The White Sox have been perhaps the most active team in baseball this winter, and after adding Yasmani Grandal, Dallas Keuchel, Edwin Encarnacion, Gio Gonzalez and Nomar Mazara to the roster, they’re now shifting their focus to bullpen upgrades, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets. Chicago had previously been rumored to have interest in Nicholas Castellanos and, to a lesser extent, Yasiel Puig, but they’re not involved with either player at this time after filling up their corner outfield/DH mix.
The bullpen is another matter entirely, however. Holdovers Alex Colome and Aaron Bummer give the ChiSox a quality right-handed and left-handed option, respectively, but there’s limited certainty beyond that pairing. Righty Evan Marshall posted a terrific 2.49 ERA in 50 2/3 innings but had questionable secondary stats and a possesses a shaky track record. Flamethrowing sinker specialist Jimmy Cordero averaged 97.5 mph on his heater and posted a 2.75 ERA and 60.4 percent grounder rate in 36 innings, but he doesn’t miss many bats and has a limited track record himself. The first season of veteran Kelvin Herrera‘s two-year, $18MM contract yielded disastrous results.
Collectively, White Sox relievers ranked 14th in the Majors in ERA (4.33), but that’s largely a function of the quality results posted by Colome, Bummer, Marshall and Cordero. And there’s also reason to take that number with a grain of salt; the Chicago bullpen’s matching 4.69 FIP and xFIP ranked 18th and 21st among MLB teams while posting the fifth-highest walk rate (10.8 percent) and fifth-worst strikeout rate (21.7 percent) in all of baseball. White Sox relievers were tied with Royals relievers for the worst K-BB% in the Majors.
Unfortunately for the Sox, a fair bit of the relief market has been picked over. Will Smith, Drew Pomeranz, Chris Martin, Dellin Betances, Joe Smith, Blake Treinen and Sergio Romo, among others, are all off the board on new contracts (MLBTR Free Agent Tracker link). The top unsigned names include Will Harris, Steve Cishek, Pedro Strop, Craig Stammen and old friend Daniel Hudson. There are still some quality names, and the trade market presents myriad opportunities to explore (Ken Giles? Josh Hader?), but many of the most appealing options found homes while the South Siders zeroed in on lineup and rotation enhancements.
The good news for Sox fans is that the team still hasn’t even topped its previous record payroll, however. There isn’t a name among the best remaining relievers that the ChiSox can’t fit into their budget — and that’s all the more true if owner Jerry Reinsdorf is willing to push spending levels to new heights as he strives to emerge from the long-running rebuild, as one would expect. The White Sox’ offseason moves to date have already made the AL Central race much more interesting, and it seems a few more additions could be on the horizon.
Not sure if the Pirates intend to trade Kela now or at the deadline, but I’m sure he’s available.
I’m surprised they didn’t put Kela’s name on the list.
Supposedly Kela is pure cancer in the locker room. One of MLBs least liked players. I’m sure the Pirates would love to unload him, but not sure the White Sox would think he’s worth the gamble.
Kela to my knowledge had no clubhouse problems, he was known to have troubles w/ his coaching staff. Given the previous coaches MO of pitch to contact instead of letting them pitch to their strengths makes it understandable yet not acceptable.
How about a source?
Didn’t Kela punch and broke someone’s fist?
you might be thinking of Crick and Vazquez
Kela, along with Crick, had issues with the Pirates coaches giving Felipe Vazquez favoritism. He didn’t have to participate in pregame workouts and was allowed to head out to the bullpen whenever he felt like it. All of those coaches have been fired and we all know about Vazquez. I think the Pirates would be smart to hang onto Kela until the deadline, as it seems he is now the unquestioned closer and the coaches he had a problem with are gone. Barring injury, he should establish more value by July.
I didn’t think it necessary to throw out every reliever they could possibly trade for; I just listed the two best names who’ve been floated around this winter.
