James appeared on Effectively Wild to close out the podcast's team preview series, and in a break from all of the questions about whether a given facet of the White Sox is as bad as it seems, Meg Rowley noted that FanGraphs' Roster Resource page listed the White Sox as having five potential closers, prompting her to ask if the White Sox even had one.
The short answer is "no," but James' answer mentioned how hard it is to even ask the question of individual pitchers, given both the lack of ninth-inning leads and the name-brand relief talent.
Hell, the shape of the entire bullpen is rather amorphous at this point. The White Sox lack a proven closer, but the dearth of of real strikeout talent or otherwise traditional high-powered arsenals means they also lack proven setup men. Also, the majority of their lefties aren't necessarily great at getting lefties out, which could further complicate the mix. There may be no truer meritocracy than the White Sox bullpen, nor a better place to see the Peter Principle in action.
With no relievers commanding significant salaries and most of them having minor-league options available, I imagine the relief corps will be a rather amorphous unit over the course of the season. That said, an Opening Day octet is beginning to come into view.
The process of elimination has done a lot of the work. Prelander Berroa underwent Tommy John surgery, and whether Nick Nastrini, Jairo Iriarte and Jake Eder return to the White Sox bullpen after cameos there last year, it won't be at the start of the season, as they've already been optioned to minor league camp. Jared Shuster might've been decent enough in his 39 appearances and 73 innings in 2024, but with the White Sox trading for two lefties over the winter and needing to reserve a roster spot for a long-relief righty, the team optioned him on Friday.
That leaves 10 players angling for eight spots, and nine of them are already on the 40-man roster.
Effectively guaranteed (1)
- Shane Smith or Bryse Wilson
Wilson is on a $1.05 million major league deal, while Smith is a Rule 5 pick who is suddenly sitting in the high 90s. The question here isn't whether the White Sox are keeping them, but which one of them will end up in the White Sox rotation. As long as Martín Perez, Davis Martin, Jonathan Cannon and Sean Burke remain healthy, it would seem like the other four spots are spoken for.
Performed last year (3)
- Gus Varland
- Justin Anderson
- Fraser Ellard
Varland finished the 2024 season as the White Sox's best reliever, Anderson was routinely handed the highest leverage situations after the deadline trades, and Ellard acquitted himself well enough in his first 25 appearances, but none have reliable track records and all of them have options remaining, so they all run the risk of suffering for unsightly small samples.
Varland and Ellard both have more walks and hit batters than innings over their handful of games pitched this spring, and a history of control issues that can't be written off. Anderson is still wearing a ghastly 18.90 ERA after giving up eight runs without retiring a batter in his first appearance of the spring, but he's pitched three scoreless games since.
Performing Right Now (1)
- Penn Murfee
Murfee told James that he was throwing with "some fire in my bones" over the winter, and it's translated to the spring. He's pitched six scoreless innings in six games, allowing just a pair of hits while striking out nine.
Cost actual players (2)
- Cam Booser
- Tyler Gilbert
Booser's name could also be listed under the header preceding this one, as he's struck out seven over five scoreless innings, working around five hits and a walk. Murfee just happens to be a waiver claim, while the White Sox went out of their way to trade for Booser by trading notable DSL performer Yhoiker Fajardo for him back in December.
Likewise with Gilbert, the White Sox were inspired enough to ring in the new year by trading another unexplored arm in Aaron Combs for Gilbert, even though Gilbert was DFA'd and the Sox were first in the waiver order. The Sox front office heard tell that Gilbert had a trade market and weren't willing to risk waiting in vain for him to reach waivers, and past intent probably predicts future intent here.
On the 40-man and still in camp (2)
- Jordan Leasure
- Brandon Eisert
Even though Leasure didn't finish the 2024 season in the White Sox bullpen, he still finished the year as the team's remaining leader in saves ... with two. A strong start to his spring was interrupted by an ugly inning against the Brewers on Thursday, but he would provide the over-the-top component on the White Sox's smorgasbord of arm angles. Eisert is throwing a lot of strikes from a low angle on the left side and only occasionally paying the price, but he's the fourth lefty we've listed here.
Article XX(B) free agents (1)
- Mike Clevinger
Clevinger isn't the only non-roster invitee having a nice start to his spring. Peyton Pallette is getting a lot of work and holding up well among the remaining prospects, while Justin Dunn, Dan Altavilla, Jonathan Heasley and Steven Wilson have combined to allow two earned runs over 24 innings. There just isn't a pressing need to open a 40-man spot for them until further emergencies strike.
Because Clevinger is the only one who has six years of service time and finished the previous season on a major league roster or injured list, he's the only one who necessitates a decision five days before Opening Day. It doesn't seem like the White Sox would invite the PR hit if they didn't have actual plans for Clevinger, and he's throwing well enough so far this spring that Will Venable said on Saturday that Clevinger would be in the ninth-inning mix.
Whether Clevinger's stuff will tick up when it counts remains to be seen, but it does make some sense to have him leading the charge in attempting to close games. Everybody else on the list would be pitching above their pay grade and experience level, making high-leverage failures from underqualified arms more the result of poor planning than poor individual performance. Clevinger faces scorn by default, so if he were to open the season with a spate of blown saves, fans might once again seethe about why the White Sox are so enamored with the guy, but any concerns about adverse individual effects would be nonexistent.
