Sunday marked the final game of Yasmani Grandal’s four-year $73 million contract final and likely his final game in a White Sox uniform. The 34-year-old catcher plans to test the free agent market.
“I’m going to test the market, see what’s out there,” Grandal said after the White Sox wrapped up the 2023 season with a 2-1 loss in extra innings. “I mean I got two young boys that love baseball love sports but don’t really like being away from dad too much so I got to take that into consideration as well.
Grandal’s tenure on the South Side will go down as a tale of two halves. But ultimately it was a massive disappointment.
When Rick Hahn signed Grandal to the richest contract in White Sox history prior to the 2020 season there was plenty of reason for optimism. Grandal brought with him power, postseason experience, and a stabilizing force behind the plate, all things the White Sox needed at the time. The season before he had hit a career-high 28 home runs and was named to the inaugural All-MLB Second Team.
What the White Sox got inside was a catcher who was riddled with injuries, struggled at the plate and was not exactly a great teammate. Outside of the 2021 season, Grandal failed to do any of the things that he was brought on to do. His underperformance, inability to stay healthy, and questionable leadership are also a perfect representation of everything that went wrong with the White Sox over the last four years.
Riddled With Injuries
Grandal will be the first to admit that injuries hampered his tenure on the White Sox.
“Aside from ‘19 I guess, this is the first full year where I have been able to actually stay healthy,” Grandal told reporters.
In 2020 and 2021 Grandal was dealing with knee injuries that affected his ability to drive the ball. He even admitted that he was trying to take more walks early in the 2021 season because he didn’t feel that he had his legs under him.
During the 2020 season, he led the team with 30 walks. The following season he ranked fifth in the American League with 87 walks and set a franchise record for catchers, breaking the previous mark of 68 set by Sherm Lollar in 1955. Grandal also drew a free pass once every 4.44 plate appearances. This was by design.
Since he couldn’t help the team with his bat he decided to help the team by getting on base any way he could. Unfortunately, given Grandal’s lack of speed, oftentimes he winded up clogging up the basepaths and making the White Sox vulnerable to double plays.
Just when it seemed like Grandal was beginning to turn the corner and swing the bat well in 2021 he tore a tendon in his knee during a plate appearance in Minnesota on July 5th. He underwent surgery and was out of the lineup until August 27th. Once he returned, he went on a tear.
From August 27th until the end of the season, he led the MLB in OBP and OPS while ranking second in slugging percentage and walk. He also had the sixth-highest batting average with a .337 mark during that stretch. The White Sox hoped their 73 million dollar catcher could build off that. His back had other ideas. In 2022 his body broke down.
On June 11th, 2022 Grandal was feeling pretty good about himself as he walked to the plate for his second at-bat against the Texas Rangers. After a rough start to the season, the 33-year-old catcher was beginning to get his legs back under him. Grandal had hit safely in five of his last seven games with six RBIs and had just extended his hitting streak to five with a single to lead off the second inning.
Grandal returned to the batter’s box in the third inning and picked up right where he left off. He took a low changeup from Martín Perez and punched it to right field. Unfortunately for Grandal and the White Sox, his entire season got derailed by what happened next. As he left the box, he ran gingerly to first base. He bent over in pain and had to be replaced by backup catcher Reese McGuire.
“I don’t think too many people understand what it’s like to have a dead leg,” Grandal told Chuck Garfein during an interview on the White Sox Talk Podcast during the 2023 offseason. “When I hurt my back last year, both of my discs bulged and went completely out,” Grandal said. “I was running down to first base against Texas. I had a really good game the day before. A really good game the day before that. I was feeling really good at the plate. Running to first, I was like, ‘My hamstring went.’ I kind of slipped when I came out of the box. A day later, I can’t even get out of bed.”
Grandal’s body had failed him once again. After leaving the game once again against the Rangers, Grandal had a decision to make. Undergo another surgery or try rehabbing the injury.
Having surgery would have forced Grandal to miss four or five weeks of the 2022 season. With the team floundering, he wanted to try and return to the lineup quicker. So he chose to rehab his injury. The decision turned out to be a mistake. Not only did he still miss six weeks of the season, but he also lost all his strength in the lower half of his body.
Grandal could not put any weight on his front foot or transfer power in his swing. The results speak for themselves. Two stints on the IL limited him to 99 games. He had a career-low in batting average, on-base, and slugging percentage. Grandal also hit just five home runs and 27 RBIs which were his lowest totals since 2013, when he was limited to just 28 games as a second-year player in San Diego.
During the offseason, he overhauled his offseason training regime. He hired Chicago Blackhawks strength and conditioning coach Paul Goodman and worked tirelessly to get stronger and more mobile.
The 2023 season marked the first time Grandal was truly healthy for an entire year with the White Sox. But you wouldn’t know it by looking at the numbers.
