For any MLB team, a collision between defenders with the bases loaded is an embarrassing misplay. For the Chicago White Sox, it’s just another game in what is shaping up to be the worst season in MLB history.
Ignominy arrived yet again in Chicago’s game Tuesday against the Baltimore Orioles. The situation: bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the second inning, with the Orioles already ahead 4-0. The batter: Eloy Jiménez, once a pillar of the White Sox’s future, now an outfielder they traded away as a rental.
The play: an easy fly ball into shallow left field. The outcome: a black eye, both figurative and literal.
White Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas, shortstop Jacob Amaya and left fielder Andrew Benintendi all converged on the ball. On such occasions, it’s usually the outfielder’s ball, but Vargas appeared to think he had it. That is, until he ran face-first into Benintendi’s shoulder.
That made it 7-0 Orioles, in a game they would win 9-0.
As announcer Kevin Brown said, “Oh my goodness, the White Sox have just gone full White Sox.”
The pain didn’t stop there for Chicago. Vargas remained in the game despite being clearly shaken up, but he later exited while sporting a black eye. The White Sox announced that he left with an abrasion on his right eye and was being further evaluated.
The whole thing is a comically awful play for a comically awful team run by a comically awful owner, yet it gets worse the more you look at it.
A deeper dive into the Chicago White Sox
Vargas getting injured is especially bad because he was one of the young players acquired at the MLB trade deadline, when the White Sox decided to get even worse this year to provide more hope for the future. That move plucked Vargas from the Los Angeles Dodgers, current owners of the best record in MLB, and placed him in Chicago, where he entered Tuesday hitting .122/.240/.195 in 25 games.
In exchange for Vargas, the White Sox sent Michael Kopech to L.A. as part of a three-team trade. Kopech held a 4.74 ERA in 43 2/3 innings with Chicago this year. He holds a 0.63 ERA in 14 1/3 innings with the Dodgers.
Jimenez, another player the White Sox traded away, entered Tuesday hitting .284/.321/.392 for the Orioles after slashing .240/.297/.345 for the White Sox.
And let’s not forget that Benintendi, hitting .218/.279/.375, is in the second year of a five-year, $75 million contract, which is the largest amount of guaranteed money Reinsdorf and the White Sox have ever given a player.
So what you just watched was a hitter doing much better after leaving the White Sox, having his easy fly ball bungled by a young player whose numbers have cratered since joining the White Sox, because he ran into the most expensive player in White Sox history, resulting in Chicago falling further behind an Orioles team that, like the White Sox, did a full teardown a few years ago and is now gunning for the playoffs.
There might not be a play that better encapsulates the hopelessness of the White Sox all year.
Chicago, having already fired manager Pedro Grifol, been eliminated from the MLB postseason earlier than any team in history and set a team record for losses in a season, still has plenty of movement to make in the history books. They entered Tuesday on an 11-game losing streak, having already posted streaks of 21 and 14 games this season, and they need only 13 more losses in their next 23 games to break the 1962 New York Mets’ record for losses in a season.
