ESPN Says The White Sox Should Add This Outfielder

The trade deadline is less than a month away. Despite the disappointing record, the White Sox still have a chance to win the American League Central division. They will likely be buyers at the deadline. For the third season in a row, the Chicago White Sox have had the same issues in right field and second base. Now the question is, who will they add?

ESPN Senior Writer David Schoenfield said the White Sox should add Tommy Pham before the trade deadline in his article ‘One player all 30 MLB teams should trade for (or away) this month”.

Pham is hitting .249 with 11 home runs, 36 RBIs, and a .731 OPS for the Cincinnati Reds this season. He can play all three outfield positions, but with Luis Robert in center field and Eloy Jimenez in left, he would likely slot into right field if the White Sox acquired him. He has more home runs than the White Sox’s current right field options, Andrew Vaughn, Gavin Sheets, AJ Pollock, and Adam Engel.

Pham owns a 263 career average in nine seasons in the big leagues and a 118 OPS plus. In 2017 he ranked seventh in the National League in Win Above Replacement and fifth in offensive WAR. Since then, he has battled injuries, including a life-threatening stabbing attack during the 2021 offseason. After getting 200 stitches in his back, he was still able to return for Opening Day. His toughness cannot be questioned.

However, his fit on the White Sox roster can. Adding him seems like a band-aid solution to a bigger problem.

The White Sox do not have many assets to part with. Wasting them to acquire Pham seems ill-advised. Does Pham add more power? Yes. But he isn’t a left-handed bat and would make the outfield situation even more complicated.

As strange as it sounds, the White Sox have a log jam in the outfield. Andrew Vaughn is batting .296 with a hard-hit percentage in the top five percent of the league. Sheets has been disappointing this season, but he is quietly hitting .311 with eleven RBIs and two home runs in his last 15 games. Sheets will always have a spot on the roster as long as the White Sox continue to lack left-handed power. Pham’s addition would just take more at-bats away from Vaughn, which nobody wants to see.

Adam Engel has been on the IL most of the season, but he is a better defender than Pham. The White Sox need all the defensive help they can get.

AJ Pollock would be the only player in that crop of outfielders that it would make sense to replace with Pham. However, the Reds are rebuilding and will not want to swap veteran outfielders with the White Sox.

Even with all these outfield options, Tony La Russa still found a way to insert Leury Garcia into left field. There is no reason to believe the Leury parade will end once Pham arrives. La Russa will still find ways to insert him into the lineup. Unless AJ Pollock gets traded, adding Pham is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

If they were adding an offensive force, then this is a good problem to have. But for the average offensive production Pham provides, he isn’t worth the White Sox’s trouble.