The remaining free agent second basemen ... not enticing

Josh Harrison

One day, the Major League Baseball lockout will end, and when it does, the White Sox will still need a second baseman.

That's assuming you don't think all-purpose player Leury Garcia is the everyday answer at the position. (Hint: He's not.)

So, here is the list of remaining free agent second basemen. Trigger warning: There are some relics from the White Sox rebuilding days on this list:

• Brad Miller
• Donovan Solano
• Niko Goodrum
• Joe Panik
• Brock Holt
• Asdrubal Cabrera
• Hanser Alberto
• Jed Lowrie
• Charlie Culberson
• Josh Harrison
• Chris Owings
• Ronald Torreyes
• Mike Freeman
• Jose Rondon
• Phil Gosselin
• Breyvic Valera
• Kean Wong
• Ryan Goins
• Tyler Ladendorf

See anyone you like there? Me neither, and the thought of Rondon or Goins coming back to the Sox sends chills down my spine.

At least one writer, The Athletic's Andy McCullough, thinks Harrison would be a good pickup for the Sox. He said as much in his "One New Year's resolution for every team" column.

Yikes! This is what it has come to? In the middle of an alleged championship window, the Sox should gamble on 34-year-old Josh Harrison and his career .719 OPS? I'll pass.

McCullough notes that Harrison has been an above-average offensive player the past two years. Not wrong. Harrison posted a 108 OPS+ in 2020, and a 106 OPS+ in 2021.

However, Harrison has struggled with both the American League teams he has played with in the past (Oakland and Detroit). Check out his AL/NL career splits:

National League: .279/.323/.411 in 965 games

American League: .220/.263/.307 in 84 games

Granted, the sample size is much smaller in the American League. And Harrison's prime years were spent in the National League, where he was a two-time All-Star with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

However, Harrison last played at an All-Star level in 2017, and the way he finished the 2021 season in Oakland was not impressive. He batted .254/.296/.341 with two homers, 22 RBIs and 10 doubles in 199 plate appearances after coming over midseason from the Washington Nationals. 

With Oakland, Harrison's OPS+ was 79, or 21% below league average. Harrison will turn 35 next July 8, and I tend to believe his struggles down the stretch in 2021 are the start of a decline at his age.

Of course, that means he's likely available on a one-year deal. ... That's right in the wheelhouse for Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf and GM Rick Hahn!

The Sox love giving one-year deals to declining veterans, and if they do sign Harrison, count me among the unimpressed.

The standard here should be "Better than Leury Garcia." I'm not convinced Harrison will be better than Garcia in 2022.

Ken Rosenthal out at MLB Network for criticizing commissioner

MLB Network has decided not to renew the contract of veteran reporter Ken Rosenthal, according to a report by Andrew Marchand of the New York Post.

Rosenthal on Monday confirmed the news on his Twitter feed, saying, "Can confirm MLB Network has decided not to bring me back. I’m grateful for the more than 12 years I spent there, and my enduring friendships with on-air personalities, producers and staff. I always strove to maintain my journalistic integrity, and my work reflects that. Nothing else is changing for me professionally. I am proud to remain part of the great teams at The Athletic and Fox Sports."

According to Marchand's report, Rosenthal is believed to be out because of criticisms he made of Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred during the summer of 2020. At the time, the league was trying to figure out a way to play a season at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a column for The Athletic, Rosenthal wrote that Manfred's legacy as commissioner was on the line, and he stated that Manfred was guilty of performing a "massive flip-flop" in the press.

In fact, Manfred was guilty of a massive flip-flop. One minute, the commissioner was saying the 2020 "unequivocally" would happen. Less than a week later, he said was "not confident" that there would be a season. Remember that flap? Manfred rightfully got roasted for it on Twitter.

That apparently didn't sit well in the league office, and Rosenthal was quietly kept off the MLB Network airwaves for three months, before returning at the belated Aug. 31 trade deadline during the 60-game, pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Now, about 18 months later, Rosenthal is out for good, and I don't think this will sit well with most baseball fans. Rosenthal is a fair and respected reporter, and his ouster paints the commissioner in a further bad light.

Is Manfred incapable of accepting criticism? Does he believe he should not have to answer difficult questions? Sure looks like Manfred's skin is a little thin, and that's not a good look. 

