White Sox Opening Day roster won’t include Reynaldo López

CHICAGO, IL - SEPTEMBER 17: Chicago White Sox pitcher Reynaldo Lopez (40) throws a pitch during the MLB baseball game between the Minnesota Twins and the Chicago White Sox on September 17, 2020 at Guaranteed Rate Field, Chicago, IL. (Photo by Kiyoshi Mio/Icon Sportswire)

The best way the White Sox fifth starter situation could have resolved itself? With Carlos Rodón and Reynaldo López pitching so well that Tony La Russa’s decision would hurt feelings no matter what.

The worst way the White Sox fifth starter could have resolved itself? With Rodón and López getting hurt, and/or pitching so poorly that the White Sox had to scour the waiver wire or out-of-options situations for random stabs at depth.

On that A-to-F scale, the White Sox are averaging a solid B right now. Rodón looks downright feisty, showing an unprecedented combination of fastball life and command when, after all the surgeries and other issues, it seemed like he’d have to pick one or the other. He hasn’t allowed a run or a walk over nine innings, yielding just four hits against 10 strikeouts. It’s not like he’s bewildering rusty hitters with an unsustainable blitz of sliders. He’s beating them with country hardball. He’d have the inside track on the rotation job no matter the competition.

Which is good, because there was no competition. The White Sox unceremoniously answered whatever was left of the question by including López among their latest round of cuts. The other reassigned members of White Sox spring training harbored no realistic roster hopes.

It’s not for a lack of effort. López came into spring training with the shortened arm swing, and he threw strikes with various pitches on a reliable basis. It’s more that the strikes got hammered. He allowed 11 runs over 11 innings on 16 hits, three of which left the yard. The velocity sank to a reported range of 90-93 mph, and while he’s attempting to reincorporate the curveball into his arsenal, the desert isn’t the best place to do it.

Scott Merkin received a non-damning assessment of López from Ethan Katz

“He’s getting into the right place with everything,” White Sox pitching coach Ethan Katz told MLB.com of López on Monday morning. “It’s just some bad luck thrown his way, but he’s putting in the work to put himself in the best position he can be.”

… but these words can also be read as ones from a guy who might not have to discuss López much from here on out. If he’s not able to get back to 96-98 mph, there isn’t much anybody dealing with the 26-man roster can do.

* * * * * * * * *

With the No. 5 starter derby resolved, Jimmy Cordero done for the season and Adam Engel sidelined for at least a couple of weeks, the 26-man roster has gained clarity in some areas, but lost definition in others. The uncertainties are largely contained to the position player side, because the pitching staff is largely settled but for one spot.

ROLEPITCHER
No. 1Lucas Giolito
No. 2Dallas Keuchel
No. 3Lance Lynn
No. 4Dylan Cease
No. 5Carlos Rodón
CLLiam Hendriks
LHPAaron Bummer
RHPEvan Marshall
RHPCodi Heuer
LHPGarrett Crochet
RHPMichael Kopech
RHPMatt Foster
RHP????

On the pitching side, the White Sox claimed left-handed reliever Nik Turley from Oakland over the weekend. Turley, 31, has intrigued the White Sox before, as they extended him a non-roster invitation back in 2016. He’s probably more intriguing now because he joins Katz and Lucas Giolito as products of Harvard-Westlake High School.

That said, nothing has been handed to Turley, who was drafted in the 50th round back in 2008, and has just 35 MLB appearances to show for his 11 years in professional baseball. He served a PED suspension and underwent Tommy John surgery over the last few years, but rebounded from both for his longest look yet with the Pirates in 2020. He sat 94 and threw his curveball nearly half the time, but it wasn’t quite enough for even Pittsburgh to keep him around.

Oakland claimed him, but the combination of zero options and an awful spring — a 20.77 ERA, four homers and four walks over 4⅓ innings — led him to the waiver wire. Perhaps the White Sox picked him up in order to attempt sneaking him through waivers themselves, but they could also try to carry Turley in a low-leverage role until Jace Fry is ready to return, because the bullpen is deep enough to use that last spot for a stowaway.

With López temporarily out of the mix, the only other candidate is José Ruiz, who is also out of options and struggling to make his way. He’s having a better spring than Turley, but not a good one by other standards. He’s struck out 10 over six innings, which is evidence of his ability to execute an impressive sequence. He’s also given up six runs over those six innings, which is further evidence that he’s eminently hittable when not executing.

(Photo by Kiyoshi Mio/Icon Sportswire)

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roke1960

That top 7 in the bullpen has got to be the best in baseball. If Rodon and Cease can be average starters, they have one of the top 3 or 4 pitching staffs in baseball. Rodon just looks so free and easy, IF he stays healthy, he can maybe live up to his #3 draft position after all.

I think Ruiz will get the last spot. But it should only be temporary, as Fry should be ready in a month or so. I hope Burdi can get some good work in at AAA as soon as possible, because he could be another weapon to call on by mid-season.

roke1960

I really like Abreu’s comments on LaRussa yesterday. Of course Abreu’s other two managers were Ricky and Robin. Tony didn’t exactly have a high bar to clear. But it seems like Tony and the players are all on the same page. I think Tony will put this team in the best place possible to succeed, which is the manager’s biggest job. So far, so good!!

