The Lenyn Sosa Thread

[The Mighty Mite]

On 8/8/2025 at 6:51 AM, bobbydanks said:

Lenyn Sosa is playing better than he is and it's still worse than an average player because he has no positional versatility and he's a 700 ops guy that is a minus defender regardless of how many times he gets a two run rbi down 5-0 

He can get that OPS up to where it should be in the .800 range by taking some walks, only 13 so far this with 81Ks. For comparison Tauchman has the same BA as Sosa but his OPS is .814 because he’s had 33 walks.

Edited August 11 by The Mighty Mite

[oldsox]

Sosa is still improving. 

[bmags]

2 hours ago, Capn12 said:

Team leader in HRs, that dreaded Lenyn Sosa.

I love Lenyn, I just wish he had a bit more baseball IQ out there. Hard to argue the bat, though.

I do wish Getz felt a little worse about how the guy in the majors who has been in our org since he was 16 (all under Getz) seems the most dumb at baseball.

[nrockway]

2 hours ago, The Mighty Mite said:

He can get that OPS up to where it should be in the .800 range by taking some walks, only 13 so far this with 81Ks. For comparison Tauchman has the same BA as Sosa but his OPS is .814 because he’s had 33 walks.

I like the Javy Baez comp (minus the defense). Age 24 Javy OPS'd for .796 despite a 6% BB rate. 25-year-old Javy dropped his walk rate to 3% but improved his OPS to .880 with a .290 BA and 34 bombs. Lenyn's BABIP looks completely reasonable and like he can sustain the free-swinging approach. It would be wonderful if he improved his plate discipline, he seems to be trying, but I'm not sure it's the most important thing for him. I think he could hit 30 home runs though. 

Could also see him being traded at some point if the infield really is too crowded.

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

2 hours ago, bmags said:

I do wish Getz felt a little worse about how the guy in the majors who has been in our org since he was 16 (all under Getz) seems the most dumb at baseball.

Smart enough to adjust continually to the changes pitchers make to him. 

He has a lot of mental lapses which lead to highly recognizable errors in the field (maybe he needs some adderall???), but generally speaking I wouldn't call a guy who has adapted and evolved as much as him baseball stupid. 

[southsider2k5]

2 hours ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Smart enough to adjust continually to the changes pitchers make to him. 

He has a lot of mental lapses which lead to highly recognizable errors in the field (maybe he needs some adderall???), but generally speaking I wouldn't call a guy who has adapted and evolved as much as him baseball stupid. 

Call it whatever you like, and blame whoever, but the dude does have some serious mental lapses in the field.

[chitownsportsfan]

2 hours ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Smart enough to adjust continually to the changes pitchers make to him. 

He has a lot of mental lapses which lead to highly recognizable errors in the field (maybe he needs some adderall???), but generally speaking I wouldn't call a guy who has adapted and evolved as much as him baseball stupid. 

He just has mental lapses. A lot like Alexie. Doesn't mean he's not a hard worker or doesn't care just means he's wired a little poorly mentally for pro baseball. His skills are good enough to carry a brain fart once a week.

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

5 hours ago, nrockway said:

I like the Javy Baez comp (minus the defense). Age 24 Javy OPS'd for .796 despite a 6% BB rate. 25-year-old Javy dropped his walk rate to 3% but improved his OPS to .880 with a .290 BA and 34 bombs. Lenyn's BABIP looks completely reasonable and like he can sustain the free-swinging approach. It would be wonderful if he improved his plate discipline, he seems to be trying, but I'm not sure it's the most important thing for him. I think he could hit 30 home runs though. 

Could also see him being traded at some point if the infield really is too crowded.

The challenge with the Baez comp for me is that Lenyn is a contact-oriented player. He's striking out less than league average, but also walking very little --- meaning he is putting a ton of balls in play. If we were forced to compare him to another Chicago MIF, I'd compare him more to Starlin Castro than Baez. He has a little more pop than Castro, but besides that their K/BB rates are in the same ballpark, but Lenyn elevates the ball with greater frequency and hits the ball harder when he makes contact consistently. Castro's game was built more to collect a few more singles, while Sosa's game is built more to generate more XBH. 

[SoxBlanco]

6 hours ago, bmags said:

I do wish Getz felt a little worse about how the guy in the majors who has been in our org since he was 16 (all under Getz) seems the most dumb at baseball.