Offensive Inconsistency
As a switch-hitting catcher who had four 20-plus home run seasons since 2016, Guaranteed Rate Field seemed like a perfect place for Grandal to thrive. He was never one to hit for average so his value comes from getting on base and driving the ball out of the ballpark.
His first two seasons in Chicago he did just that. In the shortened 2020 season he led all AL catchers in on-base percentage (.396), hit eight home runs, and then added two more in the postseason.
In 2021 he built off that by establishing career highs in OBP (.420), slugging percentage (.520), and OPS (.939). He also mashed 23 home runs, marking the fifth time in his career that he has hit 20 plus. Grandal managed to do this despite missing significant time with the torn tendon in his knee. As it turned out that would be the final season that Grandal was a productive offensive player for the White Sox.
In 2022 his stat line dropped from .240/.420/.520 with 23 homers and 63 RBIs to .202/.301/.259 with five home runs 23 RBIs and 15 runs scored. His walk rate was still at an impressive 12% but down from the 23% mark from the season before. As previously mentioned injuries played a factor in those numbers.
But even with the injuries, it was an astounding fall from grace. His -13 Batting Run Value ranked in the MLB’s 10th percentile. He ranked in the bottom nine percent in the MLB in expected Batting Average(.217) and bottom five percent in expected Slugging Percentage (.319) and Weighted On-Base Average (.263).
This past season he didn’t have the injury excuse to lean and the shift got banned and somehow the numbers were just as bad. Grandal did raise his batting average to .234 and increased his home run total to eight with 33 RBIs. But he played in 19 more games.
His 4.7% barrel percentage ranked in baseball’s 14th percentile. Meanwhile, he ranked in the bottom seven percent of the league in xBA (.216), xWOBA (.278), and bottom four percent in xSLG (.324). Not only did he struggle to make contact, when failed to hit the ball hard when he did put it in play. His 87.9 average exit velocity and 34.4 Hard Hit percentage was the lowest of his career.
Deteriorating Defense
Granal was labeled the best defensive catcher in baseball when he came to the White Sox. In 2020 he showed everyone why. He was a finalist for a Gold Glove Award thanks in part to some elite pitch framing which placed him in the 98th percentile in the MLB. He also threw out 5-12 would-be base stealers.
However, that label was stripped away quickly. The following season he allowed eight passed balls and had a -2 in Blocks Above Average. His pitch framing fell to the 40th percentile in the MLB while -2 Caught Stealing Above Average placed him in the MLB’s 31st percentile. His 41.7 caught stealing percentage fell to 15 percent thanks in large part to a 2.06 pop time which ranked amongst the worst in the MLB.
In 2022 the defense deteriorated even further. Sox pitchers posted a 4.21 ERA with Granal behind the plate. He threw out 13.2 percent of attempted base stealers (7-53) which placed him in baseball’s bottom third percentile. His Blocks Above Average fell to -11 and his pop time increased to 2.09 which was the slowest mark in the MLB.
His work during the offseason did improve his mobility behind the plate which in turn improved his Blocks Above Average to the MLB’s 61st percentile. He only allowed four passed balls on the season, which was his lowest total since 2020. However, baserunners still had a field day with Grandal behind the plate and once again he was only able to throw out 15 percent of baserunners.
No Friend Of The Pitchers
While Grandal did not live up to expectations on the field the most disappointing part of his White Sox tenure may be what transpired off of it.
Rick Hahn was hoping to infusion some battle-tested veterans into the clubhouse in the hopes that they could help the White Sox young core when it came time for the playoffs. Grandal had appeared in the postseason every year between 2015-2021 and amassed 40 games of playoff experience in the process.
While he may of had experience, he wasn’t much of a clubhouse leader. During Tony La Russa’s tenure much was made about the White Sox lack of clubhouse culture. Keynan Middleton then blew the lid off the whole thing when he exposed the White Sox for allowing players to show up late for practice and fall asleep in the bullpen. Middleton also revealed that the only leadership on the team came from the pitchers and no position players so it was clear Grandal didn’t do much of anything. \
He did make a point to stand up to Josh Donaldson during a 2022 game in the Bronx after Donaldson made some disparaging comments about Tim Anderson.
But any goodwill he had was quickly undone when ESPN’s Jesse Rodgers reported that Granal was “no friend of the pitchers” when asked about some of the White Sox biggest clubhouse issues.
Another report emerged from 670 the Score that Grandal wanted to go home early before the All-Star break when he saw he wasn’t in the lineup. This led to an alleged argument with Anderson, who was sitting in a cold tub. According to the report the verbal spat culminated with Grandal walking over to the tub and slapping Anderson. Grandal, who rarely speaks to the media, later denied the story in an impromptu media session later in the week.
If you peel back Grandal’s four years with the team it is hard to justify paying him $73 million. He had just one season where he hit double-digit home runs and failed to reach 40 RBIs in three of his four seasons. He only played 100 games once and allowed 201 stolen bases. Overall Grandal failed to live up to lofty expectations much like the teams he played for.
