Manny’s Impact In Chicago

Posted by BaconSlayer09

Ramirez is an incredible upgrade over Ozzie Guillen's rotating DH experiment.

There are countless adjectives to describe Manny Ramirez and a lot of them are probably profane. However, no matter how you look at it, two words that would accurately describe Manny is “great hitter”. Ramirez is definitely one of the best hitters of this generation, as shown by his .418 career wOBA and 1.000 OPS. Even in what is considered a down year for him last season, Ramirez posted a .396 wOBA, good for 25.4 batting runs. This season, he has continued to regress, but his .392 wOBA is far from bad. Some may think Ramirez is done and they’re somewhat right. He’s done being the hitter he was 10 years ago, the dominant slugger capable of putting up a .450 wOBA. But right now, he’s still capable of posting a wOBA around .390 and on a White Sox team desperately looking for an energy boost and a middle of the order hitter, he should be a great fit. But just how much will Manny contribute to the struggling team on the South Side?

Well, for starters, Manny is projected to hit with a .405 wOBA for the rest of the season by ZiPS. If we assume that Manny will play 30 of the 32 remaining games the White Sox have and gets around 130 PAs for the rest of the season at the DH position, Ramirez will be worth approximately 0.8 WAR. Getting a whole win share in about a month’s worth of games is definitely a great feat. If a player keeps that up over the entire year, they’re due for a 5 WAR season. So Manny will be valuable, not just to the White Sox, but any team out there.

After last year's claim of Alex Rios and the claim of Manny Ramirez, Kenny Williams should be crowned the king of the waiver wire.

But how valuable will Manny be to the White Sox, given their current situation? One of the reasons that Kenny Williams (now deemed the King of Waivers) went out of his way to get Ramirez is the DH platoon disaster. Ozzie Guillen’s “genius” idea to put bad hitters in a DH platoon has destroyed the middle of the order. Mark Kotsay, while no longer getting as much playing time as of late, has been a black hole with his .300 wOBA. Andruw Jones has been a decent hitter, as shown by his .352 wOBA. But one look at his batting average and on base percentage should tell you how inconsistent he’s been. Andruw is the perfect example of a blind man running into the occasional home run. White Sox DHs have combined for a .319 wOBA. Stretch that out over the same playing time that Manny is going to get and it will result in -.1 WAR. So Manny is a 1 WAR upgrade over the White Sox’ rotating DH circus. On top of that, Manny will probably never touch the outfield grass. DHing should keep him fresh, while increasing his value due to his horrendous outfield defense. With Manny receiving around $4 million for the rest of the year and his possible 1 WAR contribution to the White Sox, he is worth the money (1 WAR is worth around $3.5 million).

The White Sox currently sit 4.5 games behind the Twins. They have three more head to head games left with Minnesota in Chicago, as well as 16 home games, where the tickets will definitely sell with Manny in the lineup. While this move could be too little too late, it is definitely a mental boost and a valuable addition for a very tired and depleted White Sox team. This move, along with rosters expanding in September could very well jump-start this White Sox team in the final month – usually the month of doom for the South Siders.