Though he struck out the first major league hitter he faced in Albert Pujols, the runs tallied, and after just 11 2/3 innings in the big leagues Fulmer found himself packing his bags for Charlotte with a 8.49 ERA on his hands.

After Fulmer’s short foray in the big leagues, I wrote about how perhaps the White Sox had called up Fulmer too early, and in turn brought an unfinished product into the middle of a chaotic new atmosphere at the wrong time. This wasn’t a major league ready Fulmer the White Sox were witnessing.

As the Tribune’s Colleen Kane pointed out last month, White Sox general manager Rick Hahn wouldn’t commit to the idea that Fulmer’s debut had been rushed, but instead “he did acknowledge he was brought to Chicago before his minor-league development was complete.” Simply stated, yes, he was called up too early despite the season and team being just days away from being labeled “mired in mediocrity.”

It was clear that Fulmer was not a bust. He managed to strike out 10 batters in 11 2/3 innings of work. However, the rest of Fulmer’s line during those 11 innings (he allowed 11 hits, 2 home runs, 7 walks, and 2 hit batsmen during his work with the White Sox) simply flesh out that Fulmer’s lack of ability to control his pitches and command the strike zone were major issues that needed to be worked on before he could be seriously considered for a permanent spot on the 25-man roster.

Fulmer immediately began working with then-Charlotte pitching coach Richard Dotson (now the minor league pitching coordinator) on his mechanics upon his arrival in Triple-A. The improvements began to show as Fulmer pitched 16 innings in Charlotte, allowing just 5 walks while striking out 14.

“He has a great tempo, but make sure you’re controlling it,” Dotson said. “You can’t get too quick, too fast because we rush out and get under the pitches.

“And making sure he’s staying tall. Yeah, you’re using your legs, but we’re not sinking down to use our legs. I understand drop and drive. I played with a guy who was the best drop-and-drive guy I ever saw, Tom Seaver.”

Staying tall has been a common theme heard around White Sox camp this spring for their pitchers, and it’s mechanical changes such as these that can be the make-or-break difference between a pitcher who can command the raw stuff he brings to the table or not. “Staying tall and really just getting the ball down,” Fulmer said. “That’s the most important thing. Keep the ball down and you will have success. He definitely helped me.”

It’s unclear as to whether or not the White Sox still see a future for Fulmer in the starting rotation, and having shored up their depth with Derek Holland and having a healthy Miguel Gonzalez, it might be a better bet to have Fulmer come back to the majors in the bullpen — a common right of passage for pitchers developed in this organization. However, if Fulmer’s stuff plays better in short stints in the bullpen than in the rotation, Fulmer could end up in a new role with his starting days behind him.

Fulmer was drafted in the first round for a reason, he has a fastball that topped out at 95 mph in August and a cutter that was responsible for six of the 10 Ks he added to his record in the majors. Fulmer simply took center stage too quickly, and with the adjustments he’s made working with Dotson, he will be set to start out the 2017 season in the rotation at Charlotte, showing the White Sox just how much he has truly improved.

Photo courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

But this season, that’s not quite the case. This season the most talented starting pitcher on the market was likely Rich Hill, and  arguably Jose Bautista or Edwin Encarnacion were the most talked about free agent sluggers and both are still jobless though Winter Meetings have come and gone.

The story this offseason was the relief market, which is going through an interesting period of inflation. The top three free agent closers in 2016 are all now officially off the board within, promptly within one week of the close of the Meetings, and they’ve certainly set the market for position.

Aroldis Chapman, Mark Melancon, and Kenley Jansen are now all on risky four-to-six year deals totaling $228 million dollars. Yes, that’s a steep number for a position that fluctuates from year-to-year, sees superstars come and go faster than the weather changes in Chicago, and only offers about 60-70 innings of work per season.

But for some teams, the escalation in closers value can be good. Namely, teams that have strong relievers on good contracts. Because in trades, dollars translate to talent, and for the White Sox, that translation couldn’t come at a better time.

The rebuilding Sox have already seen a bounty of returns from just two of their major pieces over the last week, returns that included seven prospects, including the No. 1 ranked position player and pitching prospects according to MLB.com. The White Sox established their own market last week as well, and dictates what type of prospect package returns they’re seeking during this rebuild. I’ll give you a hint: they’re looking for big ones.

This is the perfect storm for the White Sox right now. All the top free agent closers are now signed to long-term deals, the market value of the closing pitcher has been set and is at an extreme high, and the White Sox still have two closer-quality relievers in their possession; one of which is on an exceptionally valuable contract (though now that the market value for closers is so high, you could even argue that both are on team friendly deals). Desperate times call for desperate measures, and it’s time for the White Sox to take advantage of that.