Kela was featured prominently on our most recent Trade Candidates list:
mlbtraderumors.com/2019/12/top-25-offseason-trade-…
Frankly, I think his persistent off-field issues muddy his trade value a fair bit and question whether the Sox — who repeatedly gush about Jose Abreu’s leadership and the importance of veteran players setting an example for young talent — would really want to bring Keone Kela into the fold. I’m sure several teams feel similarly.
Thanks for hard work Steve!
Great comment Steve
With more vets on the team like Grandal and EE along with Abreu, Kela should be fine.
Kela was demoted to the minors by the Rangers as a disciplinary measure on a team that included Adrian Beltre, Mike Napoli, Cole Hamels, Shin-Soo Choo, Jonathan Lucroy and Elvis Andrus. I don’t think it was a lack of veteran teammates that did him in.
If he’d gone without incident since that time, it’d be easier to chalk up to youth, but that’s not really the case.
Oh Kela is not going to be fine just because the Sox signed a few veteran free agents. Tell me how for example EE is going to keep Kela in line
Signing relievers at this point is always a crapshoot.
Harris is probably the safest choice, but wouldn’t mind a reunion with Hudson.
It would be nice if just one of the many pitchers Hahn got in flip deals would amount to something. Or if Covey, Fulmer or Burdi finally got it together.
Would still like Puig, but not that big of a deal, so long as they bring up Robert for opening-day roster.
Harris & Hudson would both be nice signings. And I’d still like to bring back Ivan Nova.
Nova? Why?
Keone Kela for Zack Collins? Probably not straight up, but just the starting point of talks.
If I’m going to send Zach Collins to Pitt, I’d rather take a chance w Starling Marte to be a bridge / combo platoon player for Robert and Mazara in the OF than Kela, who’s apparently a really bad guy/teammate. That could be the Sox answer (if not Leury) as Mazara’s platoon in RF as soon as Robert comes to the Show.
Not gonna happen. The Pirates will expect a King’s ransom for Marte. The Sox should wait for Betts if Reinsdorf’s open to adding another $30MM to the payroll.
Did you just call Marte a platoon player? What sport are you watching?
Marte is never going to platoon with Mazara. I can guarantee that one. He’d be the outright everyday RF once Robert hits the show
Never called Marte a platoon player. The Sox could use him as part of a mix, keeping everyone fresh and giving the team top quality depth throughout w Jimenez, Robert, Mazara, Garcia and Marte.
Also not saying it’s going to happen — simply thinking out loud and out of the box.
Want no part of Kela. Good arm, real idiot. Especially for Collins.
Even the Sox are address their pen; not sure about Friedman.
Dodgers already made their one move of the off-season. Ready for spring training I guess.
Hudson
Danny Salazar is in play for the Sox. He wants to stick it to the Indians for how he was handled last year.
That’s the name I’m hoping the Jays target. With his relationship with the Jays front office I’m hoping there are some talks. He would do well in Chicago though if he wanted to shove against Cleveland.
Hahn & Kenny asleep at the wheel early in FA not submitting an offer sheet for Treinen. As a Sox fan i’m elated about what they’ve done so far this offseason but with the rule change for 2020 that relievers must face a minimum of 3 batters the BP needs a lot of work. We need a big league Manager as well. Renteria is awful. Suppose BP help will need to come via trade
Some people refuse to be happy.
Renteria is a lot better than people give him credit for. 2020 is the first time in his career, he will have a roster full of major league talent rather than the AAAA talent that has been there the past couple years. I’d wait until after this year to judge him
Renteria is not awful per se. High marks for maintaining camaraderie in the clubhouse, while meting out discipline when its called for- pulling guys for not hustling.
I agree, his value is his bilingual abilities and being considered a strong clubhouse manager. He does tend to over use his bullpen making them eat too many innings at times, but when you have predominately over-performing dregs and castaways while waiting for a constantly leaky pipeline, I can’t blame him
The Sox do have internal options … Ian Hamilton and Tyler Johnson are promising prospects and I still hold hope Zach Burdi will regain his pre-TJ surgery velo. Plus Kopech, Dunning, and Rodon in my opinion should work back to the starting rotation via the bullpen a la John Smoltz. So I wouldn’t just add depth if I was the White Sox. Now Hader on the other hand, I’d take in a heartbeat.
