Here are the latest trends surrounding the White Sox:
How 23-year-old third baseman Yoan Moncada fared would be one of the most important themes of this White Sox season. So far, he has been outstanding in almost every regard.
Moncada leads the White Sox with a 1.6 WAR, per FanGraphs, which puts him second to only Dodgers first baseman/outfielder Cody Bellinger among players 23 or younger. Moncada's offensive production has improved dramatically over his marks in 2018, with nine homers, 29 RBIs, a slash line of .291/.353/.529, a weighted on-base percentage of .371 and a weighted-runs-created-plus of 136.
In 2018, White Sox right-hander Lucas Giolito was statistically the worst starter in baseball with a 6.13 ERA and -0.1 WAR. This season, Giolito has been one of the game's better young arms.
Giolito, 24, improved to 5-1 with a 3.35 ERA after allowing only one run and three hits in the White Sox's 4-1 victory against the Blue Jays on Saturday. Giolito also has a 10.47 strikeouts-per-nine rate and has lowered his walk rate to 3.77 per nine innings.
The White Sox have been in need of reliable bullpen arms, and they may have found one in the form of left-hander Aaron Bummer.
Bummer, 25, has thrown 10 1/3 scoreless innings since joining the White Sox from Triple-A in Triple-A. Three of his nine appearances have been 1-2-3 innings.
The White Sox had hoped veteran right-hander Ivan Nova could be a reliable piece to their rotation. He has instead been one of the worst pitchers in baseball to this point.
Nova is 2-4 with a 7.42 ERA in nine starts. He allowed nine runs, eight earned, in the White Sox's 10-2 loss to the Blue Jays on Friday. Nova has the highest ERA among eligible starters, and the metrics make no case for this being bad luck.
The struggles of Welington Castillo combined with the surge of James McCann have progressively reduced Castillo into a backup catcher's role.
Castillo is a -0.2 WAR player, per FanGraphs, and has produced little offensively with a slash line of .179/.297/.333. McCann has been a force at the plate -- producing a slash of .347/.390/.551 -- and also been lauded for working well with the White Sox's young pitchers.
The White Sox announced last week that left-hander Carlos Rodon will undergo Tommy John surgery, which will keep him out until at least midway through the 2020 campaign. It's the latest setback for a young White Sox starter.
Rodon joins Giolito, Dylan Cease, Michael Kopech and Dane Dunning as young pitchers on the White Sox or in their farm system to undergo Tommy John. The silver lining is that Giolito and Cease -- who each had Tommy John before joining the White Sox -- have both displayed promise since the surgery.