Delivering on promise
Yoan Moncada is starting to deliver on his promise — but the White Sox third baseman is far from satisfied
White Sox’s Yoan Moncada, now in his second season, is steadily improving. But the third baseman is far from satisfied: “I’m still a young player. I can get better.”
The White Sox trailed by a run in the 10th inning of the second game of a July 3 doubleheader against the Tigers at Guaranteed Rate Field. They were down to their final two outs. Yoan Moncada wasn’t ready for the long day of baseball to end. The 24-year-old third baseman took a big cut on the second pitch from Shane Greene. He missed.
He worked the count to 2-1, then blasted a 462-foot home run to right field to tie the game. The Sox won 9-6 in 12 innings.
The home run was Moncada’s second of the game and 16th of the season — one shy of his 2018 total.
The power numbers are just one area of improvement for Moncada, who in his second full season is starting to deliver on his promise as one of baseball’s top prospects.
“Last year was my first full season in the majors, and I learned how to grind during the whole season,” the Cuban-born Moncada said last week through an interpreter. “This year, I have the experience from last year. I worked to get better for this year, I worked a lot during the offseason and I put in all that work.”
Moncada is slashing .308/.364/.544 with the 16 homers and 48 RBIs. He took a 13-game hitting streak — the longest active streak in the majors — into the second-half opener Friday night against the Athletics in Oakland, Calif. He had 20 hits in 52 at-bats (.385) with four homers and nine RBIs during the stretch.
“He’s continued to hone his skills on both sides of the plate and he’s coming into his own,” manager Rick Renteria said. “I hope this is just a little scratch at the surface of what he’s going to become.”
The buildup
The expectations were sky high for Moncada, who was acquired from the Red Sox as part of the Chris Sale trade on Dec. 6, 2016.
Baseball America had named Moncada its Minor League Player of the Year in 2016 after he slashed .294/.407/.511 with 15 home runs and 62 RBIs between Class A and Double A. He appeared in eight games that season with the Red Sox.
Moncada entered 2017 as the No. 2 prospect in baseball, according to Baseball America and MLB.com. He began that season with Triple-A Charlotte and joined the White Sox in July.
While he hit .231 in 199 at-bats that season with the White Sox, he heated up down the stretch, hitting .299 with five homers, 11 RBIs and an .882 OPS in his final 21 games.
Growing pains
Moncada was called out on strikes in his first at-bat of 2018. It was a harbinger, to say the least.
He finished his first full big-league season with a major-league-high 217 strikeouts in 650 plate appearances — a rate of 33.4% — and a slash line of .235/.315/.400 with 17 homers and 61 RBIs in 149 games. This season is different. Much different. In 79 first-half games, he had 92 strikeouts in 336 plate appearances — a 27.4% rate.
“You need to keep learning every day because every day you learn something new,” Moncada said. “And that’s also part of the process. Every time you learn something new, you try to apply it the next day. That’s what I’ve been doing. I’m just trying to learn as much as I can every day.”
The mentor
First baseman Jose Abreu was by Moncada’s side through those tough times. And he proudly has watched Moncada’s rise this season.
On June 30, Abreu was named an American League All-Star for the third time in his six seasons with the Sox. He spent a portion of his postgame news conference that day making an All-Star case for Moncada.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Abreu said through an interpreter.
The two Cuba natives have lockers near each other. The bond doesn’t end there.
“He helps me a lot in every aspect, on and off the field,” Moncada said. “Just how to approach at-bats, how to do your BP routine. How you can handle yourself in different situations. He’s a mentor for us and for me.
“I owe him a lot.”
Abreu notices the work that has led to Moncada’s growth.
“He has improved a lot,” Abreu said. “He learned from last year and we can see that on the field. He’s a good player. Every day he works hard and he goes out there to try to do his best. To make the adjustments, day by day, pitch by pitch, that’s something that is a difference in him from the player he was last year.”
Power surge
Moncada homered from both sides of the plate in the July 3 game, the 10th time in franchise history that happened. He has three home runs and 14 RBIs in 91 at-bats as a right-handed hitter this season compared with two homers and 10 RBIs in 148 at-bats in 2018.
Moncada has three homers in his last 25 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers. He had four homers in his first 316 career plate appearances against lefties.
“What it tells me is the more he plays, the more at-bats he gets from that side, the experience that he’s gaining through failure and/or success is starting to pay off for him,” Renteria said. “When we’re watching these young men play, one of the things that we have to make sure that we do is we know our own guys and that we trust that the work they’re putting in will ultimately give them some fruits. And it’s starting to occur for him.”
Right-handed or left, Moncada is making good contact. He’s seventh in the AL in batting average, and his .908 OPS ranks ninth.
And Moncada’s weighted runs createdplus (wRC+) — which estimates a player’s offensive contribution in terms of total runs and adjusts that number to account for external factors such as ballpark or era — is 139, tied for fifth in the American League, according to FanGraphs. That’s 39 percent better than the major-league average.
“I don’t want to jinx the kid, but he’s on pace to have a pretty good year in all facets: cutting down on strikeouts, homers, RBIs, on-base — everything you would want to look for,” Renteria said. “It’s all playing forward, and hopefully it continues. He’s trending in the right direction.”
Not satisfied
Moncada also made the transition from second base to third this season, and his .964 fielding percentage ranked fifth among AL third basemen in the first half. Renteria has been “extremely impressed” with Moncada’s defense.
“He’s doing very, very well,” Renteria said. “He’s showing (that) his game on both sides continues to develop and impress everyone.”
Renteria also said Moncada merited All-Star consideration, though Moncada said he wasn’t disappointed to miss out.
“I did all that I had to do,” Moncada said. “That was something I couldn’t control. I had a very good first half. I’m very happy with it.”
He did list being an All-Star among his goals. His immediate focus, though, is building on the strong first half.
“I still have room to improve,” Moncada said. “In order for me to do that, I just need to keep working hard. This is just my second full year in the majors and I’m still a young player. I still can get better.”