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Through two mostly miserable weeks for the White Sox, there’s been no brighter spot than Garrett Crochet, who has not only exceeded expectations as a reliever making the jump to major league starter but has, at times, looked like an ace in the making while doing it.
But there will be season-long questions when it comes to Crochet’s workload. He entered the campaign with a grand total of 73 innings under his belt as a big leaguer, all amassed as a bullpen arm.
So far, though, the White Sox haven’t acted like they want to limit Crochet’s workload much.
He jumped from 81 pitches in his spring-training finale to 87 in his sensational debut on Opening Day. He followed that with 93 pitches in his second start of the season. Pedro Grifol alluded to wanting to go somewhat easier on Crochet when the big lefty only threw 77 pitches in Start No. 3, but he was back in the 90s on Saturday, throwing 92 pitches in his shortest outing of the year, not making it out of the fifth inning on a day he allowed five runs against the Reds.
That most recent effort was the first in which Crochet struggled, though he still struck out 10 batters and allowed only four hits, even if it meant five runs, all that damage coming in a single inning. Even now that his ERA has leapt from 2.00 to 3.57, he’s still looked the part of a pitcher who could top the White Sox’ rotation the next time this team is contending for a division title.
As the White Sox plan for the future past the 2024 season, Crochet could obviously be a valuable piece they need to keep healthy. So is there a thought of managing his workload as the summer goes on?
“At least in the interim, we’re going to let this guy go,” Chris Getz said Friday. “It’s been outstanding so far with Garrett. Every time he takes the mound, I think everyone feels like we’re in a good position to win. (I’m) always interested how he’s going to navigate lineups, and he’s been able to navigate every lineup that’s been going against him.
“At some point, I would imagine that we’re going to have to be a little bit more measured. But we’re not at that point right now. We appreciate the heck out of what Garrett’s providing to this team right now.”
Though Grifol was loath to designate a closer in the spring, it’s pretty obvious that Kopech is the White Sox’ closer right now.
But the way Kopech has been deployed so far hasn’t seen him used in the way a closer traditionally is. Kopech has had multiple multi-inning outings, including the six-out save he recorded Tuesday against the Guardians.
That was an impressive performance in which Kopech was pumping 100-mile-an-hour fastballs and completely dominated the six batters he faced. But it meant that in a similar situation the following night, he was unavailable to pitch.
Though Grifol trotted Kopech out for a one-inning relief appearance in the ninth inning of Saturday’s five-run loss, it seems that eventually the manager will dispatch the flame-throwing righty like a normal closer, which means Kopech will be available on consecutive days and multiple times in a short stretch.
But for this struggling White Sox team? The manager saw burning his closer Tuesday as the right thing to do.
“To get on a nice winning streak, you’re going to need the (Jordan) Leasures, the Kopechs (to pitch) basically three out of four, two out of two. You’re going to need those guys,” Grifol said Friday. “To win a game when there’s some urgency, sometimes you have to go multiple innings, even if it costs you the next couple of days, where you’ve got to get them a rest. I thought that the second game in Cleveland was a must-win for us, so Leasure had to throw two and Kopech had to throw two.
“I will throw him a couple innings when the game is a really important game with some urgency. In an ideal world, let’s play eight and give the ball to Michael. We’re not in an ideal world right now. We’re 2-10. When we smell a game, we’ve got to go get it.
“Those are the games that can put us in a position to win two, three, four in a row. In an ideal world, I want to hand him the ball three days in a row.”
More than a dozen games into the season, the White Sox have still not expanded their rotation to include more than four starting pitchers.
The frequency of built-in off days early in the schedule mean it hasn’t been overly necessary, but the team has already employed one “bullpen day” and tried to do it one other time, only for that game to be rained out.
But eventually, those off days won’t be so common, and the team will need a fifth starter to keep all their pitchers on a regular schedule of rest.
Eventually, like maybe Tuesday, though Grifol said Sunday that the starter for that game is still to be determined.
“We’re not quite there yet to pencil in our fifth starter,” Getz said Friday, “but we’re nearing that point and thankfully have got a couple quality options.”
At some point in the next couple weeks, Getz said, recently signed Mike Clevinger will grab a rotation spot, and perhaps it’s as simple as the White Sox using bullpen days when needed until Clevinger joins the big league team. That could be asking a lot, though, as there could be a need for as many as three bullpen days between now and the end of the month, when Clevinger figures to be a part of the starting staff.
The other option is calling on someone currently pitching at Triple-A Charlotte.
There was much focus on pitching prospect Nick Nastrini during spring training, as the youngster acquired in last summer’s trade with the Dodgers performed exceptionally. But a more realistic candidate could be Brad Keller, the former Royals pitcher and still a villain to many South Side fans for his plunking of Tim Anderson following the famous bat flip in 2019. Keller pitched Friday, putting him on regular rest for Tuesday.
A hang up there, however, could be the team’s need to add either Keller or Nastrini to the 40-man roster. A 40-man move would figure to be potentially unlikely if only for a spot start, and perhaps if one of those pitchers were to come up from Charlotte, it would be to stick around for a while.
In that event, is there someone that gets plucked out of the starting rotation once Clevinger joins? Neither Chris Flexen, who has a sky-high 8.78 ERA, nor Michael Soroka, who entered his start Sunday with an ERA north of 6.00, have performed well in a small sample size.
Given how last-minute the White Sox have been in similar situations so far this season, we’ll probably have to wait until Tuesday morning before learning which direction this fifth-starter drama will head.
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