In less than two weeks, pitchers and catchers will report to Spring Training for the White Sox, officially transitioning to the 2025 season. It will signal the end of the dreadful 2024 season, allowing the players who still remain on the roster to purge the historically bad season from their minds.
The Opening Day roster will look very different than it did last year, and as the year progresses, some of the White Sox top prospects will join the roster as they earn promotions to Chicago. There are many variables to how a player will perform in a given season, but certain baseball reference websites try to give their best evaluation on how a player will perform for the upcoming season.
Each year, FanGraphs releases their Steamer projections on how they believe each player will perform in the upcoming year. We will be taking a look at each player’s 2025 projections as we approach Spring Training.
Next up is Mike Tauchman, the man that FanGraphs projects to be the second most valuable player on the White Sox in terms of WAR.
FanGraphs projects Tauchman to slash .242/.345/.373 over 102 games. In those games they project him to add 11 home runs, 39 RBIs, and 8 stolen bases, en route to a 1.4 WAR. This would be a very solid season for Tauchman and it would be one of the best seasons a White Sox right fielder has had in a long time.
While it says more about the White Sox than Tauchman that the second highest WAR on the team is projected to be 1.4, but for a one-year deal, this would be an ideal situation.
Last year Tauchman hit .248 with seven homeruns and 28 RBIs in 109 games, so his projections have him playing a bit better than he did last year. It is likely that he has a more consistent role than he did with the Cubs, allowing him to potentially get in a groove.
CHICAGO'S OWN MIKE TAUCHMAN WALKS IT OFF! pic.twitter.com/YmyQ5FrHio
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) June 6, 2024
Chris Getz loves players who can get on base at a high rate and Tauchman has done that since coming back from Korea. In his last two seasons, he has gotten on base at a 36% rate, much higher than what the White Sox are used to.
Tauchman should be a very solid leadoff hitter for the White Sox and should provide average defense. There is a good chance he gets everyday bats to entice a team to trade for him at the deadline, but we will have a better idea where and how much he plays when Spring Training kicks off.
