All I Want For Christmas Is Starting Pitching

It’s as simple as this:

lock one of these two starting pitchers up ASAP.  Right fucking now.  Do it.  I don’t care if it’s Ryu or Keuchel, flip a coin, but one of them needs to be on the South Side next year.  And then go and sign a reliever like Dellin Betances while you’re at it, but that’s a different blog for another time.

In 2019, the White Sox had the 22 worst staff ERA in baseball at 4.91 and 19th worst fWAR at 12.3, numbers that would have been WAY worse if not for Giolito and a few relievers.  I could go down the list and rattle off a billion reasons why acquiring multiple established starting pitchers is of extreme importance, but I won’t because anyone who watched basically any non Lucas Giolito starts knows that the staff, though decimated by injury, wasn’t any good last year.

Now one of the key phrases in the previous paragraph was “decimated by injury”.  If you would have subtracted Dylan Covey, Ross Detweiler, and Odrisamer Despaigne/Ervin Santana/Manny Banuelos and added Michael Kopech, Carlos Rodon, Dane Dunning and that’s a staff that can win ballgames.  If the Sox had those three pitchers healthy the entire season, they’re a .500 ball club.  I don’t care if there’s math that proves otherwise, but those three pitchers are good for *at least* 9 more wins to get to 81.  But they weren’t healthy, so they didn’t pitch.  AAAA pitchers did and it was awful.

So here we sit, watching the Winter Meetings come and go, and the White Sox are still in a good position to pounce.  Kopech is done with his rehab and ready to go full steam ahead, Dunning will be soon and Rodon will be back sometime in mid June or so.  But that doesn’t mean they still don’t need depth and lots of it.

I talked last week about how the White Sox should sign Alex Wood.  Guess what?  He’s still available, and should come pretty cheap, all things considered.  I think it’s a safe assumption that he’ll take a 1 year prove it deal and reassess his market and financial value in the 2020-21 offseason.  The White Sox should be ALL OVER a swing man like Wood.  This kind of arsenal would fit so so so nicely into their rotation/long relief role:

and mind you, that’s the roll that Dylan Covey had for a lot last year.  Dylan Covey and his 7.98 ERA over about 60 innings.  Swap that out for an Alex Wood-type pitcher (Wade Miley would be my next target after Wood) and your team is vastly improved.  But they still need a lynchpin in the rotation that’s not of the swing man type.  The best free agent options left include Dallas Keuchel and Hyun Jin Ryu.  Both Boras guys.  We know how that goes, and I’ll believe the Sox will sign a Boras client when the Sox sign a Boras client.

But PLEASE go and sign one of the two Boras clients.  It’s slim pickens after those two and the Sox have to start winning games.  I know the common thought is “you can’t force the timeline” but after Robert and Madrigal are up by May, it’s 100% go time.  The prospect depth after those two is left to basically Dunning, Vaughn and Stiever, and that’s it.

So give Sox fans not what they want, but what they need for Christmas.  I’m talking a few packs of socks and undies.  Nothing you necessarily want for Christmas, but something you know you need.  That is NOT too much to ask for.