White Sox rumors: Eduardo Escobar checks some boxes … if he’s healthy

Jun 11, 2021; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks infielder Eduardo Escobar against the Los Angeles Angels at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

As the White Sox start to make their mark on trade deadline season, they have a few flaws they need to address on the position player side. In some particular order:

No. 1: Outfield depth. I think it’s fair to call Andrew Vaughn a left fielder at this point, even if that’s not his calling. It’s not fair to call Jake Lamb an outfielder or Brian Goodwin a center fielder, but they’ve been in those respective positions every other day. Maybe Adam Eaton comes back from the injured list reinvigorated, but if he can’t, the Sox have no other internal solutions.

No. 2: Second base depth. Every game Leury García starts at second robs the Sox of an experienced center fielder, and García’s dealing with a leg issue of his own. Tim Beckham can theoretically step in, but he’s a below-average defender and doesn’t do much to help the White Sox’s issues against right-handed pitching. He’s never been on a team with a winning record, which is not to say he’s not a winning player, but more that a team has to be a certain level of desperate in order to find him a suitable candidate for real playing time.

No. 3: Left-handed bat. The White Sox are hitting .218/.306/.342 as a team against right-handed pitching in June, good for the third-worst OPS and second-worst ISO in the American League. This could theoretically improve if Yoán Moncada and Yasmani Grandal get going, but that can’t necessarily be trusted for one reason (illness) or another (catcher in his 30s).

No. 4: Power. The White Sox are tied for last in the American League in homers with a not-nice 69, including a second-lowest total of 16 in June and a third-lowest slugging percentage for the month (.375). José Abreu leads the White Sox with 12 homers, which has him tied for 48th on the MLB leaderboard. Any help in this department would be appreciated.

No. 5: Good health. This should go without saying, but in a season where one of their players blows a tire on a weekly basis, the White Sox probably can’t afford to get cute.

(They can also use bullpen help, but just about every contender seeks the same.)

The White Sox would be well served to solve at least two of these issues, but they’ll have to do so with a limited budget — not so much in terms of cash, but prospect value. All of the White Sox’s top prospects have graduated and are necessary to their immediate goals. All of the remaining notable names on the farm are contending with at least one fatal flaw, or are too young to understand what their final forms may be. The worse the contract situation, the more likely the White Sox can afford the cost.

Here comes the first real rumor of the season, courtesy of Jerry Reinsdorf’s relay man:

An Eduardo Escobar reunion doesn’t cure everything that ails the White Sox offense, but it helps some. His 15 homers would lead by the team with a 25-percent margin to spare, and while he’s played more on the left side of the infield over the course of his career, the metrics have favored his recent work at second base more than any other position.

As for the other departments, he’s a switch-hitter, albeit one who is reliably worse against right-handed pitching, whether this year …

  • vs. RHP: .230/.280/.431
  • vs. LHP: .272/.314/.530

… or over the last three years.

  • vs. RHP: .241/.301/.450
  • vs. LHP: .277/.309/.503

This makes him a more powerful, infield-only version of Leury García. Which is fine, because a more powerful version of García is an adequate starting second baseman, at least on a team that has fixtures everywhere else in the infield. He’s just more the kind of player that rounds out the bottom of the order than the top half of one, so if Moncada, Grandal and José Abreu are still scuffling, Escobar’s impact is likely to be limited.

Perhaps the most appealing thing about Escobar is his price. The remainder of $7.5 million is a lot for an average player with a sub-.300 OBP the last two years, so it shouldn’t cost much to pry him loose from an Arizona Diamondbacks team that is a staggering 1-17 in June, and should keep their powder dry for a bigger move later. Escobar’s mild underperformance is part of the problem, but the specific shape of his contributions could help the White Sox if he’s freed from that quicksand.

The biggest catch isn’t his talent, but his condition. He’s supposed to undergo imaging on his right quad today after departing Sunday’s game against the Dodgers. He hit an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth, only to require a defensive replacement in the top of the fifth. Any bad news on this front pretty much either undermines the immediacy of the specific rumor, renders Nightengale’s tweet as more of a signal for the White Sox’s interest in other deals, or turns Escobar into a cash considerations/PTBNL move if Arizona wants to get out from under the financial obligations the rest of the way.

