Sam Antonacci has only played 25 games for the Chicago White Sox, but he already looks like a legitimate ballplayer. That’s despite getting acclimated to a new position in left field, while simultaneously adjusting to the challenges of hitting major league pitching.
For years, I made excuses for former first-round pick Andrew Vaughn, who was thrown into a similar situation. Vaughn, a first baseman by trade, was asked to play the outfield for the first time after being called up to the majors, and it showed.
Vaughn’s defense in the outfield was abysmal, as expected, and his production at the plate never matched the lofty expectations that came with being selected third overall in the 2019 MLB Draft. There was talk of Vaughn’s legs being tired after struggling to adjust to the workload in the outfield over the course of 162 games, and the White Sox stunting his development by asking him to play out of position.
Asking any rookie, even one widely regarded as the best hitter in college baseball, to learn a new position while producing against major league pitching is a tall order. Antonacci had plenty of built-in excuses if he struggled. So far, he hasn’t needed a single one.
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He isn’t just handling the challenge. He looks built for it, and in the process, he’s quickly winning over fans on the South Side. After being called up from Triple-A Charlotte, the White Sox have gone 14-10, and now just 1.5 games back from the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central.
Through his first 96 plate appearances, Antonacci is hitting .278 with an .801 OPS. He’s already collected seven extra-base hits, including four doubles, two triples, and an inside-the-park home run. But it’s not just the numbers that stand out, it’s the way he plays. Simply put, he looks like a winning baseball player, and that has been on full display over the past week.
When the Chicago White Sox needed to move the go-ahead run to third base in Sunday’s win over the Seattle Mariners, Antonacci laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the eighth.
When the White Sox needed a spark while trailing 2-0 against the Kansas City Royals on Monday, Antonacci delivered again, ripping a two-out single in the third inning that forced Royals starter Stephen Kolek to throw 11 extra pitches just to escape the frame.
Even though Chicago stranded him, that extra stress helped wear Kolek down and set the stage for the White Sox to break through in the fifth. After a solo home run from Drew Romo, Antonacci scorched a 106 mph double to right field and later came around to score the tying run on a single from Miguel Vargas.
Antonacci followed that up the next day by turning what looked like a routine single up the middle off Seth Lugo into a hustle double, sprinting out of the box and diving headfirst into second base. It was the kind of play that perfectly encapsulates Antonacci as a player: fearless, aggressive, and willing to do whatever it takes to win.
While his outfield defense has been shaky at times, it’s easy to overlook when you see how hard he is playing night in and night out. His at-bats also suggest that he is just scratching the surface of his offensive potential.
He’s consistently squaring up the baseball, backed by a .327 expected batting average and a .488 expected slugging percentage. While he isn’t drawing walks at a high rate, he offsets that with a low whiff rate and strong plate discipline, rarely chasing pitches out of the zone.
Antonacci is also willing to wear a pitch to take a base, something that has been part of his game since college. He has already been hit by eight pitches this season, one of which came with the bases loaded against the Angels. As he told MLB.com’s Scott Merkin, he’d rather go on the IL for 10 days from a hit by pitch and help the team win than get out of the way and lose the game.
His style of play also reflects a changing of the guard on the South Side. This new core plays with an energy that makes it look like they genuinely love baseball, a sharp contrast to the previous regime, which at times seemed more invested in what baseball provided financially than the game itself.