Good point. Rodon and/or Lopez might be good options for then bullpen depending on how things pan out.
Both should ultimately end up i the bullpen.
Rodon can’t handle the stress of starting, and Lopez doesn’t have enough good pitches to get past three innings consistently.
But both could be 9th-inning relievers.
Lopez no. He has the upside to be a future co ace, along with Kopech.
What would you part with for Hader? As a Brewer fan I do think the teams match up for a good trade.
We will trade them Jansen for their number 1 prospect.
As in Robert?
No thank you. Jansen showed signs of regression last season and was getting squared up regularly. One of the best relievers in the game but I’ll pass.
This is what I don’t get about all the White Sox hype, who out of this list really scares you or is a “game changer” Yasmani Grandal, Dallas Keuchel, Edwin Encarnacion, Gio Gonzalez and Nomar Mazara? Grandal for sure and possibly EE depending on his health and is he can keep this up as he gets older. While Grandal is obviously a big upgrade over McCan, McCan had a great first half last year so the production might not be that much great than it was last season so really it’s EE that could eb the only real improvement and as previously stated he has some concerns of his own. They will certainly be better but people acting like they have a legitimate shot (obviously anything can happen) or are the same level as the Twins or Cleveland is just wishful thinking.
They also have Luis Robert and Nick Madrigal graduating to the Majors in 2020 (health permitting), the return of Michael Kopech, a more experienced Eloy Jimenez and ideally a full year of an improving Dylan Cease.
I don’t think they should be labeled as division favorites or anything, nor do I like every move they’ve made this winter (Abreu extension, Mazara trade chief among the questionable ones). That said, it’s easy to see why fans are excited, and I think they’re already a vastly improved club even before picking up a reliever or two.
I agree with that statement but I feel like this years White Sox team will be like the 2018 Twins, a team with obvious talent and a bright future but is a year or two away from really being in the conversation as a team you *expect* to compete. I think personally they are a 80-85 win team which is a good step forward but not that 90-100 wins needed to be a real threat to Minnesota or Cleveland. I think the problem with the way people view the White Sox is they aren’t factoring in the growing pains of young players like Robert or Madrigal comes with, and even Eloy or Moncada can easily have long rough patches. To me there are just to many “if this goes right” situations to bank on them all going right. I mean that said, that’s what happened with the Twins for the most part last season so you never know I just think certain pundits (not you) are going a little overboard with how they view the White Sox for next season
I’m a Sox fan, and I actually agree with you on this. I think they are in a substantially better spot going into the season than they were last year, but I still think this is a development year. I’m hoping for an ~85 win team and more growth from the young talent. I think 2021 is the season to possibly contend. That being said, they do have elite, young talent all across the diamond, so if all (heck, it doesn’t even have to be all) goes right, anything can happen.
If they don’t win 85-90 games it will be an utter disappointment. 2020-2023 are the years to contend.
The point is that the Sox are now seen by most projection systems to be an 82-88 win team, with HIGH variability.
Robert could be worth 2.5 wins. That’s what most projection systems think he will be worth. But also, he is a lot of people’s pick for ROY. If he wins ROY it’s not going to be on a 2.5WAR season.
Kopech’s WAR projection from ZiPS is 1-4. They averaged it at 2. But they think 1 and 4 are equally likely (bi-modal distribution).
Cease is the same. Jiminez is the same. Anderson is the same.
The Sox are putting an 85 win team on the field, with a ton of guys that have 4 win ceilings possible, and that’s what’s so exciting.
This team *could* just take off and steamroll everyone if enough guys play to their ceilings.
Will it happen? Probably not!
But it could. And that’s got everyone jazzed up.
