There’s no question what the biggest surprise in baseball has been this year in the city of Chicago. No, it’s not that the Cubs are below .500 and chasing the Milwaukee Brewers, it’s that Avisail Garcia has been great for the White Sox and was selected to his first All-Star Game. He went from potentially being left behind to now being a part of the White Sox future core.
I’m not going bash Garcia for backing up his guys because honestly what else is he going to say, “I don’t think they’re going to be that good,” but boy oh boy does he have some high expectations for White Sox prospects. Before Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Miami, Garcia talked about the future of the White Sox, as year one of the rebuild has so far gone to plan.
Via the Chicago Sun-Times:
“We have a great future,” Garcia said when asked what he expects the roster to look like after the July 31 trade deadline. “That future might not be this year, but for the next year we’re going to be a great club and have a pretty good chance to win.”
After the White Sox traded Chris Sale to the Boston Red Sox and Adam Eaton to the Washington Nationals this last offseason, their farm system immediately became one of the best in MLB. Yoan Moncada leads the way, ranked as the No. 1 prospect in baseball, but overall the White Sox have five prospects ranked in the top-100 in every publication out there.
However, as Cubs fans know from a lot of disappointment in the past, having a lot of highly-ranked prospects doesn’t guarantee you anything. But man, Garcia has A LOT of confidence in the White Sox core prospects. He thinks they can be better than the Cubs core that won the World Series last year.
Soaking up the All-Star vibe during media hour Monday, Garcia rattled off names of young players coming through the Sox system he expects to be on the same stage soon — and even -expects to be better than the Cubs’ Kris Bryant/Kyle Schwarber/Addison -Russell core.
“For sure, 100 percent yes,” he said. “I believe it, and I see it. -Believe me.”
“We have a lot of talented guys and a great future,” Garcia said. “We got Moncada, we got Kopech, we got [pitcher Reynaldo] Lopez. They’ve got to keep working and we’ll see what happens for next year.”
Again, I’m not going to go all “fuck you, you idiot Avi, dumbass,” meatball Cubs act, but slow down Avi!
We’ll go worst to best out of the core of prospects mentioned above and see what they’ve accomplished in a short time with the Cubs.
Kyle Schwarber:
Cubs franchise leader in postseason HRs (did it in 9 games, as a 22-year-old rookie)
A career 1.178 OPS in 16 postseason games
Came back from a torn ACL and ankle, was the best Cubs hitter in the World Series after not playing for six months
A 2.1 fWAR player in 139 career games
Addison Russell:
A 3.0 fWAR as a rookie in 2015 (age 21)
A 3.9 fWAR and 20-home run season in 2016
A combined 7.7 fWAR after 2.5 years
Kris Bryant:
2015 Rookie of the Year
2016 NL MVP
By the way, this isn’t even including Javier Baez, who is an elite defender at three positions, was the 2016 NLCS MVP and just had a 2.7 fWAR season at the age of 23. So, settle down there Avi.
By the way, all six Cubs prospects from the top-100 at the end of the 2014 season played on the World Series winning team in 2016. So, lofty expectations to meet.
I do have to say, it would’ve been hilarious if Garcia went the route of the Cleveland Cavaliers right before they drafted LeBron James. This is an all-time clip. You have Carlos fucking Boozer saying the Cavs have better players at LeBron’s position and Darius Miles being extremely skeptical that a high school kid can make a team better.
Anyway, as far as the White Sox prospects go, you might see Moncada sooner rather than later and the farm system might get a lot better too because there’s been a lot of Jose Quintana trade talk flying around during the All-Star break.
So, all good on the South Side and what a pleasant surprise Avisail Garcia has been.