Of course, the market has taken a bit of a hit. Four teams have now effectively solved their ninth inning situation, whether it be via trade or long-term contracts. And while the Marlins and Nationals were active suitors, the latter of which the White Sox have already pilfered the farm system of just last week save for Victor Robles. Some teams just aren’t that desperate yet, and maybe won’t be before camp starts.

That doesn’t mean the market is dead though, or that the White Sox waited too long to pounce. What White Sox fans must remember is that rebuilds take time, General Manager Rick Hahn has stressed the fact that he has no interest in rushing through a teardown, meaning that there is plenty of time to let the situations that will maximize the Sox’s return marinate. For example, a team desperate at the trade deadline will likely sell off whatever the White Sox snap their fingers for if they’re contending and looking for a closer to fill a void left by injury or even just the inadequacy of their current bullpen situation.

Let’s take a closer look at the 2016 numbers two of the relievers that the White Sox would likely move given the proper offer, David Robertson and Nate Jones.

While Robertson’s ERA was only good for 23rd best in the American League among relievers with 60 inning or more, Jones was ninth. This isn’t to discount Robertson’s efforts, he certainly had his share of struggles in 2016, but after successful knee surgery this offseason, the White Sox can hope he will return at least some of his old form and up his stock on the midseason trade market.

But let’s talk about Jones, the hidden bullpen treasure.

Jones has quite a bit of value, and he’s showing it right now. Not only has he put up sterling numbers in 2016 and most of his career, save for high home run/fly ball rate, but his contract has become is gold mine for his level of talent.

Jones is currently on a deal that takes him through the 2018 season for just $1.9 million in 2017 and $3.95 million in 2018. The contract also includes two team options, plus a mutual option in his final season of the agreement (2021) that is still only $6 million. If Jones needs an elbow operation in any of the three years, a clause in place would lower the cost of his options. Given that Jones has already undergone Tommy John surgery, that’s a bit more of a loaded “if” than it would be for a typical healthy reliever. But since his return to the mound, Jones has shown enough promise to take a gamble on a contract like this for a late-inning reliever who has proven to be solid, especially in an absurdly escalating market.

Every deal for a reliever is a risky one, but this contract comes at a bargain basement price for talent that should it stay on track, is worth three times its cost.

The question now becomes gauging the proper return for Jones’ contract as well as his level of production. Jones is somewhat of an unknown in the baseball world, mainly because he missed 16 months of action while recovering from Tommy John, and unfortunately also because he has been a piece in a bullpen for a team that’s failed to make national headlines in any flattering way during the regular season for a while.

Jones hold dual value in today’s most intriguing baseball market, and the time to capitalize on that is likely soon. Of course, the White Sox will want to carefully negotiate the type of return they’re seeking for Jones, and perhaps the time to move him isn’t this offseason. But the Sox do have to remember that relievers a volatile, and that there’s a fine line between waiting for the proper return and letting the period of time when they’ll be able to get the most reward pass them by.

Baseball has underrated Jones for too long, but now is time more than ever for Jones’ value to shine, and for the White Sox to make sure it’s on display.

Lead Image Credit: John Rieger // USA Today Sports Images

The 2016-17 offseason is likely to be one of the dullest in recent memory. With Winter Meetings approaching in just a week–barring a labor crisis–there is a slim free agent market, and the signings will feature talent a bit more lackluster than in previous years. Due to this slight crop of talent, a whole lot of trade speculation is on the table heading into the most action-packed week of the offseason.

That certainly makes the whispers that have been circulating since the All-Star Break about whether or not the White Sox will move Sale somewhat of a cornerstone of barroom discussion this offseason, and the hot topic of the moment in the baseball world. Other people sit around and talk about how they don’t know how they’ll survive their aunt asking them for the twelfth time when they’re getting married this holiday season. Baseball people, specifically White Sox fans, sit around and talk about how they don’t know how they’ll survive a Chris Sale trade.