I think there’s a difference between being dumb and lacking baseball instincts (particularly on defense and running the bases). In high school, the valedictorian was on my team. Smartest guy I knew, and best hitter on the team. But I’ve never seen a worse base runner in my life. 

I think there are certain instinctual things you can’t teach in baseball. You either have them or you don’t. Sure, you can teach base running and defensive situations, but some people will never have the ability to just react without thinking about it as it’s happening. 

[bmags]

On 8/11/2025 at 4:06 PM, SoxBlanco said:

I think there’s a difference between being dumb and lacking baseball instincts (particularly on defense and running the bases). In high school, the valedictorian was on my team. Smartest guy I knew, and best hitter on the team. But I’ve never seen a worse base runner in my life. 

I think there are certain instinctual things you can’t teach in baseball. You either have them or you don’t. Sure, you can teach base running and defensive situations, but some people will never have the ability to just react without thinking about it as it’s happening. 

Uh yeah I didn't call him stupid as a person, though he may be. I said he was dumb at baseball, which he is. He may be playing from behind with worse instincts, but when instincts are really bad, the team needs to beat common rules into you that become automatic. Like "put your foot on the edge of first base when catching the ball". There's definitely a range of quality with baseball instincts among common ball players, but nearly all of them remember that rule.

 

[bobbydanks]

On 8/8/2025 at 8:06 AM, southsider2k5 said:

The wild thing is, if you go to fangraphs and sort 2Bs by fWAR, Lenyn is 11th of 22 qualified players, the very definition of average. 

other teams use platoos and tryouts and versatility he can ony be there he is worth less than those players. he might be the 4th best hitter on the team but he is not in our future. that is all. love the guy too 

[bobbydanks]

in regards to defense there are 5 and you bushwhackers that want to see bobbled balls don't seem to understand it 

C>/CF/SS>>>>>>2b/3b>>>>>>>>>>>>>1b/lf/rf. the issue isn't with Lenyn's bat it's he's barely a medocre batter at 1b/lf/4f/ and not good enough of  glove to play at other positions, nor is vargas really. 

[bobbydanks]

1 minute ago, bobbydanks said:

in regards to defense there are 5 and you bushwhackers that want to see bobbled balls don't seem to understand it 

C>/CF/SS>>>>>>2b/3b>>>>>>>>>>>>>1b/lf/rf. the issue isn't with Lenyn's bat it's he's barely a medocre batter at 1b/lf/4f/ and not good enough of  glove to play at other positions, nor is vargas really. 

this throws back to how horrible benitendi was as a pickup. that team and this team needs mashers at the corners and first. i don't care if the rest of the league hasn't figured it out yet either because the expensive players will play in expensive spots, we're not going to get gifted a juan soto but the inability to fill in masher spots outside of burger for half of a season has left us as potatoes

[oldsox]

Face it, Sosa is the best hitter on this team, so he should be in the lineup every day.

[The Mighty Mite]

38 minutes ago, oldsox said:

Face it, Sosa is the best hitter on this team, so he should be in the lineup every day.

He looked pretty good at first base last night, Vargas at 3B, Monty at SS, Meidroth at 2B and Sosa at 1B works for me, stick with that infield the rest of the way. I also want Baldwin the rest of the way in LF and don’t want him at a different position every game. Benintendi has been a bust and isn’t the future, maybe they can put him on waivers and be willing to pick up part of his salary.

Edited August 17 by The Mighty Mite

[nrockway]

1 hour ago, bobbydanks said:

in regards to defense there are 5 and you bushwhackers that want to see bobbled balls don't seem to understand it 

C>/CF/SS>>>>>>2b/3b>>>>>>>>>>>>>1b/lf/rf. the issue isn't with Lenyn's bat it's he's barely a medocre batter at 1b/lf/4f/ and not good enough of  glove to play at other positions, nor is vargas really. 

2 things: I think you're underrating the importance of 2B defense. It's shortstop without the throw and a lot more players bat left-handed than ever before. More balls get pulled to the right side than ever. Range is important there. More important defensive position than 3B for sure just in terms of how many balls are being hit that way, though SS is still the king of the infield. But I might remove a couple of those '>' signs lol.

