One of the largest position battles out of the White Sox spring training camp is the starting third base job. Mark Teahen manned the hot corner for a majority of the season last year for the South Siders. He is no slouch defensively and has shown he can handle a bat. Through five seasons in Kansas City, he hit an overall .270 and 12 home runs a season.
The problem is Brent Morel. He is a 22-year-old who came up late last season and showed fans his above-average defense. His bat followed suit to his glove with three home runs in limited play and has given the White Sox a pleasant dilemma this spring.
The job was all but thought to be officially given to Morel this spring. Teahen has come on strong to show why it wasn’t just handed over. To date, Teahen is hitting .474 with one home run and six RBI. The most important part is he is seeing the ball tremendously, accumulating seven walks to his three strikeouts.
Morel has shown his ability and deserves a starting job; however, Teahen should not be left to collect dust on the bench. Many teams are or will be in the market for an everyday third basemen or super utility man.
Teahen fits this bill. He has proven he can handle left field, right field, third base, first base and, in a pinch, can man second base adequately. Add in the fact that he makes roughly $5 million in each of the next two seasons and Teahen appears quite able to be moved.
Just like in Kansas City with Alex Gordon, Teahen sees himself odd man out to a rookie third basemen. If he can not wrestle the starting job from Morel, see Teahen as possibly being the first White Sox player to be moved this season.
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