White Sox Latest Addition Confirms Fears About Second Base

The White Sox have added Nate Mondou to a minor league contract, according to MLB.com. Mondou is a 27-year-old infielder who has spent his entire career with the Oakland organization up until this point. 

The Wake Forest Product is a left-handed hitter who owns a career of .278/.363/.389 slash line in six minor league seasons. He appeared in one game with the Oakland Athletics in 2022, going 0-for-2 in three plate appearances with a walk and a strikeout. 

The Athletics selected Mondou in the 13th round of the 2016 MLB June Amateur Draft. He worked his way up the Athletics farm system, reaching Triple-A in 2021. In his first season in Las Vegas, he hit .283/.371/.432 with 49 RBIs but just eight home runs in the historically hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. The following season he posted an eerily similar slash line of .283./.374/.431. He increased his RBI production to 64 but once again failed to produce much power, connecting for just seven home runs. However, it was enough for the Athletics to reward him with a cup of coffee in the big leagues during the final week of a miserable season. After his standalone MLB appearance, Oakland's front office outrighted him off the 40-man roster after the season, and he elected minor league free agency upon going unclaimed. Now he has been pulled off the scrap heap by the White Sox. 

While the move doesn't have any impact on the major league roster, it does signify that the White Sox intend to use Romy Gonzalez or Lenyn Sosa as their second baseman. This comes as no surprise. The assumption has been that the White Sox will use someone in-house to fill the void all offseason after the team decided to non-tender Josh Harrison, then remained dormant in the free agent market. 

Gonzalez played 33 games with the Charlotte Knights last season, logging 121 at-bats where he slashed .198/.281/.339. During that time, he played 25 games at shortstop, two at second base, and one at third base. Meanwhile, Sosa spent 55 games with the Knights, where he compiled 195 innings at second base and 276.2 at shortstop. Mondou will fill the void for another infielder in Charlotte when one inevitably wins the starting job. Somebody has to fill those innings. 

Mondou is primarily a second baseman but has also played third base and left field while also seeing some limited action at shortstop in the minors. 

Erik Gonzalez, who signed to a minor-league deal earlier in the offseason, will be jockeying for a position on the depth chart this spring. Mondou will slot in behind him should he fail to crack the Opening Day roster. It looks pretty unlikely the White Sox will try and swing a trade, given all the supplemental infield moves they have made. 

Hanser Alberto could also steal the second base job in Spring Training, but he is a non-roster invitee, so in the likely chance he does not, the White Sox will still need some minor league infield depth, and Mondou fits the bill. He's a .283/.373/.432 hitter during his career in Triple-A.