{"id":80327,"date":"2024-07-17T00:08:50","date_gmt":"2024-07-17T04:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=80327"},"modified":"2024-07-17T00:08:50","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T04:08:50","slug":"white-sox-sign-nick-senzel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/17\/white-sox-sign-nick-senzel\/","title":{"rendered":"White Sox Sign Former Second Overall Pick To Major League Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Chicago White Sox will sign veteran <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/senzeni01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-17_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nick Senzel<\/a> on Tuesday, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JRFegan\/status\/1813376636605059387\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Per James Fegan of Sox Machine<\/a>, Senzel will sign a major league deal. The veteran will likely join the team immediately following the All-Star break on Friday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Washington Nationals released Senzel in mid-July after he struggled to perform this year. The rebuilding club decided to move on from the veteran in favor of giving playing time to younger prospects. Senzel will sign with the White Sox, another rebuilding team, and will likely receive decent playing time.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Nick Senzel is signing with White Sox<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JonHeyman\/status\/1813373613757591725?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 17, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Chicago White Sox Sign Nick Senzel<\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Senzel signed with Washington in December on a one-year, $2 million deal after being non-tendered by the Cincinnati Reds. He is a versatile player with experience playing all over the diamond. That said, he signed with the Nationals to serve as the everyday third baseman to rebuild his value on the rebuilding team. Unfortunately, he struggled mightily with the bat, glove, and health.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 29-year-old hit .209\/.303\/.359 (89 wRC+) with a good walk rate and a below-league-average strikeout rate in 235 plate appearances. Statcast reveals that the right-hander failed to make quality contact, thus indicating his poor production was not fluky. It also continued a several-year trend of Senzel not making good contact.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Miguel Sano is whiffing a ton this year (38.4% whiff and 37.9% K) but generates his usual loud contact &#8212; 94 mph avg exit velo.<\/p>\n<p>Seems like a LAD fix. Big whiff and exit velo.<\/p>\n<p>Get him to swing at the first pitch more and foul off pitches in an at bat. He will run into results. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/y9Mv2jYISM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/y9Mv2jYISM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Remi Bunikiewicz (@RBunikiewicz) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RBunikiewicz\/status\/1810498262119657714?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 9, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Senzel paired his below-average offense with awful defense. In 388 1\/3 defensive innings at third base, Senzel earned -8 Defensive Runs Saved and -4 Outs Above Average. He only played third base this season, but it should be noted that his defense in the outfield throughout his career is much worse per these metrics.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Senzel\u2019s struggles this year are nothing new for the former top prospect. In 1,601 career plate appearances, he has hit .235\/.302\/.368 (78 wRC+) and accumulated a -0.5 career fWAR.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It also doesn\u2019t help that he has dealt with a plethora of injuries throughout his career. This includes missing time this season with a broken thumb. Even if the injuries stunted his development, Senzel likely does not have many more opportunities to establish himself in the majors.<\/p>\n<h3>How Signing Senzel Fits for the ChiSox<\/h3>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The White Sox need to clear a 40-man roster spot when they make the Senzel signing official. Considering the time of the year, many will naturally speculate that space will be made via an imminent trade.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, no trade seems to be on the horizon. Chicago could clear a spot by designating someone for assignment or placing someone on the 60-day injured list. That said, the team is expected to be <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/06\/25\/white-sox-scouting-trade-deadline\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">one of the most active sellers<\/a> at this summer\u2019s deadline.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">That Paul DeJong trade value \ud83d\udcc8<\/p>\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/L5tXYksk2O\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/L5tXYksk2O<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sox On 35th (@SoxOn35th) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SoxOn35th\/status\/1800716128131654140?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 12, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Infielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/dejonpa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-17_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul DeJong<\/a> is having a nice season on the South Side and might be traded at a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/08\/01\/jays-trade-cardinals-dejong\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">second consecutive deadline<\/a>. The Sox could sign Senzel hoping he hits well enough over the next week or so to generate trade interest.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But, it&#8217;s more likely that he provides a veteran presence on a gutted White Sox squad.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Rafael Suanes-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chicago White Sox will sign veteran Nick Senzel on Tuesday, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Per James Fegan of Sox Machine, Senzel will sign a major league deal. The veteran will likely join the team immediately following the All-Star break on Friday. The Washington Nationals released Senzel in mid-July after he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4683,"featured_media":80355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1071,35],"tags":[704,2600],"class_list":["post-80327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whitesox","category-mlb","category-news","tag-nick-senzel","tag-paul-dejong"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4683"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}