The White Sox are betting on a roster resurgence in 2023. Given the moves the Chicago White Sox front office made this offseason, it’s clear the strategy was to cross your fingers and hope half the roster has a career year. This is a horrible strategy for a team who claims to be contending, but there is a silver lining. Over half the roster was either hurt or suffering from career-low numbers. With all the talent on the roster it’s hard to see a decline of that magnitude for a second straight season. Keep an eye on these three players who are in line to have a huge year.

Andrew Vaughn

It’s hard to call Andrew Vaughn’s 2022 season bad from an offensive standpoint. His slash line improved from .235/.309/.396 to .271/.321/.429, and he led the team with 17 home runs. Those are respectable numbers, but still not the type of star power at the plate fans envisioned when he was drafted with the third overall pick in 2019. The defense was another story. He was statically the worst outfielder in the MLB. 

However, Vaughn gets a pass because he was playing out of position. As a rookie, he was forced to learn how to play left field, despite being an infielder during his entire collegiate and amateur career, and adjust to major league pitching.

The 23-year-old tried to get as many reps as possible to get comfortable roaming left field but playing out of position continued to take its toll on his body the following season. 

“I think that extra work and all that running around, I was never used to it. I just never was, Vaughn told Chuck Garfein on the White Sox Talk Podcast. “My body would get tired. I would lose a lot of weight, try to gain it back and just kind of fluctuate and be sore and had to try to get through it.” 

Getting to play his natural position gives Vaughn one less thing to worry about during the season and will save his legs. He has also shown the ability to evolve as a hitter. Vaughn’s biggest weakness in his rookie season was his production against right-handed pitching. 

Vaughn hit .221/.277/.332 in 2021 with seven home runs against righties in 2021. Those numbers shot up to .260/.309/.444 with 16 home runs in 2022. 

Vaughn also hit the ball hard consistently and ran into some bad luck. He was in the top ten percentile of all MLB hitters in hard-hit percentage. Given his growth and maturity as a hitter, there is no reason to believe he can’t have a breakout season in 2023. 

Lucas Giolito

Lucas Giolito has transformed from bust to ace to a wildcard within the span of six seasons with the White Sox. 

There is no denying Giolito has talent. From 2019-2021 he posted ERA’s of 3.41, 3.48, and 3.53, was named an American League All-Star, threw a no-hitter, and finished in the top ten of the Cy Young voting twice. 

He then arrived at camp at a bulked-up 280 pounds prior to the 2022 season. While the added muscle was supposed to translate into velocity, Giolito’s fastball ranked in the 36th percentile in average velocity, while his spin rate was in the 32nd percentile, according to Baseball Savant. In fact, his 92.6 mph four-seam fastball average was the lowest of his career.

Giolito’s sudden decline caught many by surprise after three consecutive seasons with a sub-four ERA, which included two top-ten finishes in the Cy Young voting and an All-Star appearance. This season the 28-year-old has slimmed back down. He has also been tinkering with his delivery this off-season. The apex of his leg kick is taller, while his landing foot is more extended and widened out on his landing.

“Getting my mechanics back to a nice fluid state, getting everything on time and firing correctly, Giolito said. “The combination of all that stuff just worked really hard in the offseason and feel like I’m in a much better and more prepared spot, currently.”

After his first Cactus League start, he felt like he had established a good rhythm and adjusted to the new pitch clock. 

“When I get to a really good rhythm, I go quicker,” Giolito said. “Like boom, get the ball pitch, pitch. It doesn’t give you too much time to think or overanalyze. I like what I’ve seen from it so far, as far as tempo, speed of the game, and the length of the games.”

It’s a contract year for Giolito, so he will have a little bit of extra motivation to prove he is, in fact, the ace we saw from 2019-2021. 

Yasmani Grandal

Yasmani Grandal entered camp this year with two things going for him. The shift being banned and healthy knees.

Grandal had a shift placed on him 76.6 percent of the time when he was batting from the left-hand side. The 34-year-old was never one to hit for average but look for his average to be near an all-time high now that some of his line drives to right field will now fall for base hits instead of going into the teeth of the defense. He is already reaping the benefits of having the shift outlawed this Spring.  

His power should return as well. Grandal dedicated the offseason to revamping his strength and conditioning. He hired Chicago Blackhawks strength and conditioning coach Paul Goodman. On several occasions, he passed out because of how hard he was pushing himself. 

So far, during Spring Training, he has looked like a rejuvenated player. His knees are healthier than they have been for the last two seasons. When the former All-Star is healthy, he has shown flashes of what he can do in a White Sox uniform. 

Last season Grandal’s body had failed him once again. In 2021, he established 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 a knee injury. Once he returned, he went on a tear. From August 27th until the end of the season, he leads 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. He entered the season weak after undergoing off-season surgery. Once it looked like he had his legs under him, he suffered a back injury on June 11th. 

He chose to rehab his injury instead of doing a midseason surgery. 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. 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.

In 2023 he will have more field to work with and a sturdy foundation beneath him. Grandal is also in the final year of his contract, which is a great motivator for a guy coming off one of the worse seasons in his MLB career. It’s not crazy to foresee a monster season for the 11-year veteran.