Ventura: White Sox 'much improved' from last season

If the Chicago White Sox fail to win in 2016, manager Robin Ventura is likely gone.

He's been playing and managing major-league baseball for two decades, and Ventura knows how the game works.

The 48-year-old Ventura has survived three straight losing seasons, but he's entering the final year on his contract and the Sox again are expecting to contend in '16 after adding a big power bat in Todd Frazier, who was acquired from the Reds Wednesday in a three-way trade that sent outfielder Trayce Thompson, pitcher Frankie Montas and second baseman Micah Johnson to the Dodgers.

Frazier instantly plugs a long-time hole at third base.

General manager Rick Hahn also added needed offense at second base by landing Brett Lawrie in a trade from the A's, and he seemed to upgrade the catcher's spot by replacing Tyler Flowers and Geovany Soto with Dioner Navarro and Alex Avila.

Last season, the White Sox ranked last in the American League with 622 runs scored, 136 home runs and a .686 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage).

Frazier and Lawrie combined for 51 homers and 149 RBI last year.

Making wholesale changes did not work last winter, so the Sox are giving it another shot.

"We're improved, definitely," Ventura said Thursday. "We're also in the division that has the World Series champion (Royals). We know it's a tough division. Everyone in the (AL Central) division is getting better, and this is our way to improve and make ourselves a viable candidate, so we're much improved from last year.

"Just look at the people that we got. You're going to have to play to be able to make an impact and make it happen because it doesn't happen on paper."

The White Sox were paper champions at this time a year ago, but they spent a grand total of one game over the .500 mark (18-17 on May 18) during the season and finished 76-86.

Maybe that's why the addition of Frazier, along with Lawrie, Navarro and Avila, is being greeted with more of a shrug than applause by many Sox fans.

Adding one more big bat is a possibility as long as Yoenis Cespedes, Justin Upton and Alex Gordon are still available on the free-agent market, but the gut feeling here is the White Sox give disappointing right fielder Avisail Garcia (.257/.309/.365 hitting line, 13 home runs, 59 RBI last season) another year.

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