As is apparent to most posters here, the Sox are going to have a logjam coming on the position side of things once Bonemer & Roch are ready. As shown below, the bulk of our positional core is controllable for three to six more years. The only two exceptions are Murakami & Benintendi, who will be free agents after the 2027 season. Conceptually, those two could go and make room for Caleb & Cholowksy eventually, but I think the Sox will push hard to resign Mune. Andrew will certainly be gone after next year though. The question becomes who is the odd man (or men) out and how do you fit all the pieces together. I think most would agree that Cholowksy will be the eventual SS for us. Right now, it’s probably safest to assume that won’t be until 2028. Regardless, that will likely push Colson over to 3B where he would likely provide elite defense. What happens to Vargas in that situation? Does he move to 1B? Murakami isn’t terrible defensively at 1B, so not sure how he’d feel about DHing. But an infield defense of Colson at 3B, Roch at SS, Chase at 2B, & Miguel at 1B would likely be amongst the best in baseball. Bonemer poses even more questions. He’s currently splitting time between SS & 3B, but clearly won’t stick at the former and hasn’t really distinguished himself at the latter and is behind a lot of guys there to boot. The spot most people talk about for Caleb is LF, but what do you do with Antonacci? Defensive metrics don’t like him in the OF so far, but I feel like he’s looked ok for a guy who has never played there before and think he could get better with more reps. Regardless, Sam is far too important as the leadoff hitter to not find a spot for. It’s just hard to find an obvious one though, especially with Chase looking like the best all-around 2B in the AL at the moment. Honestly, I’m not sure what the solution is going to be. I think Bonemer will be up early to mid 2027 and will ultimately knock Benintendi out of the lineup. My guess is they use a rotating DH to make all the pieces work in the short run, with Bonemer getting time at both 3B and LF. But come 2028, someone will have to be moved if we end up extending Murakami. And that someone definitely feels like it’s going to be an infielder. Gun to my head, but I kind of think the Sox will end up trading Colson for a high-end, controllable SP. Once you make the decision to move him off of SS, he immediately becomes more valuable for another team than the White Sox. Doesn’t mean that he can’t be extremely valuable at 3B or that we have to move him, but given certain flaws in his offensive game, I could see the Sox looking to cash in if they feel his offensive ceiling will be capped. Not sure this is what I would do personally, but a hard decision will have to be made and I could see Colson being the odd man out so to speak. What do you guys all think? Would love to hear everyone’s opinions on this as it’s going to be a fascinating couple of off-seasons for us. Base Lineup: 1B: M. Murakami | L | 26.5 | 1 Yr | 4.4 fWAR | 150 wRC+ | 37% OAA 2B: C. Meidroth | R | 25.1 | 5 Yr | 4.1 fWAR | 120 wRC+ | 92% OAA SS: C. Montgomery | L | 24.5 | 5 Yr | 2.8 fWAR | 99 wRC+ | 95% OAA 3B: M. Vargas | R | 26.7 | 3 Yr | 4.1 fWAR | 130 wRC+ | 6% OAA LF: S. Antonacci | L | 23.5 | 6 Yr | 2.7 fWAR | 124 wRC+ | 8% OAA CF: T. Peters | L | 26.5 | 5 Yr | 3.2 fWAR | 113 wRC+ | 97% OAA RF: B. Montgomery | S | 23.3 | 6 Yr | 2.4 fWAR | 101 wRC+ | 78% OAA DH: A. Benintendi | L| 32.1 | 1 Yr | 0.1 fWAR | 103 wRC+ | N/A CA: K. Teel | L | 24.5 | 5 Yr | 2.7 fWAR* | 125 wRC+ | -3 FRV Bench Pieces: IF: L. Acuna | R | 24.4 | 5 Yr OF: B. Doyle | R | 28.3 | 3 Yr BC: J. Bart | R | 29.7 | 1 Yr Other Key Pieces: SS: R. Cholowsky | R | 21.4 | 6 Yr IF: C. Bonemer | R | 20.9 | 6 Yr CA: E. Quero | S | 23.4 | 5 Yr UT: B. Baldwin | S | 26.0 | 4 Yr IF: W. Bergolla | L | 21.8 | 6 Yr
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