MLB Predictions: White Sox To Win AL Central After Busy Off-Season Moves Like Dallas Keuchel, Luis Robert

The Chicago White Sox made several splashes this off-season in an attempt to wrestle control of the AL Central away from the Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins, making themselves division favorites in the process and will be tough to catch in 2020.

Their rebuild has been on-going since 2016 and has seen a few seasons of less-than-spectacular baseball in the Windy City. They dealt with stars such as Chris Sale, Adam Eaton and one of their top prospects in Jose Quintana to facilitate the process.

Those three brought in such names as Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech and Lucas Giolito, just to name a few. The plethora of young talent acquired via the trade market was then complemented by intelligent draft picks aimed at competing not right away but instead in a few years’ time.

The most important thing the White Sox did, though, was to allow this core of exciting prospects to play at the major league level and gain invaluable experience in the process. That approach yielded a painful 284 losses from 2017-19 but it also produced an exciting, and cheap, core.

It has now all come together for Chicago as they had enough payroll space to add big names and veteran players to complement this core and now look ready to compete in the AL Central. The biggest moves included signing free agents Yasmani Grandal, Dallas Keuchel and Edwin Encarnacion.

The White Sox also took this off-season to renegotiate Jose Abreu’s contract. The stud slugger even agreed to back-load his new deal in order to facilitate these off-season acquisitions. Now, according to Scott Merkin of MLB.com, the team has tied down up-and-coming outfield prospect Luis Robert to a record six-year $50 million contract to keep him in Chicago until 2027.

Robert has yet to take an at bat or even field a fly ball at the major league level but is ranked as the White Sox’s best prospect by MLB.com and the league’s third-best minor leaguer. Over 122 games in 2019 across three levels, Robert hit for .328, slugged 32 home runs and 31 doubles and drove in 92 runs.

Meanwhile, Chicago’s division rivals have not strengthened nearly as much. After losing control of the AL Central in 2019, the Cleveland Indians haven’t made any big moves this winter. They also traded away Corey Kluber for almost nothing to the Texas Rangers and are considering trading away Francisco Lindor, a player who they simply can’t replace.

The Minnesota Twins won the division last season and have made some acquisitions. They re-signed Michael Pineda and inked Alex Avila, Homer Bailey and Rich Hill to contracts as well this winter, addressing their starting rotation and catching options. They do still have questions at the hot corner and could make a play for Josh Donaldson.

However, with neither the Detroit Tigers or Kansas City Royals being in a place to compete, the Twins are the only real competition for the White Sox in 2020. Chicago will rely on a lot of young players like Robert and Moncada, but have veterans to back them up.

After winning just 72 games in 2019, they enter 2020 as AL Central favorites.