I feel like basing a Bob Nutting rebuild against anything else is unfair because inherently only one of the teams is trying to win, but I figure this'd be interesting. The White Sox and Pirates are both trying to rebuild. One is clearly succeeding more. I wonder why.
In the Top 7 WAR earners on the White Sox right now, you will see a journeyman outfielder...and six rookies. Two of them started the season with the team, the rest were midyear callups. This is a team that is almost entirely being run by its rookies, and you're seeing more progress than there was when it was just the replacement level guys. Luis Robert, Andrew Benintendi and Miguel Vargas were, I suppose, expected to lead this team, but apparently they weren't needed if Kyle Teel, Colson Montgomery, Shane Smith and Mike Vasil can just perform to peak capacity immediately.
The Edgar Quero/Kyle Teel catching platoon is making fans wonder why the White Sox even bothered with Matt Thaiss, Korey Lee and Omar Narvaez at all. These two are not only great catching answers but are both MLB-ready, and working in the bigs right now. Teel's been doing great; in 70 games he's hitting .280 with 8 homers and 33 RBIs. Quero is also hitting .280 but is better behind the plate. Either of those guys could be a great everyday catcher going forward, and Teel especially could aid this lineup for a while. Between them and Montgomery, there's finally life in this lineup, and it's all these kids. Montgomery's hit 18 homers and 49 RBIs in 62 games, an 100 RBI season seems like it'll be coming very soon for the guy. Shane Smith has a 4.06 ERA and 129 Ks, and you wonder how he's gonna do when he's got a better team behind him.
Obviously the White Sox are gonna be better next year. Drew Thorpe and Ky Bush will likely be back. There's the possibility of Braden Montgomery, Hagen Smith and possibly even productive MLB numbers from Tim Elko. You can see a team forming from this.
And then you have the Pirates. I dunno what the hell you can see in there.
Look, have there been productive rookie pieces called up this year? Absolutely. Mike Burrows and Braxton Ashcraft have both played crucial roles in the rotation this year, both have been solid since midyear promotions and have ensured the Pirates aren't forced to keep Heaney and such. Ashcraft specifically has been really good, with a 2.74 ERA in 24 appearances. Now, it's very much a band-aid on the fact that Jared Jones was out for the year and Bubba Chandler isn't ready to start at the MLB level yet [as much as they're trying]. But it does help to have people that know what they're doing in that rotation, young guys that could be around for a bit.
Because uh...I dunno how much longer Paul Skenes and Mitch Keller are gonna be on this team. Keller's probably gone this offseason. Skenes...I dunno, maybe the next year. Everybody's already said that with the season he's having, the team should be putting in more around him, and Nutting just does not want to do that. The one thing they couldn't control was that none of Henry Davis, Endy Rodriguez or Oneil Cruz would pan out, but how much of that was natural? Cruz famously was stuck in Indianapolis for like a year when he could have been up, then when he got up he wasn't the guy. Davis and Rodriguez were rushed, either got hurt or struggled and are now in weird mediocre limbo. What I'm saying is it's a wonder Skenes got off to the start he did, or else he might be in that holding pattern as well.
I don't know how many of the pieces of the Pirates that have succeeded this year are the type that will carry this team forward next year. It's just Skenes, and he wants out. The White Sox rookies don't want out yet, they're actually trying to build a team. Skenes is just trying to pitch his way onto a team that does want to build.
Coming Tomorrow- Ironically a rookie pitcher, on a team that honestly isn't too concerned with pitching at the moment.
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