Cease and Lopez should go get tutored by Giolito’s HS coach that helped him turn things around.
sportsmockery.com/2019/05/who-does-lucas-giolito-c…
I don’t think it would be an utter disappointment, because a good number of their players are still developing.
People are expecting way too much out of Kopech, Cease, Robert, Madrigal and even Jimenez.
We saw how long it took for Giolito and Moncada to hit their stride. We should expect similar development curves out of the other young players.
Not be shocked if they get off to a slow start next season, or if the rotation looks iffy past Giolito and Keuchel.
Maybe they should hire him as Pitching coach and get rid of the great Don Cooper
Just upgrading RF and DH to real major league ballplayers was probably worth 8 wins since they lost 5 wins at those 2 positions last year. They lost 2 wins at the bottom of the rotation and replaced that with at least league average players. They will replace Garcia and Sanchez in CF and 2B with rookies who project for more than the 1 win each those guys provided. Finally, they have enough young kids who could develop that regression from Anderson or decline by Abreu aren’t really issues.
In short, they have replaced pretty much ALL their really bad players with at least league average players (except in the bullpen) and the bad players were REALLY bad, so that represents a pretty big upgrade.
See and this is where I agree, when you add all those wins up you get like 80-85 wins for them, which I think is reasonable. I’m more talking about the people who think they are legitimate contenders now, they are still going to have their growing pains.
Projection systems like ZIPS and Steamer have them about 2 – 4 wins behind Cleveland, Minnesota, and Oakland, which are the teams they are likely chasing for a playoff spot. That’s pretty much a tits-up in terms of preseason projections and well within the margin of error, especially when dealing with a lot of young players with upside.
They are still very far behind elite teams like NY, Houston, and Tampa. But they don’t need to catch everybody to make the playoffs. Best case scenario: Gioliti stays real good, Cease and Kopech take big steps, and they are a dangerous playoff team.
They’ve upgrade 5 positions so far…
Would you rather have one “game changer” who bats one out of nine times, or would you rather improve five of your position players and two of your pitchers? The White Sox are doing the latter, which is the smarter thing to do.
Moncada, Jimenez, Anderson, Robert and Madrigal compromise a formidable young core. Abreu, Grandal, and Encarnacion will bring a solid track record and veteran leadership. The rotation is deep with Giolito, Kopech and Cease possessing elite stuff. Lopez has great stuff to, and could be elite if he finds some consistency. Keuchel and Gonzalez bring experience and a veteran presence as well. They’re a solid ballclub on paper, and the Sox aren’t done constructing this roster. I feel a blockbuster free agent signing or trade to complete the rebuild is imminent within the next two years.
ChiSox – I assume you meant “comprise” instead of “compromise”. The Sox have been busy this winter and I think they stand a good chance of leading the division.
See and this is honestly something I agree with, they are going to be a decent team I just think some people (like ephz89 below) see them as legit contenders or even the favorites and I think it’s a year or two early for that. I could easily see them winning 80-85 games this year, which is a good step forward.
Minnesota is no lock for 95+ wins… what team is? Sox can’t be considered favorites, but they will compete and contend unlike previous rebuilding seasons… The two rookie promotions of Robert and Madrigal are being too easily dismissed, forgotten, or ignored In addition to free agent moves… Robert is White Sox premier offseason addition wrc+170 over 551 PA
Twins seem to usually go back and forth from really good to really bad.
Sox need a game changer? Like the NLCS between Harper and Machado’s squads last year? Oh wait…….never mind.
Whiff- you seem to be ignoring the fact that the two teams in the WS last season just feature the two (now) highest paid (based on AAV) paid pitchers of all time. You need more than just one player to win a WS but you almost always need one or two players that carry a team when they need it or who’s presence on a team changes the game completely.
Grandal, Mazara and Encarnacion are big upgrades. Eloy was one of the best prospects in baseball and had a successful debut in 2019. Kopech, recovering from TJ surgery was in an Arizona game a couple of months ago and touched 100 multiple times over 30 pitches. Robert is a monster he hit .328/.376/.624, with 32 HR’s and 36 SB’s in 47 attempts across 3 levels in 2019. Also in 2019 Nick Madrigal had the lowest swinging strike rate (2.2%) across all minor league levels by a full 1.2% points over the player in second place. Both Robert and Madrigal are plus defenders.
