Countdown to Opening Day - 6: Three reasons why the White Sox will make the playoffs in 2015
In this 30-day series, theScore's MLB editors will preview the 2015 season with an in-depth look at some of the significant numbers - statistical milestones, jersey numbers and general miscellanea - poised to pop up throughout the campaign.
The Chicago White Sox haven't made the playoffs in six seasons, nor have they come particularly close in the last two. After winning the second fewest games in 2013 and finishing 30 games out of first in the Central, Robin Ventura's group managed a marginally better result last year - a .431 winning percentage and 15 games out of a playoff spot.
Consider their underwhelming play a blessing in disguise.
Tired of their club's recent run of futility, Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn teamed up to retool the White Sox so significantly that one could reasonably anoint them winners of the offseason. More importantly, however, will be whether the additions of Jeff Samardzija, Melky Cabrera, David Robertson and Adam LaRoche help the White Sox reach the playoffs for the first time since 2008.
We sized up the White Sox's chances by looking at three reasons why they will end their six-year draught and return to the postseason:
Best 1-2 punch in the AL
With Max Scherzer in Washington and Justin Verlander's health increasingly a point of concern, Samardzija and Chris Sale are arguably the top pitching duo in the American League. They're the only AL teammates to each record 200 strikeouts last season, and when you add Jose Quintana to the fray, the trio posted the highest WAR (14.3) for any pitching threesome in the league. That's what we call a playoff-primed rotation.
Bash Brothers
Jose Abreu's 36 homers last year would have looked even better with a power-hitting compliment batting behind him. The White Sox are hoping that guy is LaRoche. No two current AL teammates south of the border hit more homers than Abreu and LaRoche's 2014 total of 62 and conventional wisdom, flawed or not, suggests the two will benefit from the other's presence.
Rookie upside
Two of the most important additions to the White Sox roster this season weren't acquired by trade or signed via free agency. Carlos Rodon - the third overall pick in last year's draft - possesses an elite slider that could soon become the envy of all pitchers, while second baseman Micah Johnson's game-changing speed should add a new dimension to the lineup. Johnson, who's never played above Triple-A, will need to show he can get on base close to a league-average level in order to provide value with his legs, but after White Sox second basemen produced the second-lowest WAR in the AL, the bar for improvement is considerably low.
Only one of our six MLB editors picked the White Sox to make the playoffs, and most prognosticators feel there are still too many holes on the roster to project them as one of the top five teams in the AL. With Rodon starting the year in Triple-A, Johnson's development sure to be inconsistent, and an outfield short on power, a lot has to go right for the White Sox in 2015. Fortunately for them, the same can be said for just about any team in the AL.