And it isn't as if Rosenthal is going to be silenced. As he noted on Twitter, he still has his jobs at The Athletic and Fox Sports. He's still got quite an audience, and even without the MLB Network gig, fans who want his take on the state of the game will know where to find him.

Top 5 White Sox moments for 2021

Tim Anderson

What's a new year without a list recapping the year that just ended, right? And with the Major League Baseball lockout droning on with no end in sight, we don't have much else to discuss.

So, let's ring in 2022 by looking back at my five favorite White Sox moments of 2021. Let me know if I've missed anything important:

5. Jose Abreu's mad dash to the plate: Maybe I remember this one more than most people because I was at this game, but it might have been the single most exciting play of the season that wasn't a home run. The Sox scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to rally for a 4-3 win over the Kansas City Royals. The fourth and game-winning run was scored with two outs, when Abreu dashed down the line from third base on a very short wild pitch by Kansas City reliever Wade Davis. Abreu somehow got around the tag of Royals catcher Cam Gallagher, hitting his hand on the plate as he slid by. After a lengthy video review, the call on the field was confirmed: safe. The whole thing was so improbable, because when Abreu took off, it looks as if he would be out by 10 feet. 

4. Brian Goodwin's bat flip for the ages: The second-place Cleveland Indians came to Chicago on July 30 trailing the Sox by eight games in the American League Central Division. There was a feeling the Indians needed to take two out of three -- if not sweep -- in order to have a legitimate chance to make the Central a race. The teams split the first two games, and the Sunday finale was a tight affair throughout. The score was 1-1 going into the ninth inning, and Goodwin won the game for the Sox with a solo home run off Cleveland reliever Nick Wittgren. Goodwin punctuated his blast by flipping his bat toward the Cleveland dugout, about 30 feet up in the air. That was Aug. 1, and the Sox had a nine-game lead. This was the moment where you felt the Sox had the division in hand -- for me, it was more enjoyable than the day the Sox clinched, because September was a foregone conclusion. 

3. Leury Garcia's home run in Game 3 of the ALDS: Some people might have this as their best moment of the season -- especially if they were lucky enough to be at this game, which I was. The Sox, of course, had lost the first two games of the series against the Houston Astros, and they were facing elimination. There was definitely a feeling of impending doom at Guaranteed Rate Field after the Astros jumped out to an early 5-1 lead in the third inning of Game 3. But the Sox responded with five runs in the bottom of the third, capped by an improbable 3-run homer to deep center field by Garcia. The blast gave the Sox a 6-5 lead, and they survived for one more game by securing a 12-6 victory. When Garcia's ball left the park, that was the loudest I've ever heard the ballpark (note, I did not attend 2005 World Series Game 2). And I've never seen so much high-priced beer flying through the air during a home run celebration. Of course, Game 3 would be the last Sox victory of 2021. They lost the series in four games. Had that home run actually flipped the outcome of the series, this would be higher on my list.

2. Carlos Rodon pitches a no-hitter: I'll be honest -- I didn't really want Rodon back on the Sox after watching him labor through four consecutive injury-plagued seasons. But the veteran left-hander quickly quieted me and other critics by getting the 2021 season off to a great start. Rodon pitched a no-hitter in his second start of the season, April 14 against the Cleveland Indians. And frankly, this was really damn close to being a perfect game. Rodon retired the first 25 batters he faced before hitting Cleveland catcher Roberto Perez in the toe with a back-foot slider with one out in the top of the ninth. That spoiled the perfect game, before Rodon recovered to retire the next two batters and secure the no-hitter and an 8-0 victory. Injuries once again hindered Rodon the second half of the season, but I don't think any Sox fan can complain about the 24 starts he made in 2021. Rodon went 13-5 with a 2.37 ERA, made the All-Star team and provided fans with one of the most memorable performances of the entire season on a chilly night in April.

1. Tim Anderson walks it off in the Field of Dreams Game: If there's a single moment from the 2021 White Sox season that everyone will remember, it's got to be this, right? The Field of Dreams Game was the most-watched baseball telecast in 15 years, and the heavyweight fight between the Sox and the New York Yankees did not disappoint. The Yankees scored four runs in the top of the ninth inning off Liam Hendriks to turn a 7-4 Sox lead into an 8-7 deficit. It looked as if the Sox were going to suffer one of their most frustrating losses of the season in the most high profile of games. But Anderson changed the narrative. After Seby Zavala took a walk, Anderson drove a pitch from New York's Zach Britton over the fence in right field and into the corn for a two-run homer to give the Sox an improbable 9-8 victory. It was kind of funny that Anderson was on the record as not having seen the movie "Field of Dreams," yet he ended up being the hero and providing the signature moment of the game. MLB is doing another such game next season -- it will feature the Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds. Good luck duplicating the drama and excitement from this Sox-Yankees matchup.

