Spring Surge Puts Silver Slugger In Line For Roster Spot

Since taking over as general manager, Chris Getz has emphasized adding veterans to the Spring Training roster to see if they have anything left in the tank. Last year Getz added Mike Moustakas, among others, while this year he added guys like Brandon Drury and Joey Gallo.

While Moustakas didn't end up making the roster, one of the veterans Getz added this season may, as Brandon Drury is having a phenomenal Spring Training at this point.

So far in Spring Training Drury has hit .346 with a .370 OBP in 26 at-bats, adding one homer, five RBIs, and five doubles. This is exactly what the White Sox were hoping for out of Drury, as he had an injury riddled 2024 that lead to him being available on a minor league deal.

While 2024 was a significant down year for Drury, the few years before that were very good, as he won a Silver Slugger Award in 2022. In that year, Drury hit .263 with 28 homers and 87 RBIs, numbers like this would be a huge addition to the White Sox lineup, as we haven't seen an infielder put up numbers like that in a long time.

This led to the Los Angeles Angels to give Drury a two year, 17 million dollar deal. In 2023, his first year with the Angels, he hit .262 with 26 homeruns and 83 RBIs, living up to the contract.

Now, Drury looks to be heathy and playing like he did in the years prior to 2024. While the infield is crowded, Colson Montgomery hasn't been able to play much due to back spasms, leaving his status on the Opening Day roster in question. This could allow Drury to take a starting spot in the infield.

However, even if the White Sox want to break camp with Montgomery as the starting shortstop and a young player like Chase Miedroth as the starting second basemen, there could still be a spot in the everyday lineup for Drury, as he has over 900 major league innings in the outfield.

Due to his positional versatility and his Spring Training performance, Drury looks like he will make the White Sox out of camp. His play looks very similar to his 2022-2023 self, which could help net the White Sox a very solid prospect at the deadline if the play keeps up in the regular season.

Drury could start at left, second, short, or DH and could continue to get consistent at-bats to show contenders that he would be beneficial to their playoff push. While it's still early, this looks like one of Chris Getz's best free agent acquisitions.