The other thing is that Sosa is pretty much league average defensively at 2B. Statcast ranks him 60th percentile in outs above average. In terms of qualified 2B, he ranks 26/42, basically tied with Jose Altuve or Luisangel Acuna...beats out gold glover Brice Turang surprisingly. He's also just getting better across the board. He was 10th percentile in 2024. His bat has obviously improved. He might just keep getting better, right? Now that he's getting extended play. His bat has gotten better every month (and every season), he has 9 homers in July and August compared to 6 the rest of the season in ~100 fewer plate appearances. He improved from a really bad defender to simply an average/slightly below one. I think you take that if he can hit a bunch of home runs and OPS around .800 like he has since June.

The problem is that Meidroth is way better defensively in that regard, 89th percentile. I think Meidroth is the best shortstop on the team though and would be playing there if he was a 'prospect' the way Colson is. Meidroth could probably win some GGs at 2B, but thus far he hasn't really proven anything with the bat. 

Agreed that you don't really want him at 1B if you can help it (or anyone on the team currently...), but he's passable defensively at 2B with serious pop and hits for average with a sustainable babip. Maybe that's what you want out of a 2B on a team with a terrible offense. Or any team. It's his job to lose IMO and no one has really pressured him. Especially Brooks, ostensibly the guy he was competing against for the job to start the year.

One might expect Meidroth to become the better hitter in the long run, love his profile, but so far he isn't. He's getting babip'd, but his eye in particular has regressed. One might also just prefer a middle infielder who can hit 20-25 HRs a season over a guy who hits 2 to 4. Personally, I think Vargas is the odd man out of the infield, that Colson should play 3B and Meidroth should play SS for the foreseeable future and we don't actually have a 1B or DH on the roster. If Jacob Gonzalez continues to hit at AAA, it makes things more complicated. Sosa might actually just be a good trade piece but there isn't any point in trading him any time soon.

BTW, Lenyn Sosa's .743 OPS puts him in line with Christian Walker, Spencer Torkelson, Jake Burger, Arraez, Goldschmidt tier of first basemen...not in the Romy Gonzalez tier though...wtf? 

[WestEddy]

4 hours ago, bobbydanks said:

in regards to defense there are 5 and you bushwhackers that want to see bobbled balls don't seem to understand it 

C>/CF/SS>>>>>>2b/3b>>>>>>>>>>>>>1b/lf/rf. the issue isn't with Lenyn's bat it's he's barely a medocre batter at 1b/lf/4f/ and not good enough of  glove to play at other positions, nor is vargas really. 

But for this season, Sosa and Vargas need to get ABs. It doesn't matter if their bat doesn't play at 1B. Nobody's bat plays at 1B, but you have to have a guy stand by 1B when you're on defense, so one of them should be there. I wouldn't necessarily declare that Sosa isn't in our future. If he can hit 20+ HR, he's playable. 30+ would be nice, maybe he'll beef up and get there. 

[Rusty_Kuntz]

He has improved a great deal. When he first came up seemed overwhelmed to me, had a huge and ineffiicient swing with a big loop. He's shortened his swing a bunch, become a great two strike hitter, and has good power. If he keeps improving, esp pitch selection, I think he can be a .780-.800 OPS guy, which plays even with a mediocre glove (at least for the next couple year on this team). Should be an everyday player between DH, 1B, 2B next year unless the Sox's free agent philosophy changes drastically. 

[bobbydanks]

6 hours ago, nrockway said:

2 things: I think you're underrating the importance of 2B defense. It's shortstop without the throw and a lot more players bat left-handed than ever before. More balls get pulled to the right side than ever. Range is important there. More important defensive position than 3B for sure just in terms of how many balls are being hit that way, though SS is still the king of the infield. But I might remove a couple of those '>' signs lol.

The other thing is that Sosa is pretty much league average defensively at 2B. Statcast ranks him 60th percentile in outs above average. In terms of qualified 2B, he ranks 26/42, basically tied with Jose Altuve or Luisangel Acuna...beats out gold glover Brice Turang surprisingly. He's also just getting better across the board. He was 10th percentile in 2024. His bat has obviously improved. He might just keep getting better, right? Now that he's getting extended play. His bat has gotten better every month (and every season), he has 9 homers in July and August compared to 6 the rest of the season in ~100 fewer plate appearances. He improved from a really bad defender to simply an average/slightly below one. I think you take that if he can hit a bunch of home runs and OPS around .800 like he has since June.

