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Dylan Cease traded. Michael Kopech sent to the bullpen.
It’s been an eventful 24 hours for the White Sox’ pitching staff.
Cease, of course, was expected to be traded at some point after a winter spent seeing his name in rumors. But a month into spring training, we figured we’d be waiting until this summer’s deadline. Not so. Cease was sent to the Padres on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, Kopech figured to remain part of the White Sox’ starting staff, the team intent on finding a way to make him an effective starter even after last season’s poor performance. But Chris Getz announced an end to that effort Thursday, and Kopech will now try to find success as a reliever.
Seismic changes, to be sure. So what becomes of the White Sox’ pitching plans now?
Though only two weeks remain before the team opens the regular season, there still seems much to be decided, or at least to be made public. And so we can only try to piece things together rather than speak with much certainty.
In the rotation, free-agent signings Erick Fedde and Chris Flexen figure to be locks – with Fedde a strong candidate to take over Cease’s role as the Opening Day starter – while trade acquisition Michael Soroka is pitching well this spring, seemingly cementing himself as part of the five-man group. Mystery lies beyond that trio, though, with pitching coach Ethan Katz estimating to reporters, including CHGO’s Jared Wyllys, Thursday in Arizona that the White Sox are choosing from a group of 10 pitchers for five rotation spots.
The most impressive arms, perhaps, in camp have been Garrett Crochet and Nick Nastrini, though neither might find themselves as part of the rotation come Opening Day. Crochet is in the middle of a quest to leap from reliever to starter, though he hasn’t thrown more than three innings in any spring outing, as impressive as they have been in small doses. Nastrini, meanwhile, has pitched just four games above the Double-A level and could require some more minor league seasoning prior to his big league debut.
When it comes to whether either will leave Arizona with the team, Getz said things are not finalized.
“We’re still assessing that,” Getz said. “You’ve got Crochet, … everything’s been encouraging so far. Nastrini, … very encouraging. More than anything, we’re just excited about the opportunity and the talent that both those pitchers bring to the table.
“I know there’s an obsession with an Opening Day roster, but we also know that (after) Day 1 of the season, the roster may look different on Day 2.”
So who else is there to choose from?
Similarly to Crochet and Nastrini, the two minor league pitchers acquired in the Cease trade are, according to Getz, close to aiding the big league club but might not wind up there on Opening Day. Jairo Iriarte is on the 40-man roster, while Getz shouted out that the Padres were considering Drew Thorpe for their own Opening Day roster.
“These players have a very good opportunity to be on our 2024 team at some point,” Getz said. “You’ve got Drew Thorpe, who has more or less been knocking on the door, very polished. He was a pitcher that the Padres were strongly considering to put in the rotation to start the season. We haven’t made that decision. I haven’t shaken his hand. I spoke to him briefly. We’re going to get to know him more here in spring training.
“Being we’re still a couple weeks away from Opening Day, it’s an opportunity for us to get around these players and to get a better idea of who they are as people, and certainly more so as players, and what makes them effective and then we’ll make decisions from there.”
Jared Shuster and Touki Toussaint remain in camp. And Getz generally mentioned non-roster invitees; Brad Keller, Chad Kuhl and Jake Woodford would seem to be the starting pitchers in that group.
Then there’s the thought of bringing someone in from outside the organization. National reporters have linked the White Sox to a pair of unsigned free agents: Michael Lorenzen and Mike Clevinger.
Lorenzen was an AL All-Star and threw a no-hitter in 2023. Clevinger pitched on the South Side last season and received positive reviews for his performance and clubhouse presence from teammates and Grifol. But many fans possessed negative opinions colored by the league’s investigation into domestic-violence allegations against him, which yielded no punishment.
“We actually feel pretty good with where we’re at in regards to being able to cover these innings effectively,” Getz said. “However, there are some different ways that we could go about it to certainly make us more confident or improve our roster further. We’ve got some time before Opening Day to really assess where we’re at, and if there’s an opportunity to improve our status going in, we’re going to do so.”
The bullpen is an even trickier puzzle to solve, even if it got a pair of new surefire additions. Kopech and Steven Wilson, acquired in the Cease trade and someone Getz referred to as “plug and play,” figure to be there alongside free-agent signings John Brebbia and Tim Hill. Brebbia has dealt with a strained calf this spring, but the team has long expected him to be ready for Opening Day. Katz said Thursday it’s “possible” and that it’s “trending” toward Brebbia breaking camp with the team.
That still leaves four spots unfilled, though, and it’s anyone’s guess who will emerge from the large number of arms still in camp. Deivi García and Tanner Banks would figure to have good shots at making the team, but there’s a lengthy list of non-roster guys who could, too: Justin Anderson, Joe Barlow, Jesse Chavez, Jake Cousins, Corey Knebel, Dominic Leone and Bryan Shaw. And that’s before mentioning the idea that at least one pitcher who doesn’t win a starting gig could move to the ‘pen as a long man.
And we are still mostly in the dark about what will happen with the aforementioned Crochet. He’s working to be a starter, obviously, but will he be ready to assume a starter’s workload by Opening Day? If he isn’t, would the White Sox continue to build him up as a starter in the minor leagues? Or would he work as a multi-inning reliever out of the major league bullpen? That all remains uncertain as the team continues to monitor how Crochet recovers physically from one outing to the next.
“He can be built up for Opening Day,” Katz said Thursday. “He’s on his way to do whatever is needed. He’s in a good place, and we don’t need to add or do anything different to what we’ve been doing.
“He’s had 80 innings in the last three years, so everything we do we’ve just got to be really mindful, see how he’s feeling, even right now, make sure that he’s able to bounce back OK and what we’re seeing. Is the product on the field staying the same? And just be very mindful of what he has done and how he’s feeling.”
So much remains up in the air with two weeks to go.
But what stands as truly remarkable is the amount of turnover there has been on the pitching staff from a year ago to now.
Last season’s Opening Day rotation was Cease, Kopech, Lucas Giolito, Lance Lynn and Clevinger. Last season’s Opening Day bullpen was Joe Kelly, Kendall Graveman, Aaron Bummer, Jake Diekman, Reynaldo López, José Ruíz, Jimmy Lambert and Gregory Santos, with All-Star closer Liam Hendriks working his way back from cancer treatment.
Of those 14 pitchers, only Kopech and Lambert remain with the organization. Kopech has been moved from the rotation to the bullpen, while Lambert is dealing with shoulder issues this spring after struggling last year.
In other words, it’s almost a completely different pitching staff, with five completely new starting pitchers.
“It’s different,” Katz said. “For three years, I would come in here and we kind of had on paper who were (going to get the roster spots). So I’d throw guys out to get ready for the season and made sure they were OK, give them their breaks. And right now, we are trying to figure out who is going to be in the rotation while trying to piece this together until the end.”
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