallo, Texas

National League

P: Max Fried, Atlanta

C: Tucker Barnhart, Cincinnati

1B: Anthony Rizzo, Cubs

2B: Kolten Wong, St. Louis

3B: Nolan Arenado, Colorado

SS: Javier Baez, Cubs

LF: Tyler O'Neill, St. Louis

CF: Trent Grisham, San Diego

RF: Mookie Betts, L.A. Dodgers