Welcome back to our ongoing series of MLB team previews. As part of RotoBaller's ongoing effort to help you win your leagues, we're previewing all 30 MLB teams. For each team, we will take a look at their hitters, pitchers, prospects and offseason moves. Today we dive into the 2017 Chicago White Sox Team Outlook, and preview their potential fantasy baseball contributions.

The 2016 White Sox fought their way to a 78-84 record last season, which was good for a third-straight fourth place finish in the AL Central. This prompted a wildly active offseason that saw General Manager Rick Hahn make a couple of splashes at the Winter Meetings. Let’s take a look at the suddenly youthful White Sox organization heading into the 2017 season.

Editor's note: for even more draft prep, visit our awesome 2017 fantasy baseball rankings dashboard. It has lots of in-depth staff rankings and draft strategy columns. You will find tiered rankings for every position, 2017 impact rookie rankings, AL/NL only league ranks and lots more. Bookmark the page, and win your drafts.

 

Offseason Moves

Let’s just get after the biggest news first. The White Sox made the largest splash of the 2016-17 offseason when they traded ace Chris Sale to the Red Sox for a bevy of young talent. The haul was headlined by MLB.com’s No. 2 overall prospect Yoan Moncada, and also included the hard-throwing Michael Kopech (No. 16) and minor leaguers Luis Alexander Basabe and Victor Diaz.

But Hahn wasn’t done, as one day later he traded defensive-whiz Adam Eaton to the Nationals for the highly-touted young arm of Lucas Giolito (No. 12), and fellow RHPs Reynaldo Lopez (No. 46) and Dane Dunning.

While those move set the bar high, it should also be noted that the South Siders brought back 1B Jose Abreu, 2B Brett Lawrie and OF Avisail Garcia on one-year deals. They also brought in southpaw Derek Holland on a one-year contract to shore up their rotation depth. Free agents Alex Avila and Austin Jackson have signed with other clubs, with Justin Morneau still unsigned but unlikely to return to the White Sox.

 

Hitting Overview

This lineup is going to carry over a surprising amount of players considering how buzzy the offseason was, with the only big change coming at the leadoff spot for now. It’ll be felt though, as Eaton’s strong average and on-base skills blended well with modest pop and speed to make him a very effective leadoff hitter.

As of now, Charlie Tilson should step into Eaton’s spot. While the 24-year-old doesn’t have Eaton’s power (four homers in 395 Triple-A PAs last season), he did put up a .282/.345/.407 slash line with 15 steals on the farm last season. He stole 46 bags at Double-A in ‘15. There’s some deep-league intrigue there.

Outside of that it’ll be business as usual, with the fleet-footed Tim Anderson likely slotting in at the two-hole before the power bats of Jose Abreu, Melky Cabrera and Todd Frazier come to the dish. Anderson should threaten 12/20 territory, but his plate discipline still needs refining. Abreu should be more like the second-half slugger from last season rather than the struggling shadow from the first half. Cabrera should be his consistent self. Frazier may not hit 40 homers, but it’s doubtful that he flirts with a .200 BABIP for the majority of the season either. The juicy power-speed combo will be there.

Outside of them, the bottom half of this roster isn’t worth investing in. The aforementioned Lawrie and Garcia should be decent AL-only picks, with catcher Geovany Soto and the platoon bats of Cody Asche, Peter Bourjos and Rymer Liriano unlikely to make any real impact without real playing time.

Liriano could be interesting if he gets an everyday job though, as he slashed .292/.383/.460 with 14 homers and 18 steals in 549 Triple-A PAs for San Diego in 2015 (he missed all of last season with multiple facial fractures due to being struck by a pitch). Tyler Saladino made some noise by bopping eight homers with 11 steals and a .282 average last season, but the Moncada trade really hurts his chances of finding playing time.

 

Pitching Overview

Without Sale, fellow lefty Jose Quintana will take over as the staff ace ahead of Miguel Gonzalez, Carlos Rodon, James Shields and Derek Holland. Quintana’s success in ’16 didn’t surprise those who have been following him since 2013, as he’s actually ranked seventh in WAR out of all pitchers in that timespan thanks largely to his durability and consistency. His 4.01 SIERA last season is concerning, but he’s still a low-end SP2.

Gonzalez surprised us with a 3.73 ERA and 1.24 WHIP last season, as a cut-fastball raised his aggressiveness and confidence on the mound and pushed him into deep-league relevance. Rodon’s first two seasons have yielded a 4.50 ERA in the first half, but a 3.45 ERA in the second. He makes for a good flier if he can put it together with his strikeout-per-inning stuff. Shields and Holland shouldn’t be targets.

Closer David Robertson saw his control erode last season (1.85 BB/9 to 4.62), but was still effective enough to hold onto a 3.47 ERA and record 37 saves. Those looking for holds and save-speculating should grab Nate Jones. His 10.19 K/9 and 1.91 BB/9 rates joined up with a strong 45.9% groundball rate to paint a pretty picture.

 

Prospects Overview

Moncada, Giolito, Kopech, Lopez, Basabe and Dunning join Carson Fulmer, Zack Collins, Spencer Adams and Zack Burdi to make a formidable top 10 for this squad. While seven of those names are RHPs, there’s just an undeniable amount of potential here. Look for Moncada to join the bigs as a fantasy factor in the middle of 2017, provided he can shore up his strikeouts first. Ditto Giolito with his control woes. With the rebuild mode on, they should get their auditions with little pressure.

 

Conclusion

The 2017 White Sox likely won’t be contenders, but offer a few veterans of early-round fantasy relevance along with some intriguing youth that should be on many keeper- and dynasty-league radars.