After four consecutive failures to complete five innings, the White Sox pushed back Luis Castillo's latest bid to right the ship. Had he remained on schedule, he would've been tasked with starting against the Pirates tonight, but the White Sox have TBDs as far as the probable pitchers page extends, with Will Venable only committing to Hagen Smith starting tonight in hopes of avoiding a sweep at the hands of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Following Castillo's last difficult outing a week ago, Venable told reporters they're going to "continue to work" to get him right. A day later, Chris Getz opened the homestand by using that same three-word phrase regarding Castillo, albeit with more details about what that entails.
“There were some lower half mechanics that they were working on, and that seemed to be in a much better place now. The upper half, the shoulder seem to be flying open a little bit more than it had in the past," Getz told reporters last Friday. "I think the pitch shapes were trending in the right direction. The velocity was affected a little bit, so not quite— he’s not exactly where we want him to be or showing what he’s capable of doing, but that doesn’t mean we don’t continue to work.”
Just like hammerhead sharks have to keep swimming in order to breathe, continuing to work is what sustains the pulse of a struggling veteran, but you can't derive any meaning beyond the maintenance of vital signs. It sometimes can be read as the dreaded vote of confidence, except since a player can't be fired as easily as a coach, manager or executive, you're left to look for mitigation efforts, rather than an ax to fall.
Starting Smith is one of them, and it'll be fascinating to see how it turns out. That's an incredibly banal sentence I just wrote and you just read, but the variables make the likeliest outcome hard to pin down. If you take the mode of his performances, you're probably planning for a guy who's closer to an opener, where you're counting on first-inning success, and a second full inning would be a blessing.
But if you are hoping to use this outing to establish the next plot point in his recent trend...
... then you might be able to get somebody who's stretching back out into starting, or at least a September/October version of it. You'll probably never push him beyond four innings, but come playoff time, not many managers are banking on their starters making it two full turns through a lineup, so is there a difference?
This course of action feels likelier than it seemed because unlike so many other games this season, the White Sox were able to weigh multiple valid options. If they just wanted a decent chance at a productive spot start, they could have turned David Sandlin into David Stand-in, as his last two starts at Triple-A produced a glorious combined line (12.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 20 K). He's instead listed as Charlotte's starter, which delays his ability to contribute to the 28-man roster for the next turn, if there is such a thing as turns, or a rotation, by then.
At the same time, if Smith is a potential solution, it feels like one that can't exactly be voiced yet. "I dunno, maybe Hagen Smith starts again?" would have been a nonstarter a week ago, and even after reviewing his overpowering five innings over the three-game series against the Twins, it's undue pressure to put on a rookie who hadn't pitched beyond two innings since the first half of June.
That's why there's nothing to really do besides wait and see, and say it'll be fascinating when the situation begs for somebody, something with a more substantial track record. That's what Castillo was supposed to provide, but as long as the White Sox are delaying his reentry into the picture, all candidates are welcome to apply, regardless of their credit history.
