GLENDALE, Ariz. – It feels like an important year for Andrew Vaughn.
A crossroads? Not quite, but Vaughn a No. 3 overall pick as a first baseman in 2019 arrived to the White Sox in 2021 with lofty expectations to produce at a position that demands above average production.
What’s more, Vaughn follows in a White Sox first-base line of sluggers that includes Frank Thomas, Paul Konerko and Jose Abreu. Even Adam Dunn, while not held in the same esteem, banged out 41 home runs, walked 105 times and drove in 96 runs in 2012.
Vaughn batted .258/.314/.429 with 21 homers, 30 doubles and 80 RBI in 2023, his third full season and first as a regular first baseman after getting yanked into left field when Eloy Jimenez tore a pectoral muscle leaping over the left field wall late in spring training. Those are good numbers, but there might be more in there.
Vaughn won’t declare a desire to hit 30 homers and drive in 100 runs Thomas, Konerko, Abreu style. But believe him when he says his plan is to do everything in his power to make it happen.
“I’m just going back to the roots and not taking a single pitch off,” said Vaughn, who has batted fifth behind Eloy Jimenez this spring. “That’s going to be my biggest thing, be ready to hit every single pitch. Just have that mindset. Be aggressive and take that to every at-bat, don’t let any at-bat slip away, don’t let a call [effect] you. Be ready for every pitch.”
On cold days in the eighth inning of a seven-run game at Guaranteed Rate Field, or a hot getaway-day Sunday in Kansas City with the same score.
Make them all count.
“One-hundred-fifty games, that’s 600 at-bats,” Vaughn said. “If you can minimize losing a single one of them … every single one counts.”
Vaughn is heading to Opening Day making his most recent at-bats in Arizona count, to the tun of hitting safely in eight of his last eight games with a .370/.393/.593 hitting line. During that span, Vaughn struck out three times in 28 plate appearances.
For the Sox to be more than the last-place team most projections say they are, they won’t have the freedom to take pitches off on either side of the ball. The chip on the shoulder, nobody believes in us mindset evident on Day One of spring training is simmering on Day 39.
“Everybody kind of counted us out from the beginning,” Vaughn said. “We have to go out, play the game hard and try to prove people wrong. We have to play hard, be aggressive, play good, fundamentally sound baseball. The rest of it will take care of itself.”
Most players, Vaughn included, were ready for the regular season to start a week or so ago.
“We’re ready to play games that count,” Andrew Benintendi said. “Let’s get this thing rolling.”
On to Opening Day at Guaranteed Rate Field, even if it means leaving the sunny desert for the chilly Midwest.
“Go from 80 to 30 degrees, here it comes,” Vaughn said. “But I haven’t even looked at the weather there.”
It says 50 degrees.
“Hey, take it!” Vaughn said. “Better than snow. It can get nasty. Hope for good weather.”
Bad weather or not, Vaughn has been in a place where he feels good at the plate for several days.
“It’s a feel,’” he said. “Being in the right position to get into your load and see the ball and make a good move on it.
“I feel good. I feel like I’m in a good spot.”