Chicago White Sox

Roster of the Month: The Miacagotroit White Tiger Fish

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Baseball fans everywhere rejoice; the regular season is here! Well, maybe not everywhere. Some teams are doomed from the start. Roughly 1/3 of all teams across MLB are in tank mode, trying to obtain and develop long term assets so they might possibly become competitive in the future. The Marlins, Tigers, and White Sox are the three most blatant tank jobs. None of them are projected by Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA to win as many as 70 games.

To give these three moribund franchises a boost, we’ll simply combine them into one team: the Miacagotroit White Tiger Fish. We’ll pick apart the Opening Day rosters from all three teams and take the best pieces to create one 25-man roster. Each month at Off the Bench, we create the best possible 25-man roster with a different theme. Last month, we featured the All-Padres Power Team. Without further ado, here’s the unholy Frankenstein of the three worst teams in baseball. (All statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs.)

Starting Lineup

  1. CF Lewis Brinson, R
  2. DH Jose Abreu, R
  3. LF Avisail Garcia, R
  4. 1B Justin Bour, L
  5. RF Nick Castellanos, R
  6. 2B Starlin Castro, R
  7. C Welington Castillo, R
  8. 3B Jeimer Candelario, B
  9. SS Jose Iglesias, R

Surprisingly, this lineup would actually score some runs, and the middle of the order is quite dangerous. Abreu, Garcia, Castellanos, Bour, Castro, and Castillo each posted a 110 wRC+ or better in 2017. Brinson is a top prospect and the jewel of the return package for Christian Yelich. He has no major league track record to speak of, but there’s a good chance he becomes a productive player. Whether or not that happens in 2018 is yet to be determined. Candelario is another youngster with limited MLB experience but a promising bat. Iglesisas is a former All-Star who frankly doesn’t hit very much, but at least he can pick it at shortstop.

However, that middle of the order might allow even more runs than they score. Bour, Castellanos, Castro, and Castillo accounted for an atrocious -36 DRS in 2017! Brinson should be able to provide above average defense in center field and Iglesias is one of the better defensive shortstops in baseball, but two good fielders can’t prevent this team from allowing way too many batted balls to find the outfield grass.

Bench

This bench is a symbol of rebuilding teams everywhere. It’s a combination of has-beens, yet-to-becomes, and never-was’. Based on last year alone, Cabrera shouldn’t even be on the team. The nearly 35-year-old superstar has accumulated nearly every individual honor baseball bestows, but completely fell off a cliff in 2017. His slash line of .249/.329/.399 is simply unacceptable combined with absolutely awful defense and baserunning. Still, he makes this team on reputation alone in case there’s any kind of rebound in the coming season.

On the other hand, Moncada is the former #1 overall prospect in baseball. He’s only been a roughly average player so far in pieces of two seasons, but he doesn’t turn 23 until May and all the potential remains for him to become a truly great player. Perhaps he deserves to start at third base on this team ahead of Candelario, but he’s currently a second baseman for the White Sox. The rest of the bench is a bunch of guys who are nominal starters on their real life clubs, but would come Off The Bench for most organizations (see what we did there?).

Rotation

  1. RHP Michael Fulmer
  2. RHP Jose Urena
  3. RHP Lucas Giolito
  4. RHP Jordan Zimmermann
  5. RHP Reynaldo Lopez

Yechh. Of the 15 starting pitchers on 3 the roster of different major league teams, they can’t cobble together a starting roatation better than this? Fulmer is a legitimately good pitcher who could crack even the best of rotations across baseball. As such, he’s a strong candidate to be traded. Urena had a surprising season last year by ERA (3.82), but the lack of strikeouts and other poor peripherals suggest it was an aberration.

In Giolito and Lopez, we have a pair of gifted, high-potential White Sox hurlers. Much like Moncada on offense, these post-prospects will have every chance to show what they can do in the majors this season. Sandwiched between them is Jordan Zimmermann, who was rocked for ERAs of 4.87 and 6.08 in two seasons since signing a big contract with Detroit. Seriously, he’s our #4 starter. It’s that bad.

Bullpen

This is actually a pretty solid bullpen for such a barren roster. Barraclough and Steckenrider are a pair of hard-throwing Marlins who average 12.1 and 14.0 K/9 in their brief careers. They also bring 5.5 and 4.7 BB/9, but beggars can’t be choosers. Juan Minaya has a chance to develop into a solid bullpen piece. Avilan, Greene, and Soria are all veterans with up-and-down careers, but truthfully, nearly all relievers can be described the same way. If any of these players turns out a good first half performance, they can expect to be shipped off to the highest bidder at the trade deadline.

***

Ultimately, this team won’t fare that much better than any of its three sending franchises. The Miacagotroit White Tiger Fish will score a decent amount of runs, but the defense and rotation are substandard for a competitive team. If this were a real team, they might push .500 and have a difficult decision about whether to buy or sell in July. Of course, in real life we know which decision the three franchises would make, and several of these players won’t make it through season with their current franchise.

-Daniel J. Epstein

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