The Chicago White Sox have solidified the catching position for the next four years. On Thursday, the White Sox signed Cuba native Yasmani Grandal to a contract worth $73 million.
Grandal is valuable because he plays a position that is extremely taxing defensively, both from a physical and mental standpoint, and can hit. Last season while as a National League all-star for the Milwaukee Brewers, Grandal had personal bests in several categories. They included home runs (28), runs batted in (77), runs scored (79), hits (126), stolen bases (five), walks (109) and total bases (240).
The White Sox become Grandal’s fourth Major League Baseball team, but first in the American League. In addition to the Brewers who Grandal only caught for one season, he played three seasons with the San Diego Padres from 2012-2014 and four seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2015-2018.
Chicago’s south side team has not made the postseason since 2008 when they lost to the Tampa Bay Rays in four games in the American League Divisional Series. However, in 2019, there were some subtle signs of improvement. They had a record of 72 wins and 89 losses. That was a 10 win rise from 2018 when they reached the century mark in losses for only the third time in franchise history.
From a pitching standpoint, Grandal will be expected to work with a nucleus of inexperienced pitchers who struggled in 2019. Chicago fans will also hope that starting pitcher Lucas Giolito will continue to make strides. After having a horrible 2018 season where he had a pitiful earned run average of 6.13, Grandal’s earned run average improved significantly in 2019 to 3.41 and was the only positive for a poor starting rotation.
