With the White Sox and Cardinals having entered the weekend 15 games below .500, their three-game series to end the first half doubles as a duel between the most disappointing teams in baseball.
Even while playing roughly .500 baseball after a grisly 7-21 start, the wear on the Sox has been apparent.
“It’s been a challenge — faith has got me through it, and it’s going to continue to get me through it,” first-year manager Pedro Grifol said before an 8-7 victory at Guaranteed Rate Field that was anchored by a five-run sixth inning after the Sox trailed 5-0. “We’ve still got a ton of games left. You just never know what can happen.”
Immediately after their disastrous first month, the Sox were comforted by the wealth of games left to turn the ship around. Laden with veterans and in the middle of a would-be window of contention after a full-bore rebuild, they entered this season with every motivation to buy at the trade deadline and boost a playoff-bound team. Even just a month ago, when they were within four games of first place in a dreary American League Central, that read as their default direction.
But as the end of the first half nears — after a sweep by the Blue Jays at home and a series loss to the MLB-worst Athletics — the reality of veterans being traded is looming, and it’s no longer worth ignoring.
“You can look around and still see the talent that’s going to be here,” right-hander Michael Kopech said when asked about the long-term outlook for this group. “There are some guys that may not be here with us. But we know that right now, they are helping us. The collective group we’ve had here, I think we all know what we are capable of. Unfortunately, we haven’t lived up to those expectations that we hold ourselves to.”
Facing a talented if mercurial Cardinals lineup, starter Dylan Cease finished an underwhelming first half by allowing five runs and a season-high 11 hits in six innings, inflating his ERA to 4.30. Coming off a Cy Young runner-up performance in 2022, Cease has dealt with diminished velocity. After a strong June, his last two starts represent a step back.
But if the Sox’ troubles were limited to Cease, or shortstop Tim Anderson’s knee injury and subsequent slump, maybe an optimistic tone about expecting their stars to return to normal would make sense. Instead, after a spring training spent emphasizing defensive execution and rebuilding their team plate approach, they ranked near the bottom of most advanced metrics for defensive runs saved before two more errors Friday. Their offense entered the weekend with the second-lowest on-base rate in the game.
“The biggest thing we talked about in spring was getting the ball in the air,” said outfielder and first baseman Andrew Vaughn, who has improved his personal numbers in this regard but hits in the middle of an offense with the highest ground-ball rate in the majors. “I’ve seen a little improvement, but definitely still need to keep improving.”
Tasked with ushering in that sea change with a new coaching staff, Grifol hasn’t seen meaningful progress in the first half — and probably won’t in time to keep the Sox from selling at the trade deadline. His solace comes in taking a shorter view.
“One thing I can actually hang my hat on, that every night we’re in a baseball game,” he said. “We lost three games to Toronto these past few days, and we led in two out of the three, and the other one, we played 10 innings of scoreless baseball that we could have easily won. We’ve got to figure out ways to win those games.”