Just about anything that could go wrong, has gone wrong for the Chicago White Sox so far in 2025, especially at the plate. Chicago is slashing just .211/.289/.325 as a team, good for a .614 OPS that ranks last in all of baseball. Even the team’s erstwhile superstar, Luis Robert Jr., is hitting well below the Mendoza Line right now; given that context, it can seem a bit unfair to single out any one player in particular for their offensive struggles.
And yet, single out we must. Because while it’s all been bad for the White Sox offensively this season, one player in particular appears to hit rock bottom. And after years of being given more leash than he deserves, the team’s patience should finally be running out — especially as a replacement looms at Triple-A.
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White Sox need to give Andrew Vaughn the Spencer Torkelson treatment
It wasn’t too long ago that Andrew Vaughn was a crucial part of Chicago’s future. The third overall pick back in 2019, he made his big-league debut less than two years later, quickly settling in as the team’s everyday first baseman.
A tremendously polished hitter at Cal, Vaughn brought the promise of a plus hit tool to go along with plus power at the cold corner. But all these years later, we’re still waiting for that promise to turn into actual production. And things are getting worse, not better, as he enters what should be his prime: After watching his OPS+ slip from 113 in 2022 to 103 in 2023 to 99 in 2024, the bottom has fallen out over the first month of 2025, with a .160/.204/.274 slash line that makes him among the very worst hitters in the sport.
Vaughn is no longer a prospect; heck, he just turned 27 years old. Whatever player he’s going to be, he’s supposed to be it by now, and Chicago is running out of reasons to extend him the benefit of the doubt. When you combine his struggles so far this year with his disappointing career so far, it becomes awfully hard to make the argument that he deserves continued playing time at the Major League level; is he really the best use of those at-bats for the White Sox’ future at this point?
The simple fact is that Vaughn is almost certainly no longer a part of that future. And a player who could be is languishing at Triple-A to accommodate him: First baseman Tim Elko has been tearing the cover off the ball in Charlotte, with a 1.159 OPS and nine homers over his first 25 games. There are swing-and-miss and plate discipline concerns for the Ole Miss product, who’s never found himself on top prospect lists after being taken in the 10th round back in 2022. But the results speak for themselves, and he deserves to get his chance at the big-league level.
He can’t get that chance with Vaughn still around. There’s very little reason to carry a righty first baseman as a bench bat, meaning that Vaughn needs to either remain the starter or head to the Minors. Right now, that choice is all too clear.