Moncada and Giolito were two of the best players at their positions in 2019. Then there is Cease who made his MLB debut in 2019, another top 100 prospect. Lopez and Collins were recent top 100 prospects.
As a Twins fan I can tell you right now if you just expect rookies/young players to just perform to their fullest potential instantly or consistently you are going to have a long season. Also, you pretty disqualified yourself from this conversation by saying Mazara is an upgrade, he’s barely above a replacement level player.
The White Sox were below replacement level in RF last year. They’re gaining wins just by throwing out a replacement level guy.
Mazara is absolutely an upgrade from what White Sox trotted out their last season. Look at the stats….
No, Grandal signing was huge. Outside of a 4WAR player, he’s an elite framer and probably the reason Keuchel and Gonzalez signed. There might not have been a bigger splash the Sox could have made when it comes to improving this year. The Abreu money is way too heavy, and Mazara seems like a panic move, but a decade of awful might finally be ending
I wonder if the bad World Series performance by Will Harris, along with his age (35) is the reason he is still available. He was a Top 3 setup man last year and hasn’t had an ERA over 4.00 since his second year in the league. I expected him to be one of the first to sign this offseason.
They should have
MLB rumors
NBA
NFL
NHL
Then a whole thing dedicated to the white Sox Trade Rumors
Try clickIng on the Teams section!
It’d be full of Cubs fans who “could care less about the White Sox”
id like a whole Chicago Baseball Rumors site where only Cubs and Sox fans can comment. that would be a riot.
Oh god. Please no.
I could see an all-access weekly Chicago Baseball show hosted by Triumph the insult comedy dog.
This man is in to something! I like that idea! Give this guy a raise.
Bullpen ERA should be split into games where the score is close versus games where the score is more lopsided because those games don’t matter and you just need your crappy innings eaters to keep the good pitchers out of the game (unless they need the work). These days bullpens pitch well over 500 innings which means 8 or 10 arms where half of them just eat innings mostly.
With Keuchel, Gio, and the unproven arms after Giolito potentially struggling to give 5+ innings on a consistent basis, and Colome headed for regrssion, the Sox need to find 2 high quality ‘pen arms, and hope Fry can return to ’18 form
Currently an 82 win team.
You have seen their division, haven’t you?
Indians were injured and the Twins won 101 games.
the biggest injury they suffered was Kluber, and he isnt even there anymore. Indians are about a .500 team right now.
Indians do not have an OF. They lost Kluber, Bauer and one of their best hitters down the stretch in Puig. Santana had the best season of his career at age 33. Plus the Indians are relying on 2 fly ball pitchers that do not strike anyone out and who both had unsustainable BAPIP’s of .250 and .255 in Plesac and Civale.
The Twins lost a significant amount of talent. They lost Kyle Gibson and Martin Perez who started 58 games combined for them and replaced them with? They re-signed Pineda who is serving the remainder of his suspension until mid May. They signed Tyler Clippard and? They lost Jason Castro, Schoop and Cron that combined for over 1200 PA’s and over 60 HR’s and replaced them with Alex Avila and? Nelson Cruz who turn 40 in July had a BAPIP over 40 points higher than his career average.
No one cares.
I’m not feeling the urgency. Seems a better plan would be to position something around the trade deadline, if need be.
Why is that a better plan?
You would rather have a partial season of somebody than a full season? You would rather overpay at the trade deadline?
Don’t stop now boys. Josh Hader or Kirby Yates would be nice. They would be costly but the Sox have the necessary minor league horsepower to pull off a big move.
Do they though? Either one of those guys are going to need to return a major prospect (especially Hader with 2x as much control as Yates) and with Robert, Kopech, and Madrigal all part of the immediate plan who does that leave to headline? Vaughn? Good stick, but a base-clogger that’s limited to 1B only. pre-injury maybe dunning had some appeal, but that will be limited now.
