First half tested White Sox’s depth in every area but one

The White Sox’s depth — or lack thereof — was supposed to spell doom for them in the AL Central. Yet as they prepare to start the second half, they lead the AL Central by eight games despite being the picture of piss-poor health. No Eloy Jiménez, no Luis Robert, no Nick Madrigal, no Adam Eaton, no Yasmani Grandal? No problem.

Depth should be an problem on the position-player side, right? It’s weird that a team with World Series aspirations have trotted out the kind of outfielders seen during tanking seasons, bottoming out with Leury García, Billy Hamilton and Danny Mendick starting left to right. Jake Lamb, who had played only infield corners before a series of cuts made him available to the Sox, has been a better right fielder than the actual right fielder the White Sox signed for $8 million to man right field, until Brian Goodwin showed up to surpass both. The fears of a Grandal injury have been realized, but the White Sox are 5-0 since Seby Zavala had to take his place. Only one of the three setup men expected to set up Liam Hendriks is healthy, and none has been effective for any reliable stretch of time.

Tony La Russa deserves much of the credit for this resilience, because he has instilled a certain elasticity in the roster. Granted, desperate times have called for desperate measures, but if desperation is a stinky cologne, then it’s up to the manager to act as a deodorant and antiperspirant. I don’t rail against individual lineup cards because there’s some value in occasional odd assignments. Maybe the guy who’s barely played left field shouldn’t start in center, and no optimal lineup includes a guy with a sub-.300 OBP at the top of the order, but kinda like a vaccine, there’s value in exposing your system to something unwelcome in a defined way, just so it won’t be overwhelmed by unexpected, uncontrolled exposure later.

Otherwise, you get Rick Renteria spending the biggest game of his life in the recovery position because an alternate-starter arrangement he never practiced unraveled in spectacular fashion. There’s usually a best way to do things, and part of managing is understanding what that is. Another part is preparing for when Plan A isn’t available. If there’s a reason to worry that La Russa doesn’t know his Plan B, it’s only because he might’ve lost track of it on his way to Plan L.

After all the roster churn and emergency measures, he and the White Sox are like Mr. Burns’ immune system — in surprisingly pristine condition because all the potential plagues are too busy fighting among themselves to decide which one is going to do them in.

One look at the White Sox’s eight-game lead over Cleveland and even worse teams in the AL Central can lead one to believe they’re indestructible. I feel like the Mayo Clinic physician who’s worried about the slightest thing throwing everything out of balance.

And here’s where I’ll point out that all five White Sox starting pitchers are currently qualified for the ERA title.

To find the last time where an entire Sox rotation could make the claim, you have to go back to 2006, when Mark Buehrle, José Contreras, Freddy Garcia, Jon Garland and Javier Vazquez averaged 204 innings among them. They left only three starts for anybody else to pick up, with Brandon McCarthy taking two, and Charlie Haeger the other.

The 2021 White Sox aren’t adopting that kind of workload — and the second-half pitching splits from 2006 suggests they shouldn’t — but they’re still on pace for the kind of stability that was only seen once a decade, even in more starter-centric eras.

It hasn’t gone exactly to plan. Lucas Giolito was projected to be the best starter in baseball, and he’s been thoroughly average instead. Dallas Keuchel has too been ordinary, and both of them have taken turns with Dylan Cease as the team’s worst starting pitcher at various points of the season.

But focusing on the wobblier moments would be a Collins-like framing job on a terrific pitch. I’d instead look at it this way: If you’re not sure who your worst starter is, the rotation is a either disaster or a dream, and we can rule out the former.

Here’s where La Russa deserves less credit, because if Renteria had that kind of starting stability, he’d probably still be managing. Instead, he was saddled with the version of Reyanldo López that necessitated the addition of Lance Lynn, the banged-up version of Carlos Rodón, a Dylan Cease who hadn’t yet approached professional crossroads, and a Michael Kopech who opted out of a season. Renteria also never got a chance to work with another pitching coach who might be better equipped to help pitchers evolve.

We don’t yet know how La Russa would handle the circumstances Renteria encountered. He’s only needed two spot starts for non-doubleheaders during the first half, and Kopech handled one of those brilliantly. La Russa also hasn’t dealt with many in-game disasters. White Sox pitchers have thrown at least five innings in 70 of 89 games (79 percent), good for third behind Oakland and the Dodgers. Last year, Renteria’s rotation delivered that in only 34 of 60 games (57 percent). It’s hard to imagine La Russa saving his savvy in that situation, especially with how many games Renteria needed Matt Foster to vulture.

For a lot of the season, “Michael Kopech” was the automatic answer for a basically any pitching-related depth issue. The hamstring injury he recently returned from probably relegates him to relief for the rest of the season, which is fine in a bullpen where he’s more necessity than luxury.

But if Kopech is out of the question as a five-inning guy, then the White Sox’s internal solution for any starter injury relies primarily on finger-crossing. That sounds like a disaster in waiting, but hoping is another area where the Sox have inadvertently amassed depth. First, they can hope that López or Jimmy Lambert can steal a win. If that doesn’t pan out, the Sox can then hope that they’ve built a sufficient cushion in the standings.

In the interim, they can keep praying that their starters keep starting, and do what they can to preserve their top five arms. Rodón avoiding an All-Star Game appearance is a start toward bolstering faith with works. Mixing in López, an opener, or López as a lópener before absolutely necessary might also make more sense than it seems on a given day, in the sense of giving the team one more dose of that next-man-up spirit that has made the other side of the roster so vulnerably indestructible.

(Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire)

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