For all the hand wringing over the White Sox’ bullpen usage in their season ending loss to the Athletics Thursday, know this: A nine-man, eight reliever pen parade would not have been necessary if a No. 3 starter was somewhere to be found.
It figured the Sox would have to win the best-of-three series with Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel winning the first two games, and when Keuchel – who was paid big to prevail in games like these – had his the worst postseason outing of his career in Game 2, there went the Sox waiting until three and a half hours before Game 3 to name Dane Dunning as their starter.
Flash back to spring training, when the question was which five of a surplus of starters would emerge as the go-to quintet once Michael Kopech’s Class AAA tuneup was done and when 2019 Opening Day starter Carlos Rodon would come off the injured list at mid-season.
With Giolito, Keuchel, Kopech, Rodon, Dylan Cease, Reynaldo Lopez and Gio Gonzalez in the mix, the Sox supposedly had a pitching surplus. Would they spread it around and consider a six-man rotation to solve the overload? And what of prospects Dunning and Jimmy Lambert waiting in the wings, ready to contribute by summertime after recovering from Tommy John surgery?
The supply dried up like our backyards in August. Kopech had opted out, Lopez wasn’t good enough to make the postseason roster, Cease couldn’t command his premium stuff, Rodon got hurt again and wasn’t effective when healthy and the 34-year-old Gonzalez – signed for one-year, $5 million in the offseason despite a very recent history of injury challenges — was never healthy enough for extended stretches to be of much help.
General manager Rick Hahn could have added a proven starter at the trade deadline but, not wanting to part with the future, passed. So there sat the Sox on Thursday, trusting Dunning over Cease for all of four batters to start a bullpen game that unraveled when prized prospect Garrett Crochet left in the second inning with forearm tightness.
Had the Sox connected on a timely hit on a day they left 12 runners on and hit 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position, they might have advanced to the AL Division series, but good luck taking on the Astros in a best-of-five series with no off days with Giolito and Keuchel and pray for rain.
Some perspective is in order. The Sox’ 2020 season, shortened to 60 games and wrought with challenges never seen, was an unequivocal success. A year after going 72-89 in the third year of a rebuild, they played .583 ball, ranked first in the AL in home runs and second in runs and OPS, kept fans glued to their TV sets and gave their young core valued playoff experience.
But to think all it might have taken to get some more was a No. 3 starter trusted enough to beat a team that batted .225 in 2020. And who might that No. 3 be in 2021? Crochet, drafted as a starter, isn’t a given at this moment, not knowing the status of his MRI. Kopech, for all his talent, has pitched 14 major league innings – all of them in 2018. Dunning, in his comeback from surgery, seemed to tire a bit late and should be stronger. Cease has an important offseason ahead of him. It’s probably not a given Rodon, who will be a free agent after next season, will be tendered a contract. And Lopez is running out of opportunities.
Whether Hahn turns to free agency or trades is something he’ll be asked when he gives his season wrap-up with media soon.
“We made it this far,” shortstop Tim Anderson after the Sox’ season ending loss. “We just have to keep working [to go deeper].
“I want to be in playoff baseball. I want to be playing in October.”
A competitive postseason rotation would go a long way in going beyond the first day.
