In February of this year, we shared some extensive research which came to the conclusion that Evan White is already the 4th-best first baseman in team history, without ever having taken a Major League at bat. Unfortunately due to White’s offensive struggles to this point in his debut season, this conclusion must be revised.

Evan White as of this moment is the 8th-best first baseman in team history. The -0.6 bWAR he has, uh, “accumulated” so far has forced us to reconsider, at least for the time being. Evan has plenty of time to climb out of this and get back where he belongs. But it will not be easy. The lack of production has dropped him below Paul Sorrento, Russell Branyan, Justin Smoak, and Austin Nola on the all-time list.

While it’s not yet time to panic, concern for White’s performance (and emotional well-being) is justified. In order to turn it around, we suggest White do the following things to get his stock back up:

• Stop leading the league in strikeouts
• Don’t have a slash line in which not a single slash is over .200
• Try not to have a wRC+ in the single digits

If White can take the time to focus on improving in these three areas, he has a decent chance to climb back up that ladder.

Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/whiteev01.shtml

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/evan-white/20078/stats?position=1B