For the past two years, the White Sox have been aggressively going into the market to fill holes in the lineup. For the most part, people were happy (on paper) of the work done by GM Hahn. This off season is no exception.
But despite all the moves and quality drafts of pitching, the White Sox still have several glaring holes and questions going into the 2016 season:
1. DH. After Dunn and LaRoche, the designated hitter slot is turning into the new dark hole that the third base position was after Joe Crede. The trade for D'back prospect Matt Davidson seems like a bust. Bringing in Mike Olt at the end of last year was a Hail Mail Pass after the game was over. This is still a continually issue for the Sox.
2. SS. Alexi Ramirez had faded and his time was up. Tyler Saladino is back at his natural position, but he did not show any bat potential last season. His competition, Carlos Sanchez, did not shine at the plate either. You can "hide" a great glove, no hit player in an AL line-up, IF you have a solid DH and good overall offense. We may see top prospect Tim Anderson arrive in the majors earlier than expected if the Sox need to win now.
3. RF. Avi Garcia is working his way out of town like Carlos Quinten did. He had not blossomed like Sox management had hoped.He his .257, 13 HR, 59 RBI but had a negative 0.3 WAR. The Sox were rumored in play for some of the vaulted OF free agents, but apparently upper management would not commit to anything more than three year FA deals. J.B. Shuck does not seem to add any pressure for improvement in Garcia in RF.
But if you ask die hard Sox fans the Number 1 issue on their team, a good number would say manager Robin Ventura. Ownership is very loyal to Ventura. Initially, he did not want to be a field manager. He was looking to work up the executive ranks. But after the Ozzie nonsense, the team wanted to get a professional, easy going, good media guy. But Ventura has not worked out well as a manager. The team continually gets off to horrible starts, and he does not seem to have the players pushing to be their best. Ventura is in the last year of his current contract. Some think Ventura may be holding back the team and costing them victories. But in the end, last season's roster underperformed and had an a lower than average baseball IQ that cost them many games.
