Minnesota Twins: Are the White Sox a credible threat to the Twins?

While the Minnesota Twins have been quiet this offseason, the Chicago White Sox have added to a young nucleus, but is it enough to overtake the Twins in the AL Central?

In 2019, the American League Central division was a mess. As most national pundits believed that the Cleveland Indians would run away from the division, the Minnesota Twins dethroned Cleveland at the top, winning 101 games in the process.

To those who didn’t follow the team, the Twins’ rise came from out of nowhere, but it was the result of a series of shrewd decisions that added talent to a roster that had plenty of young components and was simply looking for direction.

Heading into the winter, it appeared that the Twins were ready to stay atop the division heading into 2020. With the Cleveland Indians looking to sell off expensive pieces and the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals in full rebuild mode, the AL Central looked to be the Twins’ for the taking if they just added a couple of key pieces.

That hasn’t happened and as the Twins have continued to stall looking for value, the Chicago White Sox are looking to follow Minnesota’s blueprint to be the breakout team of 2020. With several additions made to a young nucleus, there are grumblings that the White Sox could dethrone threaten the Twins’ reign at the top of the division, but are those concerns legit enough to make Minnesota’s front office sweat?

The White Sox have a cast of young stars on the rise

The White Sox came into the 2019 season looking to take a step forward and while nobody had expectations of making a postseason run, Chicago did enough to provide hope for the future even if they decided to stand pat this offseason.

At the top of the list of young breakout players is shortstop Tim Anderson. When he wasn’t initiating old man baseball debates with his celebrations, Anderson was leading Chicago in batting average and fulfilling his potential after being selected with the 17th overall pick in the 2013 MLB Draft.

The infield also saw another rising star in Yoan Moncada. The Cuban import came over from the Chris Sale trade that sent their former ace to Boston and the White Sox have been more than happy with their return with Moancada leading the team in WAR (4.9) last season. While there could be improvements defensively, Moncada is developing into a cornerstone at a rapid rate.

Another key trade netted Chicago a stud with Eloy Jimenez coming over in the Jose Quintana trade. While Moncada had a more balanced offensive approach, Jimenez brought a little more power leading the White Sox with 31 HR last season.

While all three players had great individual seasons, it couldn’t help the White Sox from an overall perspective, ranking 24th in MLB in runs scored (708). That was a shame considering Chicago also has an emerging ace in Lucas Giolito.

You might remember Giolito from last August when the right-hander threw a three-hit shutout against the Twins at Target Field. That was just one of the highlights of a strong season from the 25-year old, who set career-highs in wins (14), innings pitched (176 2/3), strikeouts (228) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.00) while making his first All-Star team and finishing sixth in the Cy Young voting.

With all four players at age 26 or younger, the White Sox had a strong nucleus to build around this offseason and a strong minor league system gave them hope for the future. The key for this winter was to add pieces that could help out and fill some of the holes around their young stars.

How the White Sox upgraded their lineup

While the Twins have been engaged with every free agent, the White Sox have also been in contact with plenty of hired guns. The key difference here is that Chicago has been able to seal the deal with several acquisitions and have put talent around their young stars, making them much more appealing in 2020.

With Chicago needing more offensively, they started off by signing catcher Yasmani Grandal to a four-year deal. The 31-year old made the All-Star team for the second time in his career last year while playing for the Milwaukee Brewers and with a full-season career-high .468 slugging percentage, it should add some power to a lineup that ranked 25th in home runs.

The White Sox were not done after adding Grandal behind the plate as they executed a deal that sent Nomar Mazara to Chicago in exchange for prospect Steele Walker. It feels like Mazara has been around for a while, but the outfielder won’t turn 25 until April and already has 79 career home runs to his name. With Jimenez manning the other corner infield spot, the White Sox outfield suddenly looks more powerful.

The final tweak to their lineup came just a couple of days ago when Edwin Encarnacion joined the White Sox on a one-year deal. With fellow veteran Jose Abreu at first base, Encarnacion can fill the role similar to the one Nelson Cruz played on the Twins as a full-time DH. With 414 career home runs and a scorching-hot track record against the Twins, the White Sox have certainly attempted to pull a page out of the Twins’ Bomba Squad playbook.

How the White Sox have upgraded their rotation

While the lineup was in need of fixing, so was the White Sox rotation that had Giolito and not much else. Again, while the Twins provided plenty of lip service, Chicago provided action adding a pair of veteran arms to their starting rotation.

The biggest name that was added beside Giolito was Dallas Keuchel. The Twins have had their opportunities to add the left-hander to their own rotation multiple times, but never have really shown the level of interest that the White Sox did in signing him to a three-year deal worth $55 million.

On a smaller level, the White Sox also added Gio Gonzalez, who isn’t the upper rotation arm that he was during his days with the Oakland Athletics and Washington Nationals, but is a veteran that can hold down the back end of the rotation without much drama.

While neither of these is the earth-shattering moves that Gerrit Cole or Stephen Strasburg were, they were fine additions to a staff that has several promising arms including Michael Kopech and Carlos Rondon, who are both recovering from Tommy John surgery. With Kopech likely to return this season, it adds an interesting wrinkle to a rotation that could be better than most expect.