We happen to have a lot of guys getting ready for some time on the mound this year. Burdi for one, and isn’t mentioned anywhere but within the White Sox community. We didn’t bring back Detwiler to play full time in AAA. There’s this other new kid from Miami.
Point is, we have a bunch of pitchers in the bullpen and already threw $20M between Herrera and Colome. We haven’t stepped back much from last year. The only loss is Osich, and who Nate Jones? It’s not urgent.
The plan is to keep the bats rolling and let the pitchers figure it out. Let’s do that instead of paying for some dice-toss overpaid reliever. Sure, I’ll pay more when they prove it next year at the deadline.
The top internal prospect options for impact RP are probably Ian Hamilton, Tyler Johnson, Burdi and maybe Codi Heuer.
The bullpen market sucks. Get another starter instead, and fill out the bullpen with guys who fail to hold down rotation spots. Reynaldo Lopez, Gio Gonzalez, Michael Kopech, use some of those guys in the bullpen.
I could see Kopech as a future closer if he doesn’t stick in the rotation
If the White Sox are committed to winning……why would they go after Pedro Strop ???????
One reason why the White Sox will not win in 2020……..Ric Renteria !
With all the moves the White Sox have made so far……the Cubs are still a better team !
Pretty telling that you feel this point even needs to be argued. That’s a win for White Sox fans considering the ample resources available to the Cubs and the head start they had.
Next year you got a reunion with a Dancing with the Stars finalist with no management experience. It’s a solid move if you’re an older lady, like post retirement.
Some decent short term moves, but not exactly putting any fear into the Astros or Yankees.
I think hader to Sox makes perfect fit and they have prospects that fit. Brewers get it done
As a Sox fan I’d love it if we could deal like- Collins, Burger, Basabe & Fulmer for Hader.
That’s not even close for the Brewers.
Sox are a 500 team…..if that…….thy will beat up on the Tigers, Orioles, Mariners…….but the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, Astros, Twins, Indians will beat up on the White Sox.
Sox went 11-8 vs clev, 4-3 vs yanks and stros last year… so yeah… sure…
I wonder if the Sox might kick the tires on a couple of FA Cubs in Brandon Kintzler and possibly Steve Cishek?
if they kick with a tap…..these guys will end up on the DL !
Cishek would be a solid add for the South Siders.
Orioles have been wanting to trade Givens. Wouldn’t cost a ton and has a few years of control left. May be a fit.
The orioles have been holding to try to extract more value. Since he’s coming off a down year. I’d expect Givens to go at the deadline, assuming he’s regained value.
Bochy will be the next White Sox manager !
Trade ya Raisel Iglesias straight up for James McCann.. lol
I think the White Sox would be much better suited to allowing their internal options to come up and be tested. Relievers in general are so very volatile, especially ones you would find now. Find a good one and the upside is… one good season. Which is okay, but they have a lot of prospect relievers very close:
Pipeline has 8 of their top 30 prospects as RPs currently slated by RosterResource to start in the minors (Ruiz, Hamilton, Burdi, Johnson, Hansen, Thompson, Frare and Burr). Fangraphs has 6 of those guys in their top 30, and one other RP not listed by Pipeline (Cody Heuer). Baseball Prospectus only puts one of their relievers there (Alec Hansen), but they usually overlook relievers in general.
I mean maybe you can argue for signing a veteran or two with the idea of mentorship/keeping guys down for service time reasons. But they already have an 8 man bullpen full of such guys, and the only ones with options are their two lefties.
Sign Harris and call it an off-season unless some great opportunity pops up.
Although it would be hilarious to see Strop regain his form on the South Side…
real talk, what happened to Kelvin?
His control was lost for most of the season, 4.03 BB/9. He was good in September, 1.93 ERA, 3.31 xFIP, 14.46 K/9 and 2.89 BB/9, so maybe he figured something out. You never know with relievers.
