CHICAGO -- While Chicago White Sox outfielder Avisail Garcia says he lost an undetermined amount of weight this winter, Conor Gillaspie was happy to admit he has gone in the opposite direction.

Thanks to an offseason weight conditioning program, Gillaspie estimates he has gained between 15 and 20 pounds of muscle, which should translate into driving the ball harder.

At face value, it sounds as if Gillaspie is striving to become more of a power-hitting third baseman, but it isn’t as simple as that.

“Honestly I’m hoping that by taking the same swing that I did last year, because I’m stronger, I’m hoping that translates into more power,” Gillaspie said from SoxFest. “It may or may not. We have enough guys that do hit for power on this team now. There are quite a few of them, so truthfully, I think I might be just as valuable getting on base, drawing walks, moving runners.”

The vibe around SoxFest this weekend was that for all the upgrades the White Sox did make, question marks still remain at third base and catcher. The reality is that only so many upgrades can be made in a single offseason.

The White Sox feel that if Gillaspie can continue the growth he started in the 2014 season, including advancements on defense, he can give the club plenty to win with. The same goes for catcher Tyler Flowers, who was much better offensively in the second half last season.

While strength can help Gillaspie improve on numbers like his seven home runs and .416 slugging percentage from last year, he could also use some stamina to help him get through the long season. Gillaspie played at least 130 games for the second consecutive season, but his final two months were a shell of what he did through the end of July.

After a three-hit game at Detroit on July 29, Gillaspie was hitting .327, and was among the top 10 batting leaders in the American League. In addition, he had a .467 slugging percentage after that game.

From Aug. 1 to the end of the season, though, Gillaspie batted just .208 with a .333 slugging percentage.

Still, the resounding consensus when it came to his season was that he showed significant growth, with plenty of areas of improvement available. Gillaspie has been keenly focused on those areas of improvement.

“At the end of your season, you have to look yourself in the eye and just figure out, OK, what did I like, what did I dislike and you have to be honest with yourself,” Gillaspie said. “There are quite a few things I disliked about last year, about myself, about the way I acted, about my attitude, about my confidence. It showed sometimes. But at the end of the day... I feel like I have been open about that and looked in the mirror and said ‘What can I do to fix it?’”

Clearly, Gillaspie is his own toughest critic. Improved confidence was Gillaspie’s goal when spring training started and the first four months of 2014 let him know the power of a positive frame of mind. The added strength will give him an edge of confidence as well.

“I worked really hard to allow myself, with a 2-0, 3-1 count, to drive a couple more balls,” he said. “It’s not that (home-run power) really matters with the lineup we have, but that’s what I wanted to work on so I have and I want to keep working on it. As long as you have put in every ounce of effort you can into your job, at the end of the day if you’re not there anymore and something doesn’t happen the way it’s supposed to be, then you know what that’s just the way it’s supposed to be and you move on.”

His realist view also applies to his new upper body strength. As a line-drive hitter, his new power doesn’t have to show up in how many balls he hits over the fence. It can show in how many more gaps he can reach or how many line drives or ground balls he can get just out of the reach of infielders.

“You can only slug your way up and down the lineup so many times,” Gillaspie said. “When it’s a one- or two-run lead, and you need something done, it is important to have somebody that, ‘All right, I know we do have some unbelievable hitters. Who do I know will do this for us to score that run?’ There is always a guy on every club that has to be able to do that. I do take pride in doing things right and I look forward to hopefully getting more opportunities to contribute.”