Gordon Beckham’s tenure on the south side came to an end yesterday when he was traded to the Angels for either a player to be named later or cash considerations.  His White Sox career, which started with such great promise, had failed to meet expectations and has consistently struggled to hit consistently since his rookie year in 2009.

Beckham was the 8th pick of the 2008 draft and was rushed through the White Sox system.  He made his major league debut on June 3, 2009, less than a year after being drafted.  He struggled from the get go, going 2 for 28 in his first eight games, but rebounded to put up a .270 average with 14 home runs and 28 doubles while playing third base.

The future looked bright for Beckham entering the 2010 season as he moved over to second base.  Unfortunately, he was unable to duplicate the success he had enjoyed the year before.  Early struggles relegated him to the bottom of the lineup, but he was able to rebound somewhat, getting his average back up to .252.  However, his OPS was down over 100 points from the year before.

2011 and 2012 saw Beckham’s offensive struggles continue.  His average dropped to the .230s during both seasons and his OPS continued to fall.  It seemed that he was finally putting things together in 2013, until he broke the hamate bone in his left wrist, which led to a career low in home runs and RBIs.

This year has been more of the same.  At the time of the trade, his average was a career-low .221, while his paycheck had expanded to $4.5 million.  He likely would have been moved prior to the trading deadline, but his offense cratered in July.  My expectation was that he would be non-tendered this off-season anyway, so hopefully he can do something useful for the Angels and brings back something that will help the White Sox moving forward.

Beckham’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

BA	At Bats	Runs	Hits	RBI	Walks	Strike Outs	Doubles	Triples	HR	SB	GIDP	Errors	Games
0.237	577	73	137	63	42	110	28	1	11	6	7	9	163
0.244	2607	327	637	276	200	483	146	4	61	29	57	63	739