Fansided · Oct 15, 2019
How important is retaining Jose Abreu for Chicago White Sox?
Jose Abreu hits the open market as a free agent for the first time since he was signed by the Chicago White Sox prior to the 2014 season.
Abreu is coming off one of the best seasons of his career for the Chicago White Sox, hitting .284/.330/.503 with 33 home runs and an American League-leading 123 RBI. That gave him a 117 wRC+ and 1.9 fWAR.
However, for a hitter of that caliber, a 1.9 fWAR is actually pretty low and that is due to the fact that defense is not a specialty for him as he registered -4 DRS and a -1.9 UZR at first base, according to FanGraphs.
While those numbers aren’t significantly below average, it was enough that the team decided to use him as their DH for 34 games this season.