The White Sox won’t train their $25MM membership choice for Yoán Moncada’s providers in 2025. He’ll obtain a $5MM buyout as an alternative. Francys Romero of BeisbolFR reported the information this afternoon on X.
This has been the anticipated end result for some time. Moncada has had some good performances within the majors however the previous three seasons have seen him underperform, miss important time as a consequence of harm or each.
Moncada appeared in simply 208 video games through the 2022-2024 seasons as a consequence of numerous accidents. That features simply 12 video games within the ’24 marketing campaign, as a left adductor pressure saved him on the injured record for a lot of the 12 months. Even when he got here off the IL, the Sox didn’t play him a lot, preferring to present that point to youthful gamers who may very well be a part of the following aggressive window.
Even when on the sphere, Moncada hasn’t carried out particularly nicely of late. He has hit .236/.291/.387 because the begin of 2021 for a wRC+ of 88. With that efficiency, it’s unsurprising that the Sox would balk at giving Moncada one other $20MM to stay round for yet one more 12 months.
That leaves Moncada as a buy-low bounceback candidate in free company this winter. He was as soon as a high-profile defector from Cuba and highly-regarded prospect with the Pink Sox, heading to Chicago as a part of the Chris Sale commerce in December of 2016.
It took Moncada a couple of years however he lastly had his long-awaited breakout in 2019, launching 25 dwelling runs and slashing .315/.367/.548 for a wRC+ of 139. When mixed along with his robust protection, he was price 5.2 wins above substitute that 12 months, within the eyes of FanGraphs.
Going into 2020, the Sox wager on Moncada by giving him a five-year, $70MM extension which included a membership choice. He struggled a bit within the shortened 2020 season however bounce again with one other robust marketing campaign in 2021. However then, as talked about, the previous three seasons have been very disappointing, main the Sox to show down the choice at present.
Regardless of the could ups and downs in his journey, Moncada remains to be comparatively younger, not turning 30 till Could. He’ll probably discover some membership keen to make a small wager on his previous pedigree, maybe on a deal loaded with incentives, on account of his many well being points.
The third base free agent market is headlined by Alex Bregman, however a lot of the different choices are bench/utility guys like Paul DeJong, Gio Urshela and Amed Rosario. The commerce market might function Nolan Arenado or Eugenio Suárez, but it surely’s unclear how out there both participant is whereas Arenado’s no-trade clause might complicate issues. Moncada is clearly a dangerous play proper now but additionally has demonstrated upside.
