It’s no secret the White Sox are once more in rebuilding mode, even if team brass isn’t keen on using a word that stirs up memories of Rick Hahn’s yearslong project.
But it’s hard to say that they’re traveling full steam ahead down the road to the future while a miserable 2-14 start — the worst in franchise history — has been engineered mostly by veterans with no long-term place on this team.
Sure, when Chris Getz took over as general manager last summer, the farm system wasn’t exactly overflowing with prospects who could be penciled into future lineups of contending teams. And even the guys who do look like future cornerstones — Colson Montgomery, Edgar Quero and even Bryan Ramos, for example — weren’t ready for primetime on Opening Day, still needing more time to develop in the minor leagues.
It’s that aspect that made offseason acquisitions like Paul DeJong and Martín Maldonado make sense. These guys were placeholders, brought in not to dramatically boost the White Sox’ offensive capabilities but to kill time — as well as play good defense and help establish a new team identity — while the young guys developed.
But even after a season with low outside expectations has gotten underway, with mostly terrible results to this point, Getz has made somewhat puzzling additions that seem to do little to advance the cause of building for the future.
First there were minor league deals for the likes of Brad Keller and Robbie Grossman during the spring. Then came the Mike Clevinger reunion. Now, it’s the reported signing of Tommy Pham. None are accompanied by a price tag that breaks the bank, of course; both Clevinger and Pham are reportedly getting $3 million. But for a team that was so budget-conscious all winter long, why add money of any kind now, in a season that isn’t expected to feature many wins, at the expense of opportunity for younger players?
The White Sox are still a week or so away from adding Clevinger to their big league rotation, but they did take the step of promoting a pair of pitching prospects this week, with Nick Nastrini making his major league debut Monday and Jonathan Cannon doing the same Tuesday. Now, it’s impossible to say that they’ll be sticking around to test their mettle against big league batters all summer long, with Pedro Grifol refusing to commit to either becoming a long-term part of the rotation moving forward. But it also seems odd to sacrifice players off the 40-man roster for a couple spot starts.
Nastrini was mighty impressive Monday night, retiring the first 11 hitters he faced in order before giving up a solo homer and watching his pitch count balloon during a fifth inning that saw four Royals reach base. But he coaxed a bases-loaded fly out from Bobby Witt Jr. to dance out of greater danger, flashing the composure, maturity and confidence that have quickly become hallmarks.
“The first time I saw that (maturity) was here (in January). He threw a bullpen right over here. And the one thing I really liked right away was his presence. He stands out there like what they look like, what good ones look like. You can just tell,” Grifol said after the game. “It doesn’t surprise me, but I was really excited to see how he would handle this stage and he did. Not only did he make some good pitches, but he controlled the running game well, he was quick to the plate, never really panicked, never really showed any panic in his presence, his body language. It was a really impressive start.”
“For me, (getting the opportunity to face Witt with the bases loaded) means a lot, because that means the coaching staff has a lot of trust in me to go out there and get him out a third time,” Nastrini said. “That means a lot to me to be able to stay in the game like that, especially with the bases loaded. It could have gone south, but they trusted me out there and that gave me a whole lot of confidence to make some pitches.”
So what’s next for Nastrini after a solid debut?
“Couldn’t tell you,” Nastrini said. “I have not heard anything, so I guess we’ll find out.”
The feeling’s mutual. But it’s hard to imagine Nastrini heading right back to the minors after capitalizing on his opportunity.
Hahn was fond of saying the White Sox made the decision to call up prospects when they were ready not only to survive but ready to thrive at the major league level. It would be weird if Nastrini and Cannon weren’t deemed ready for that challenge but were just given spot starts to kill time while Clevinger readies in Arizona and Keller builds himself up to longer outings in Charlotte.
Nastrini and Cannon could have long-term roles in Getz’s rebuilding effort. Clevinger and Keller will not.
The White Sox started the season with three of their four starting pitchers of the veteran variety: Erick Fedde, Chris Flexen and Michael Soroka. The first two were inked to major league free-agent contracts this winter, and Soroka was one of five players acquired in the Aaron Bummer trade in November. Flexen and Soroka have failed to impress in their first few starts in White Sox uniforms. Fedde, whose deal was for two years, has been better, if not as stand-out as Garrett Crochet.
Will back-to-back big league debuts at 35th and Shields this week lead to a starting-rotation overhaul? Again, Grifol was short on details, other than hinting that there will be bullpen appearances in Flexen’s future, even while saying he hasn’t been moved out of a starter’s role at this point.
But if the White Sox are intent on advancing their rebuild, giving those opportunities to guys like Nastrini and Cannon over guys like Flexen and Soroka makes plenty of sense.
“It shows that they trust the guys that they have down in the minors,” Nastrini said of some young pitchers getting early-season chances. “There’s a lot of really good players down there, and they are gritty. They are guys that can get the job done. It’s good to see that they trust the guys that are down there.”
That could very well be the way this season plays out. But the team could be making contradictory moves elsewhere, potentially robbing opportunities from trade acquisition Dominic Fletcher and others in an effort to wedge the veteran Pham into their lineup.
Pham, it should be pointed out, is not exactly a slouch. He played very well in the postseason last year for the NL-champion Diamondbacks and served as a middle-of-the-order bat for a World Series team. Certainly, his presence would do something to help the White Sox — who are setting new marks for offensive ineptitude, shut out now in six of their first 16 games — fare better at the plate.
But at what cost?
Past Fletcher, who has played in only 42 major league games, there’s Oscar Colás, who effectively face-planted when handed the everyday right-field gig at the outset of last season and when he received another call-up later in the summer. But the team has been complimentary of Colás’ work in the offseason, in the spring and in the minor leagues since the start of the regular season and has said there is still a future for him, even after being sent down numerous times since the beginning of last year.
While White Sox fans might be nonplussed at the idea of seeing a whole lot of either Fletcher or Colás, giving them an opportunity could provide long-term upside. The best-case scenario with Pham, much like with Clevinger, is what? A midseason trade that nets a prospect?
This isn’t to say that rebuilding efforts must be nothing but youngsters. The last one on the South Side featured plenty of veteran faces as the organization waited for the likes of Luis Robert Jr., Eloy Jiménez, Dylan Cease and Michael Kopech to develop in the minor leagues. That’s how these things go.
But Getz emphasized that this would be a season of learning for team brass, about finding out exactly where the organization is as it plots its moves for the future. Likewise, Jerry Reinsdorf promoted Getz to the top baseball job citing that Getz could bring about contention for the South Siders faster than anyone else.
What can the team’s decision-makers learn about the White Sox’ future by adding Pham to the mix, at least at the expense of Fletcher or Colás? What can they learn by giving innings to Clevinger that could instead go to a batch of young arms that includes Nastrini and Cannon?
How do these moves help the next contending White Sox team?
So tap the brakes on the youth movement on the South Side.
It might be starting, but it’s not here just yet.
