The first piece of the White Sox’s last rebuild will not be on the South Side in 2025.
According to reporter Francys Romero, the White Sox declined their $25 million team option on Yoan Moncada’s contract for 2025, instead deciding to pay the $5 million buyout. With this, Moncada is now a free agent and can sign with any team.
Once the top prospect in Major League Baseball, Yoan Moncada’s career on the South Side can be described as polarizing. In eight seasons and 739 games with the White Sox, Moncada slashed .254/.332/.425 with a 107 wRC+ and 14.0 fWAR. His best season came in 2019, where he slashed .315/.367/.548 with a 139 wRC+, 5.2 fWAR, and 25 homers across 132 games.
Following that campaign, he was signed to a five-year, $70M contract extension. However, he would never reach those heights again, though he came close with his .263/.375/.412 slash line in 2021 that featured a 120 wRC+ and 3.7 fWAR. He played in just 12 games in 2024 due to injury and eventually being benched by interim manager Grady Sizemore as the season came to an end and playing time was given to the next wave of young White Sox talent.
Like many of the White Sox “core” pieces, Moncada struggled with injuries, playing in just 104 games over the past two seasons combined. In reality, 2019 and 2021 were not only Moncada’s best seasons – they were also two of his healthiest ones as well. It’s a clear story of “what if” with Moncada, even though he was an above-average hitter and defender in his time in Chicago.
With this move, Luis Robert Jr. and Andrew Vaughn remain the only two significant prospects still with the team from the initial 2016 sell-off. Robert’s name has swirled around in trade talks since the July Trade Deadline, while Andrew Vaughn is a potential non-tender candidate with the White Sox working to re-shape their roster in the image that Chris Getz and new manager Will Venable have for the team.
Moncada’s defenders will appreciate the time he spent in Chicago and point out he was the most productive member of the team’s old core to this point. The detractors won’t let you forget that there was supposed to be so much more.
In that way, his White Sox career is not too dissimilar to the story of the White Sox as a team during his time in Chicago.
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