Let’s take the above criteria and provide a tidy summary of this idea using the “House Hunters” report card:

(Photo by Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)

Take a second to support Sox Machine on Patreon
31 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
overland

Jim

Why is Marco Hernandez not in the discussion?

overland

Jim

Thanks, you are very helpful.

jhomeslice

How about adding DH to the list? I think Yermin’s numbers since early May speak for themselves to their need being pretty great there.

As Cirensica

Eloy might be back in about a month and some, and even if he is not 100%, he will be a significant upgrade at DH. Madrigal is not coming back, and Leury’s legs are banged up with TLR using him everywhere he can think of. It might be of best interest for Leury’s legs if he is used in the outfield where he just needs to run flies rather than in the infield with so many quick turns and twists. Escobar can provide a breather at various infield positions.

Last edited 2 years ago by As Cirensica
texag10

Jake Lamb has been running a 150 wRC+ since May 1st but that only spans 69 PAs/22 games. I think we should probably be running him at DH a little more frequently to keep his bat in the lineup to either take advantage of this hot streak or take advantage of this “new” Jake and milk him for everything he’s worth.

You know who might be an interesting target: Adam Duvall. He’s playing a pretty good RF, he makes $5M this year with a mutual option for next season, and he may be a RHH but he’s actually hit righties pretty well this year and has been average for his career. With where the Marlins are in the standings and rebuild and the other teams that are looking for lefties, he might be the best option to solidify the team a bit more.

Soxfan2

You can also add in Duvall’s teammate Corey Dickerson as a possible person of interest He is a lefty with power and can fake playing the OF. He put up a 136 wRC+ against rightes in 2019 but has been slightly above average since 2020.

Last edited 2 years ago by Soxfan2
JDWakefield

Isn’t it about time for Yolmer to come back?

As Cirensica

I wouldn’t oppose.

Yolmer

I heard you’re in the market for an adequate switch hitting infielder.

hitlesswonder

So what do people think EE would cost? The guess I saw was Jared Kelley and Benyamin Bailey.

ParisSox

That seems like a gross overpay.

ForsterFTOG

Too much.
Alec Hansen, a limited edition Yermin Mercedes commemorative bat (not game used)and Southpaw ought to do it.

Yolmer

Alec Hansen is a pretty fair assessment of the return here. It is really a salary dump. No need to offer a real prospect.

GrinnellSteve

I’d totally trade Kelley and Bailey for Edwin Encarnacion. He could DH and spell Moncada at 3B.

soxfan

Y’all know we’re going to bumslay our way to a 7-1 June finish and the front office will use that as an argument to stand pat before the All-Star break.

Shingos Cheeseburgers

Hopefully this Eduardo Escobar deal actually gets them into the playoffs

soxygen

I love so many things about this. Here are three:

The Sox really regretted trading him away, so it really doesn’t even matter if he’s healthy because “Sox for life.”

He has an OPS vs RHP of .711, which will really help address our problems vs RHP (team OPS vs RHP is only .709, so he could raise that to like .7091 if he keeps it up!).

Jerry won’t need to commit any extra money to next year because who knows what the CBA will look like. You can never be too careful!

Last edited 2 years ago by soxygen
jhomeslice

He had 35 homers and 118 rbi’s in 2019. He has 15 and 45 this year, which would be first and 2nd on the Sox. There is no way that is not a big improvement over Mendick. Or Mercedes, if his defense isn’t good enough to play 2b all the time. I don’t trust OPS and WAR as the only stats that mean anything. He would without a doubt help the Sox anemic offense score more runs, if he is not injured.

They will need more than him, but if they don’t have to give up much, he would be a decent start if they get another hitter to go with him. It’s not like they can go out and get somebody much better without sacrificing a lot more. I’d take him in a trade giving up very little, over giving up a lot more to get Frazier. I’m not wildly excited about getting him, but they are going to need more than one player, and have to start somewhere.

