White Sox's Jose Abreu: Motivated to put struggles of 2016 behind him

Abreu says he learned from the experience of 2016 when he struggled to hit early in the season, Scott Merkin of the White Sox's official site reports. "I never in my life experienced some kind of struggles like I did last year," Abreu said. "But that put me in a better position as a player, as a person too. I'm in a better position now for this season because I learned from the experience."

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Abreu opened the 2016 season hitting .242 with a .686 OPS and six homers in his first 52 games, before coming around in June. Perhaps the poor start was partially attributable to his conditioning to start the season. The 30-year-old Cuban said he put a lot of effort into his body during the offseason with eye toward coming out the gate strong in April.