ParisSox

I’m willing to admit I was wrong as he seems highly adept and competent as a manager. Let’s see how the season rolls, but management wise, it’s looking good. As much as it hurts to admit maybe Jerry had some wisdom here. Cautiously optimistic

burning-phoneix

Alex Mcrae looked decent in ST. Could’ve been an easy slot into the last bullpen spot till Fry came back.

Last edited 3 years ago by burning-phoneix
Otter

I know we’re not allowed to be positive about the Sox on twitter, but the pitching staff does look excellent IF Kopech gives them about 120 “good” innings, Cease sees some improvement, and Rodon holds his own. Those are three big ifs and most likely only one of them will happen, but I think one clicking probably is enough to get them to the playoffs where they do set up nicely with Giolito/Lynn/Keuchel. I’d still like to see another starter though.

Surprised they jettisoned Lopez and aren’t going to move him to the pen. Maybe that’s what’s coming next. And I guess if Lopez has an option and Ruiz doesn’t, it makes sense in the short term.

Amar

Makes sense in the short-term. Not sure if he’s much use in the pen unless his fastball comes back

Last edited 3 years ago by Amar
Trooper Galactus

If Lopez is topping out under 94 as a starter, a move to the pen is not going to make him any more useful. Even if his fastball managed to tick up a bit and top out at 96 in a shorter outing, without the movement to make it effective or a plus secondary pitch to help it play up, he’s still gonna get teed off on. The only thing that made him intriguing as a potential bullpen option was the assumption he’d top out in triple digits, and even then he’d still need a better secondary offering to really stick.

As Cirensica

I am not that surprised that Rodon shows effectiveness. He has been effective in the past, and he has “good stuff”. What would surprise me is Rodon pitching more than 50 innings before going into the IL. ReyLo better keep sharpening that curve. We might nonetheless need it.

HallofFrank

But even when he has been good, he hasn’t been *this* good. The lack of walks particularly sticks out.

Trooper Galactus

I was curious to see what Rodon looked like at his best, because I remembered him showing flashes of what we’re seeing now before. In seven starts from Aug. 6 to Sep. 9, 2016, he went an exceptional 6-1 with a 1.85 ERA. He averaged just over six innings and a 61 GameScore in that stretch, striking out a rather pedestrian 22.5% of hitters but also only walking 5.6%. He followed that up with two duds, but finished the season strong with two of his best outings. It was the healthiest and most effective season he ever had, and we’ve been riding the roller coaster ever since.

HallofFrank

This stretch was also followed by two duds (and, shocker, an injury), but from 3/28/19 –> 4/25/19 he averaged a 63 GameScore over 5 starts, striking out 29.4% (but walking 10%). He also ran a 2.57 FIP, slightly better than the 2016 stretch.

He’s definitely had stretches of effectiveness and even dominance, but the shape of his performance in ST is unprecedented. 10 K to 0 BB over 9 IP is not a version of Rodón we’ve ever seen. In previous runs of effectiveness, he’s sacrificed K’s for control (e.g. 2016) or sacrificed control for K’s (e.g. 2019), but we’ve never seen this balance of both.

Of course – it’s only 9 IP in ST and @AsCirensica is right that the bigger concern with Rodón has always been health.

Amar

According to steamer projections, the gap in total WAR between the Twins (40.1) and White Sox (39.9) has closed. Is Billy Hamilton good?

https://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=Team

Last edited 3 years ago by Amar
jhomeslice

I think the Sox caught a very lucky break. They had 2 pitchers in Rodon and Lopez that were long shots to be even decent, competing for their 5th starter spot. One of them looks fantastic, much better than could possibly have been expected, and the other horrible. So instead of two mediocre or sub-mediocre pitchers that would have occupied 2 roster spots, they have one guy in Rodon who clearly looks great, and the other who is so bad they won’t waste a roster spot on him. That’s far better than if both had looked similar to last year, and they took up 2 roster spots without either being an adequate 5th starter, as I had feared.

The other thing is that they should not need Lopez at all. Kopech is probably close to ready to pitch 3 innings now, and they could use him to make starts for 3 if Rodon went down. Hopefully they won’t need to do that, but if it happens in May or June, by then Kopech should be ready to work up to 4-5 innings. Kopech looks great as well, like he might be better than Cease already. As pessimistic as I was a couple months ago, Rodon has been the best story of the spring and I’m looking forward to seeing him make good on a great comeback. If he can pitch anywhere close to how he has looked this spring once in a while and is decent the rest of the time, and maintains his health, barring a big key injury somewhere else, I don’t see much chance of this team finishing 2nd to the Twins, at all.

Trooper Galactus

I’m happy to see Rodon finding his groove again, and I hope he can start rolling out that sick slider again. My worry with him continues to be less about the quality of his pitching and more about the quantity, because I still don’t trust him to be a solution to anything so much as a brief barrier to another problem.

Papa Giorgio

Perhaps the White Sox picked him up in order to attempt sneaking him through waivers themselves,

What do you mean by this Jim? Trying to keep him for minor league depth?