Jose Abreu Making Presence Felt Early In Chi-Town

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If you have followed baseball at all over the last 2-3 years then you are probably familiar with names such as Yoennis Cespedes and Yasiel Puig. They are the faces at the forefront of Cuban baseball but there’s a new sherif in town and his name is Jose Abreu. Most of the world isn’t very familiar with him just yet but they will be sooner or later if he keeps playing like this. In his first month not only did he capture American League rookie of the month honors but also took home American League player of the month honors. His 32 runs batted in during the month of April tied legends like Joe Dimaggio(1936), Ted Williams (1939) and Albert Pujols (2001) for most runs batted in through their first 29 games of their career. He became the 2nd player in MLB history to win player of the month in their first month of action joining fellow Cuban native Yasiel Puig. Jose Abreu hasn’t been in the majors for that long but he has made his presence felt and brought life back to the south side of Chicago.

Abreu came into this season with a lot of hype surrounding him. The native of Cienfuegos was labeled by some as “The best cuban player of the last 20 years”. That’s lofty praise for anybody which can bring a lot of pressure but Abreu has not disappointed thus far. In fact Abreu is the first player to lead the both home runs and runs batted in for the month of April since Kirk Herbek in 1982. He has led the charge for a White Sox offense that ranks in the top ten in runs,batting average, on base percentage and slugging percentage. Abreu leads the Sox in categories such as home runs (12), runs batted in (35), runs (24) and OPS (.943). His 12 home runs are tops in the major leagues he is showing no signs of slowing down.

Abreu’s signed a deal for 6-years/$68 million which made him the highest paid Cuban born ballplayer in the MLB. He left his family behind when he defected from Cuba so he can give them the finer things in life. He’s got a lot going on in his life but just watching from a far it seems like he does a great job of compartmentalizing everything so he can just focus on baseball when he steps on that Diamond. The White Sox boast a long line of power hitters such as Jim Thome, Harold Baines and Frank Thomas, if Abreu has a long enough career I feel like he has a great chance to be in the same breath as those guys.

It’s been a short amount of time in Chicago but Abreu has wasted no time endearing himself to the White Sox faithful. On April 25th Abreu brought the wood when he collected 6 runs batted in. Four of those runs came on a walk off grand slam with 2 outs on an 0-1 count. Abreu kindly deposited a fast ball into the right field bleachers and gave the Sox a 9-6 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. It was his signature moment in the first month of his career. He’s also had a nice showing against the cross-town rival Chicago Cubs going 4-11 with 3 doubles, 2 runs and an RBI which have helped the White Sox win 4 straight over the Cubs.

It’s still a small sample size but you have to love what you have seen from Abreu thus far. The next challenge for him is when the league finds his weaknesses and attacks them. When he struggles to hit the ball how will well will he adjust and still be effective? Thats when we find out how truly great a player is in this league. If the first month of his career is any sign of how the rest of his career will play out then I think Jose Abreu is on his way to one day getting his own statue on the South Side of Chicago.