Relievers are fickle…Unless you pay the price for a top 10 type guy. You wait until the trade deadline, before you invest assets in obtaining relievers. I’d rather them go after additional back end rotation guys with the agreement if they don’t make the rotation out of spring training they’ll be in relief. I think Nova and Cashner are those types that could spot start if needed but they’d gain velocity by being relievers. The other remaining spots are a free for all for non-roster invitees and prospects on the bubble Johnson, Hamilton and Burdi are all 24yr olds.
Matt Foster another in-house 24yo that perhaps can earn a hard look in ST. He was protected on the 40 man.
Where’s Go-Start MoFarts? Where’s Ahory? Mommy took away their iPads for being online all night?
White Sox get my vote as most improved, but considering where they came from, you Sox fans predicting playoffs better hold off a little bit. This does remind me somewhat of the 2015 Cubs though,, where they weren’t supposed to win yet but started a year early, so who knows. But this guy will set you straight!
youtube.com/watch?v=-oSFYxDGKy8
Sign Daniel Hudson. Move Rodon to the bullpen when he comes back. Rodon has the potential to be filthy out of the pen and maybe stay healthy. So worried about Colome.
James McCann to the Mets for Gsellman and a young pitcher from the minors?
I think the CWS already have enough 4+ ERA potential relievers-don’t need to trade for one.
ChiSox have hands down won this Winter Off Season….if it translates to wins and playoffs will be the final decider…
Covey and Lopez will probably move to the bullpen. Cease or Kopech will probably move there when Kopech returns. Rodon will probably never start again – he could be the equivalent of a trade deadline pick-up when he returns from Tommy John surgery. The bullpen situation probably isn’t as dire as people seem to think.
Trade Robert for Leclerc, Santana, and Taveras.
Hard pass. They’d be better off trading for Hader if they’re moving Robert (they aren’t).
Both of you are nuts.
Why
they should try to get Giles. the guy can get the job done in the AL East so I think he is battle proven.
The White Sox will have internal options for bullpen arms soon enough. All relievers are failed starters. Some of these vaunted starting pitching prospects will fail. Guaranteed.
One of the two biggest issues the White Sox had was their starting pitchers getting hurt or not performing well enough to young core players getting hurt in the middle of the season where they missed significant time. Carlos Rodon’s injury hurt the White Sox but he probably needed Tommy John surgery for a few years and he decided to go with it since he is still young. Ervin Santana was a busy. Reynaldo Lopez showed some promise but having Grandal catching for him might help this upcoming season.
Let’s not forget injuries to Anderson, Jiminez and Moncada did not help the offense. I believe all three of these guys were all injuried at the same time for a short stint where scrubs had to replace them.
One of the two biggest issues the White Sox had was their starting pitchers getting hurt or not performing well enough to young core players getting hurt in the middle of the season where they missed significant time. Carlos Rodon’s injury hurt the White Sox but he probably needed Tommy John surgery for a few years and he decided to go with it since he is still young. Ervin Santana was a busy. Reynaldo Lopez showed some promise but having Grandal catching for him might help this upcoming season.
Let’s not forget injuries to Anderson, Jiminez and Moncada did not help the offense. I believe all three of these guys were all injuried at the same time for a short stint where scrubs had to replace them.
People tend to forget these factors from 2019. These guys played well in the last month and started to show promise.
I expect that Jimmy Cordero will be one of the biggest improvements next year. The guy did miss quite a few bats as evident by is 14% SwStr%. Biggest issues was close to 80% inside contact rate but had otherwise above average numbers. I think they need to add maybe one bullpen arm at least for stability while the younger guys work out the kinks. A guy like Steve Cishek would fit nicely. If he were to join a bullpen of Colome, Bummer, Marshall and a bounce back season from Herrera, that wouldn’t be anything to sneeze at. Or maybe try Carlos Rodon in the bullpen. That wipeout power slider of his would be nasty for teams to catch up to late in a game, and would help address his durability issues.