The Chicago White Sox have lost three straight which puts them at bottom of the AL Central standings.
A spot many have projected the White Sox to occupy for the entire 2025 season.
There are signs of slight improvement from the historically awful 2024 season. For example, it took until July of last season for the White Sox to finally beat their division rival, the Minnesota Twins. This season, the Sox beat them on the first try.
Still, the offense is struggling to score runs consistently, and the bullpen is failing to keep the Sox in games. That is pointing this season in the direction of losing 100 games for the third straight season.
The talent gap between teams like the Twins and the Detroit Tigers is another reason the Sox will lose a lot of games.
One reason the offense is struggling to score runs outside of Opening Day and the series opener against the Twins is a couple of critical bats are off to terrible starts.
It is fair to wonder if these three players’ season-starting slumps will turn into bad seasons at the plate for them.
Luis Robert Jr.
The front office is counting on him to regain his 2023 form when he put up an MVP-caliber season and was an All-Star.
The Sox need it so he can be flipped before the trade deadline for valuable prospects to help speed up this rebuild’s timeline.
Outside of that 2023 season, he has been injured, and that is why teams will not pony up the players the team wants back in a deal. Add in that he regressed in 2024 along with a hip injury that limited him to 100 games, and you can see why the Sox need the 2023 version of their star player.
Now feeling 100%, LRJ had a great spring training that provided hope he would return to his All-Star form and the Sox could trade him so long as he survived playing in the chilly April weather.
The cold weather is likely why he is also off to a terrible start with an OPS that is a few percentage points above .400.
He is a notoriously slow starter, so this slump should not come as a shock.
Luis Robert Jr.’s OPS by month over his career entering today.
March/April: .696
May: .931
June: .853
July: .811
August: .842
September/October: .647Historically, he always starts slow. That is just who he is. I’m not concerned…yet.
— Mike (@ChiSoxFanMike) April 5, 2025
However, his terrible 2024 season might cause you to wonder if the losing and the injuries have taken their toll on his game.
Plus, instead of being patient at the plate, knowing that he might not get many pitches to swing at, he is still chasing at pitches down and in or away.
A good litmus test is to see if this is a blip is when the team travels to Sacramento to play the Athletics. It is the only warm-weather city the Sox will be playing in this month, and if he produces in the minor-league park the A’s are playing in, then you can chalk this slow start up to chilly weather.
If he slumps there, then you might want to be worried.
Andrew Vaughn
Vaughn has produced nothing but replacement-level play ever since he debuted in 2021. His first-half slump in 2024 is one of the infinite number of reasons the Sox ended up with a historically awful season.
His OPS to start this season is not much better than Robert Jr’s. The only thing Vaughn has on LRJ is that Andrew has a home run on the season.
However, Vaughn is hitting the ball hard, so it could just be a matter of time before he breaks out.
Although he still has not drawn a walk, so it could also be a matter of him still swinging at pitches he should be avoiding. Like Robert Jr., he continually swings at pitches down and in that he should be laying off.
Again, we have seen this show before, where it takes Vaughn forever to get going, and when he does, he ends up with a replacement-level season.
Miguel Vargas
At least he no longer looks traumatized to be on the White Sox anymore. After coming over to the Sox in a trade deadline deal last season from the Los Angeles Dodgers, Vargas played a like man who was sent to Siberia.
While playing for the worst team in baseball may have felt that way, he failed to overcome that shock and prove why the Sox pegged him to as potential core piece since he was a former top 100 prospect.
He put on some extra weight and did a lot of work in the offseason to get himself prepared to be an impact player.
However, his OPS is just a few points under .550 to start the season.
Although he is having much better at-bats in this small sample size than he did all of last season with the Sox.
He is still struggling to hit the 4-seam fastball. His inability to hit velocity is why it should be concern that all he will produce this season is numbers that are better than last season only because he was so bad last season.
