The White Sox are heading into the shortened 2020 season with the same expectations they had back when they thought they’d be playing a 162-game schedule: to leap out of rebuilding mode and into contention mode.
The No. 1 reason that looks so possible? You saw it last season, when the White Sox young core broke out in a huge way and showed why the future looks so bright on the South Side.
Yoán Moncada, Tim Anderson and Eloy Jiménez all had big seasons in 2019, laying the foundation for the busy offseason that followed. As excited as fans were when Rick Hahn went on a signing spree during the winter, bringing in the likes of Yasmani Grandal, Dallas Keuchel and Edwin Encarnación and giving a new contract to team leader José Abreu, that wouldn’t have been possible without the confidence boost the core gave the rebuilding effort during the summer.