Yoan Moncada has not lived up to the enormous expectations White Sox fans have placed on him. He is second in the league in strikeouts this season and recently took home another dubious honor with the most errors by a second baseman in the majors. But that doesn’t mean he won’t become who the White Sox expect him to be.
Nine errors for Yoán Moncada is the most of any second baseman in the majors
— James Fegan (@JRFegan) June 20, 2018
Still, let’s put this into context. Nine errors is not something to cast him out into the wilderness of busted prospects for. Nor is his 35.9 percent k-rate worth dwelling on as the funnel of his tornadic plummet towards disaster.
Moncada just turned 23 years old and is taking a beating at the highest level of baseball. What started out as a patient approach at the plate has turned into a passive absurdity for the switch-hitting slugger. With a walk-rate of nine percent to pair with his impressively bad strikeout rate, and leading the league in errors at second base, Moncada deserves his fair share of criticism.
Still, before Moncada reached the big leagues there was plenty of concern about his ability to play in the middle of the infield. Most of those reservations swirled around his ability to turn the double play, but his deficiencies around the bag have become a problem at the position generally. Moncada has the talent to play second base, but my concern is more about where his head is at.
Similar to Carson Fulmer (and no, I’m not rigidly equating Moncada to Fulmer), Moncada’s woes are more psychological than physical. You can see it in the way he saunters back to the dugout after striking out and in his lackadaisical energy in the field.
To put it simply, he’s not having fun. He got ran on a bad strike-three call on Wednesday and, in my opinion, allowed a runner to advance on a passed ball on an attempted steal by not backing up.
But no one takes failure as a cause for enjoyment and asking Moncada to put on a happy face while his season spirals out of control is disingenuous. I’d rather see him attack the flaws in his game and learn how to pick himself out of this rut.
And if he doesn’t — as it appears he hasn’t — he deserves the criticism from the fanbase and the media. You learn by failing and this season is an inflection point for YoYo. Success doesn’t come easy in the big leagues and no one is going to feel bad for you while you’re slumping. There are plenty of other players in the minor leagues dying for the opportunity to take his position and at some point — not this season or next season — the organization will have to make a change if he doesn’t get his act together.
Every player — except for Mike Trout — goes through this lull in performance and big leaguers separate themselves by their ability to solve problems. Whether tweaking a stance, finding a new hand slot, loading earlier in the swing or jumping into the box during bullpen sessions to track pitches, Moncada has to do something different than what he’s doing now. And this comes with maturity and reps.
I’m confident he will get there, but he deserves every lick of criticism while he continues to mope around the field.