The problem is that Meidroth is way better defensively in that regard, 89th percentile. I think Meidroth is the best shortstop on the team though and would be playing there if he was a 'prospect' the way Colson is. Meidroth could probably win some GGs at 2B, but thus far he hasn't really proven anything with the bat. 

Agreed that you don't really want him at 1B if you can help it (or anyone on the team currently...), but he's passable defensively at 2B with serious pop and hits for average with a sustainable babip. Maybe that's what you want out of a 2B on a team with a terrible offense. Or any team. It's his job to lose IMO and no one has really pressured him. Especially Brooks, ostensibly the guy he was competing against for the job to start the year.

One might expect Meidroth to become the better hitter in the long run, love his profile, but so far he isn't. He's getting babip'd, but his eye in particular has regressed. One might also just prefer a middle infielder who can hit 20-25 HRs a season over a guy who hits 2 to 4. Personally, I think Vargas is the odd man out of the infield, that Colson should play 3B and Meidroth should play SS for the foreseeable future and we don't actually have a 1B or DH on the roster. If Jacob Gonzalez continues to hit at AAA, it makes things more complicated. Sosa might actually just be a good trade piece but there isn't any point in trading him any time soon.

BTW, Lenyn Sosa's .743 OPS puts him in line with Christian Walker, Spencer Torkelson, Jake Burger, Arraez, Goldschmidt tier of first basemen...not in the Romy Gonzalez tier though...wtf? 

I agree with all of this and thank you for laying it all down like that. My only rebuttle is about the lenyn thing that long term speaking is there a spot on the roster for both Vargas and Sosa who are  average-below average at one position over a brooks baldwin utility man+better hitter. I mean can either play left over Benintendi where we can hide the bat or are they worth enough of a bat to hide. 

 

edit is in bold just so no one's replying to the wrong wording. 

Edited August 17 by bobbydanks

[nrockway]

1 hour ago, bobbydanks said:

I agree with all of this and thank you for laying it all down like that. My only rebuttle is about the lenyn thing that long term speaking is there a spot on the roster for both Vargas and Sosa who are  average-below average at one position over a brooks baldwin utility man+better hitter. I mean can either play left over Benintendi where we can hide the bat or are they worth enough of a bat to hide. 

 

edit is in bold just so no one's replying to the wrong wording. 

Vargas played some left for the Dodgers. I would've liked to see him get reps there this season. I think you're right though,  sluggers in the corners would be ideal. Honestly, cutting Benintendi would be addition by subtraction.

[southsider2k5]

16 minutes ago, nrockway said:

Vargas played some left for the Dodgers. I would've liked to see him get reps there this season. I think you're right though,  sluggers in the corners would be ideal. Honestly, cutting Benintendi would be addition by subtraction.

With the IF we have, an even meh level LF level for Vargas would help things along.

[chitownsportsfan]

He's the only guy on the team that hits well enough relative to his position other than the rookie catchers and so for Colson. For that reason alone I'd say he should be able to continue to play 2B most days. That said, I can also see his bat playing in a corner OF, so I'd give him some reps their in the offseason and spring, see how he takes to it. Doesn't need to even spend too much time on it, just enough to see if it's something he could do once a week or something without being horrible.

[Ducksnort]

If the kid can hit, he's got a future. Doesn't matter how bad the defense is. In this league, if you can hit big league pitching, you have a big league job. Its so difficult to have success at the big league level offensively. At the very least, he can DH. Any team would take him and the Sox would be fools to get rid of him if he continues to show that this isn't some fluke.

Edited August 17 by Ducksnort

[chitownsportsfan]

32 minutes ago, Ducksnort said:

If the kid can hit, he's got a future. Doesn't matter how bad the defense is. In this league, if you can hit big league pitching, you have a big league job. Its so difficult to have success at the big league level offensively. At the very least, he can DH. Any team would take him and the Sox would be fools to get rid of him if he continues to show that this isn't some fluke.

not saying I think they will but trading one of the few players that has consistently improved here and is now at least league average and cheap would be fucking insane.

[The Mighty Mite]

19 hours ago, Ducksnort said:

If the kid can hit, he's got a future. Doesn't matter how bad the defense is. In this league, if you can hit big league pitching, you have a big league job. Its so difficult to have success at the big league level offensively. At the very least, he can DH. Any team would take him and the Sox would be fools to get rid of him if he continues to show that this isn't some fluke.

I hate it that a young guy like Sosa winds up as a DH, there has to be a position where he would be just average.