Happy New Year from The Baseball Kid

 

Merry Christmas from The Baseball Kid

 

2 of Jim Kaat's best seasons were with the White Sox?

Jim Kaat

When we think of Jim Kaat, we think of him as being a part of the Minnesota Twins, right? The former left-handed pitcher was in the majors for 25 years, and he pitched 15 of those seasons with the Minnesota organization.

In fact, the Twins were the Washington Senators when Kaat first broke into the bigs in 1959. The Senators became the Twins in 1961, and Kaat pitched in Minnesota until 1973. He collected 190 of his 283 career wins with Washington/Minnesota.

Kaat was elected to the Hall of Fame on Sunday by vote of the Golden Days committee. After these votes, sometimes it's fun to go back and examine the careers these players had.

Looking at Kaat's life in baseball, I knew he had pitched for the White Sox during the 1970s, but I had no idea he was so good during his relatively brief tenure on the South Side:

1974: 21-13, 2.92 ERA, 42 games, 39 starts, 277.1 innings and a Gold Glove award

1975: 20-14, 3.11 ERA, 43 games, 41 starts, 321 innings (!), an All-Star appearance and a fourth-place finish in the Cy Young voting

Kaat was 35 and 36 years old during those years. He moved on to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1976, but those two years with the Sox might have been the best of his career. 

You learn something new every day.

White Sox great Minnie Minoso elected to Hall of Fame

Minnie Minoso

It's never too late to do the right thing. White Sox great Minnie Minoso should have been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame years ago. He should have been able to enjoy the honor while he was still alive.

Minoso, who died in 2015 at age 89, at long last was voted into the Hall of Fame on Sunday by the Golden Days committee, along with Tony Oliva, Jim Kaat and Gil Hodges. Buck O'Neil and Bud Fowler also were elected to the Hall by vote of the Early Days committee.

Minoso was a two-time All-Star in the Negro Leagues before he became the first Black player to play for the White Sox in 1951. He was the first Black Cuban to play in the majors, and it's not uncommon for Spanish-speaking players -- past and present -- to refer to Minoso as the "Latino Jackie Robinson."

I don't think Minoso has ever received proper credit for being the trailblazing player that he was. And given that it took him this long to be elected to the Hall, it's probably true that, up until this point, he has never received proper credit for being a great baseball player. Minoso was without a doubt one of the best players in the American League during the 1950s.

Minoso made the All-Star team seven times between 1951 and 1960. He batted .302 or higher eight times, led the American League in stolen bases three times and won three Gold Gloves. He finished in the top-five of MVP balloting on four occasions, and was second in the Rookie of the Year vote in 1951.

It's worth noting that Minoso led the league in being hit by pitches in 10 of the first 11 seasons he played. Was that a product of the racial tension of the times? Quite possibly.

In 1951, his first season in the American League, Minoso finished fourth in the MVP voting, but somehow didn't win Rookie of the Year. The man who won Rookie of the Year, New York Yankees infielder Gil McDougald, was ninth in the MVP voting. That's an anomaly I've always found bizarre. Why would Minoso finish ahead of McDougald for MVP, but behind him for Rookie of the Year?

I would also argue that Minoso should have been American League MVP in 1954, when he again finished fourth in the voting. Look at the numbers, and good luck convincing me I'm wrong.

Once Minoso's playing career was over, he became known as "Mr. White Sox." He was a fixture with the organization; a great ambassador for the team, the city of Chicago and baseball as a whole; always willing to sign autographs and tell stories for the fans.

Everyone associated with the Sox is thrilled to see No. 9 finally get the respect he is due with induction into the Hall of Fame.

Hopefully, that day will also come for Dick Allen, who won the AL MVP as a member of the Sox in 1972. When Allen died, I wrote that he deserved induction into the Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, he fell one vote short in this balloting. A player needed 12 votes out of 16, or 75%, to be elected. Allen got 11 votes. Unfortunate.