Last edited 2 years ago by jhomeslice
soxygen

Well, can we get 2019 Eduardo Escobar without having to also have 2019 Carlos Rodon?

I think that’s a question for Immortal Time Travel Man. He’s our resident expert.

Jhomeslice, I hear you. I’m just pointing out that the guy they want is sooooo White Sox. And he might be hurt. And he doesn’t really help us improve much against RHP. I’m not sure that’s an acquisition to pin a lot of hope on.

I’d like to see them address their outfield with a meaningful acquisition. But to paraphrase a friend of mine, I want someone like Staring Marte, but we’ll be lucky if we get someone as good as
Corey Dickerson.

texag10

I mean, I get that OPS and WAR aren’t the only stats the mean anything but OPS is pretty dang good at telling the story of what a player did at the plate which is kind of the main thing we are concerned about with any trade. Home Run totals are nice but that’s covered by the “S” part of “OPS” and while it’s cool that he has 45 RBIs, that’s so sequence/luck dependent it has no bearing on what he would do with the Sox. That fact remains that his numbers favor left handers which is not the missing piece we need. He appears to be an improvement over Mendick but there seems to be a foreboding notion that EE is the missing piece from outside the org that will solidify the team and I don’t think that’s the case.

jhomeslice

Nobody has said Escobar is “the missing piece”, certainly not me. Everybody on here wants the Sox to do something. The fact is, to get somebody really good would cost prospects they don’t have. They will realistically have to settle for modest improvements at multiple positions, hoping that the combined impact will help, plus Eloy.

Escobar would produce more runs than Mendick because of his power, I think is pretty obvious. Not a massive improvement, but decent. 24 of his homers in 2019 and 10 this year were against righties. If you believe he would not be at least a slight upgrade over Mendick, then we can agree to disagree. If they are going to improve at 2b at all, Escobar is probably as good as they are going to get, and would cost very little compared to Frazier, who I don’t want to see an overpay for. Otherwise, we can only hope they get better in the outfield/DH.

Schwarber is a name someone suggested who would make a ton of sense. OPS over .900 vs RHP, 17 of his 18 homers vs RHP. Would be the perfect DH, or platoon partner for Vaughn. They could have signed the guy in the offseason, of course. Of all the names mentioned, he might offer the most of what the Sox need in terms of offensive improvement vs RHP, and might be available without requiring Kopech or Crochet. Replace Mercedes or Vaughn vs RHP with him, now we’re talking.

texag10

Never said you thought he was the missing piece, this organization has a history of not finishing the job though.

Escobar is a good bet to perform better at the plate but he is a definite downgrade defensively from Mendick at second. I don’t know that Escobar’s current offense is enough to pay prospects and cash to offset the downgrade in defense.

soxygen

For perspective, here are some 2021 WRC+ numbers versus RHP.

Goodwin 216
Engel 155
Lamb 123
Mendick 107
Escobar 92
Garcia 83

Small sample size and all that. But he is not creating more runs versus RHP, even with the power.

Escobar was bad last year and is 32 years old so a downward trend is something to take seriously.

Last edited 2 years ago by soxygen
ndsoxfan

Using Nightengale to drive down the price for Frazier – ha. Frazier and Rodriguez. Pirates can solve multiple problems

As Cirensica

And just right before a series against Pittsburg. Good timing for the tweet.

texag10

I don’t know that these values are accurate but the Trade Simulator says we can’t afford both of them and just one of them is going to hurt. Heuer/Sheets/Rutherford is technically within the realm of possibility but I don’t think it actually gets it done and I’m not sure I’d even want to do it in the first place.

metasox

It doesn’t appear Frazier would require too much. Though I have seen what sound like big overpays mentioned. Rodriguez I can see costing something.

rugbysox

I like that Escobar is affordable, we don’t need another player with a mortgage.

Malkatraz

Can’t hit righties? Platoon him with Moncada!
(ducks)

mikeyb

Moncada has a 113 wRC+ vs. lefties this year.