Projecting the Chicago White Sox’s Opening Day lineup

CHICAGO — It’s that time of year again White Sox fans. We’re less than 24 hours away from first pitch on Opening Day and the South Siders just announced their 26-man roster that will take the field against the Detroit Tigers for game No. 1. So, let’s take a crack at how their lineup could stack tomorrow afternoon.

Starting Pitcher: Garrett Crochet

The White Sox and the Tigers both announced their Opening Day starting pitchers over the past two weeks — Garrett Crochet vs. Tarik Skubal — and it’ll be a lefty-lefty matchup for the first time in a South Siders’ Opening Day game since April 4, 2016, when Chris Sale squared off against the Oakland Athletic’s Rich Hill in what turned out to be a 4-3 win for Chicago.

It’s a unique situation for Crochet, who hasn’t been called upon as a starting pitcher since his college days as a Tennessee Volunteer.

Per the team’s social media account on X, he will be the Sox’s first pitcher to make his first major league start on Opening Day since Rob Patterson did so all the way back on April 24, 1901 (The Sox won that game, 8-2, for those wondering).

The 6-foot-6-inch-tall left-hander expressed his interest in breaking into the starting rotation during Spring training to Sox manager Pedro Grifol and pitching coach Ethan Katz, and after going 12.2 innings where he surrendered only three earned runs with 14 strikeout to just one walk, he got the nod to take the bump on Opening Day from his skipper.

In 72 career games across two seasons, Crochet has pitched 73 innings to the tune of a 2.71 ERA and a 3-7 record on the mound, while notching 85 strikeouts to just 40 walks.

White Sox announce Opening Day roster

Lineup

1. LF – Andrew Benintendi

2. 1B – Andrew Vaughn

3. CF – Luis Robert Jr.

4. DH – Eloy Jimenez

5. 3B – Yoan Moncada

6. SS – Paul DeJong

7. C – Korey Lee

8. RF – Kevin Pillar

9. 2B – Nicky Lopez

Am I the sage of Sox lineup knowledge? Nope, but this is the lineup that rings most true with my gut, even if a couple slight alterations become reality in the next 12-15 hours or so.

Among things that stand out the most to me, Vaughn and Moncada are essentially interchangeable at the No. 2 and 5 spots in Grifol’s lineup. It wouldn’t surprise me if the two were flip-flopped when the White Sox take the field tomorrow.

Martin Maldonado was signed to be Chicago’s starting catcher this offseason, and there are no tea leaves reading that he will be anything less than that on Opening Day, but I’d like to see Lee get an opportunity to carry over the scorching success he had this spring in the Arizona Cactus League.

In 32 plate appearances across 18 games, Lee slashed .286/.382/.714 with three home runs (tied for tops on the Sox this spring), a double, a triple and eight runs-batted-in, to go with a team-leading 1.096 OPS, among players to play at least ten games.

By comparison, Maldonado and fellow catcher Max Stassi (left off the Opening Day roster due to a 10-day stint on the injured list with left hip inflammation) both posted sub-.600 OPS numbers in 27 combined games.

Kevin Pillar, released at the end of spring training before being signed back to the big league squad just two days later, looks to be a platoon bat in right field for the White Sox when facing lefties, and with Skubal getting the nod for the Tigers, I’d expect him to be in left field over Dominic Fletcher on Opening Day.

Grifol told CHGO Sports’ Vinnie Duber that “there’s a very good possibility” Pillar gets the start in right field with Skubal patrolling the mound for Detroit tomorrow.

When asked if that will be a normal tactic as the season progresses, Grifol told Duber, “We’ll take it one step at a time. … The next lefty we face, we’ll see where we’re at.”

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