Yasmani Grandal Showing Signs Of Life At The Plate

Don't look now but Yasmani Grandal is beginning to show signs of life at the plate. The 33-year-old catcher has hit safely in five of his last seven games. He is also in the midst of a four-game hit streak. During this stretch, he has six RBIs. With Grandal heating up, the offense has followed suit. A day after scoring nine runs in a losing effort to the Dodgers the White Sox erupted for five runs in the eighth inning to surge past the Texas Rangers en route to an 8-3 victory. The White Sox recorded eleven hits and received key contributions from AJ Pollock, Jake Burger, and Danny Mendick. Burger continues to swing a hot bat, as he went 2-for-4 with a double. Pollock also logged two hits including an RBI double in the seventh inning. Meanwhile, Danny Mendick hit a towering fly ball over the left-field fence for a two-run homer to put the nail in the coffin in the eighth inning. But perhaps the biggest contribution came from Yasmani Grandal. Grandal went 2-for-3 with a walk and three RBIs. He opened the scoring in the second inning with a line drive to center field for an RBI single. In the eighth innings, he broke a 3-3 tie with a clutch two-out double to right field to plate two more. The double turned out to be the game-winning RBIs. He was able to do it from both sides of the plate as well. His single in the second inning came from the left-hand side while his double came from the right. It is significant because he is batting just .152 against right handers this season.

If the White Sox are going to get back to winning consistently they need these types of contributions from the highest-paid player in franchise history. Grandal has had a rough go of things at the plate so far in 2022. Grandal is on track for a career-low in batting average (.175) slugging percentage (.237), and OPS (.514). His struggles at the plate have had a direct effect on the White Sox's offensive output. As a team, they rank 23rd in home runs, 25th in OBP, and 27th in RBIs. Those are the three categories that Grandal has excelled at throughout his career. He is having an uncharacteristically bad year in all three departments. Last season he established career highs in OBP (.420), slugging percentage (.520), and OPS (.939). He also mashed 23 home runs, marking the fifth time in his career that he has hit 20 plus. Grandal managed to do this despite missing significant time with a knee injury. He averaged one home run every12..13 at0-bats, which ranked third in the American League, behind only Mike Zunino and Shohei Ohtani. Grandal really heated things up in the last two months of the season. From August 27th until the end of the season he leads the MLB in OBP and OPS while ranking second in slugging percentage and walk. He also had the sixth-highest batting average with a .337 mark during that stretch. This is just a small snapshot of what Yas can provide for the middle of a lineup. It is also why his struggles this season have handicapped the White Sox. Grandal knows he hasn't been playing up to his full capabilities but he has an explanation as to why. According to Grandal, his struggles can be attributed to undergoing knee surgery at the end of October.

"Getting my feet underneath me, and as soon as that happens, it's going to be full go," Grandal told reporters after Saturday's game. "It's going to happen within like, I can't pinpoint, but as soon as it happens, you'll be able to see it."

He later added:

“We knew that Spring Training for me was going to be a very important time, especially getting back on the field and getting as much catching in as I could,” Grandal said. “Then all of a sudden, as soon as we ramped up, the knee started kind of acting up and now we had to take it slow. “Once that happened, now all of a sudden you start making little adjustments to still play and still get that playing time, but not the adjustments you are trying to truly take. It’s almost a fake feel. It happened last year so I know exactly what it is, and like I said, it’s just a matter of getting stronger.”

This past week looks like a step in the right direction.