Let’s dial this conversation back for a moment. Statistically, we understand that Sale is one of the best pitchers the sport has seen in recent years. The 27-year-old has made the All-Star team and finished in the top-six of Cy Young voting every season since he’s been a starting pitcher. He’s even managed to do something that rarely happens in our great sport: post a valuable enough campaign to receive MVP votes for the last two seasons as a pitcher (though when looking at his surroundings, it isn’t hard to envision him being the most valuable player on his team). Sale has a career ERA of 3.00, a strikeout rate of nearly 28 percent, has pitched 14 complete games in his seven-year career and logged a total of 1,110 innings pitched, only 94 of which were in his first two seasons before he was added to the rotation full time. Just this past season, when he induced some panic with a rise in contact and fall in strikeout rates, at the end of the year Sale managed to keep nearly all of his peripheral stats in line with his career averages and post four games in which he struck out 10 batters or more — including a 14-strikeout game against Seattle in last August. (In line with what is typical for recent team history — somehow the White Sox managed to lose that game.)

Those are all things that fans care about. They’re things that baseball executives care about. They’re things that Sale cares about. They’re important. But they’ll only be a portion of what the White Sox fan base will endure in a world without Sale on the South side. That’s not what this is about. This is about something that goes beyond baseball stats, beyond the All-Star votes, beyond whether or not the White Sox should expect a Shelby Miller-type return for Sale or not. This is about what next year looks like with a bullpen, a dugout, a mound, a locker room, and a fan base left devoid of something that they have seen as their only source of consistent and positive identity for seven years. Sale grew up as a baseball player in this franchise, and became a perennial All-Star with it. Keeping Sale healthy and productive on their roster is the one thing that the White Sox have managed to not just be good at, but absolutely excel at on a baseball level, not just a White Sox level, in the last seven years.

There have been many tumultuous happenings that White Sox fans have managed to look the other way and cry in their beer about in the recent past; being a Sox fan is trying on one’s sanity. But Sale was never one of those things. Sale became the one piece of the White Sox franchise that left fans thinking even among the darkest of days “Well, at least we still have one of the best pitchers in baseball.”

Sale has become the foundation in which nearly every White Sox fan who has been around for the past seven years has taken comfort, an identity that fans have associated their last shred of hope with over the years. He is a pillar of normalcy that other fan bases usually feel from their team as a whole and not just one player in an otherwise noxious atmosphere. This isn’t to say that there aren’t other talented players on the White Sox, there are, most recently we have seen the rise of Jose Quintana and the promise of Tim Anderson, while Adam Eaton was good enough to muster an MVP vote this offseason. But none of them hold the same value to White Sox fans that Sale does, and so with the absence of Sale, the fan base will lose something that has guided them through the murkiness, and helped them feel as though they are not as lost as the rest of the franchise would lead them to believe.

Sale is a constant. He’s a leader, and though some baseball folks, Sox fans or not, may not agree with his sometimes crass methodology of handling the issues at hand in 2016 or previous, he’s been a voice that perhaps helps Sox fans understand that someone else sees the same discrepancies that they do, that their suffering does not go unrecognized — something the White Sox front office has failed to do for their fans until Rick Hahn’s comments just this past summer. Sale recognizes that this organization owes their fan base more, that they ought to put more interest into the betterment of the team with a focus on winning, and that perhaps this organization on and off the field is not as united as it could or should be.

Trading Sale could be important for the future of this team, but drudging through the process of a full rebuild to craft a future that this fan base can be proud of will be challenging without his leadership and without his contributions to any sort of feeling of success with which this fan base can identify; a feeling this franchise has deprived it’s loyal followers of for years with the exception of Sale’s success.

The saying goes that the night is always darkest just before the dawn, that things have to get worse before they get better, that the mess has to get messier before it can be clean. Those sayings are all in good stead when the belief is that there is a dawn coming, that things will get better, that the mess will be cleaned. The track record the Sox have, which in turn has lead to this sort of Chris Sale coping mechanism, is not one that should instill much faith in a fan base, and draws the concern: if they cash in their big bargaining chip, will the loss be in vain?

Seeing Sale on the mound wearing another team’s jersey, on a calculated path to success with another franchise, will not be easy to watch — but it will be harder to watch if the White Sox remain as stagnant as ever, only this time without Chris Sale.

For the White Sox in 2016, no one really paid enough attention to outfielder Melky Cabrera. Fans were too busy crying in their beer over James Shields, wishing upon a star that Tim Anderson wasn’t a fluke, or wondering what Justin Morneau would contribute in July to a team sinking faster than the Titanic. No one gave much thought to nor appreciated Cabrera for what he was doing in 2016.

Cabrera was not simply a successful outfielder who played with day-in and day-out consistency, making him a mainstay of the White Sox shaky lineup this past season, but he actually improved upon the the disappointment that he was in 2015.

Take a look at the improvements that Cabrera made from one year to the next:

He lowered his strikeout rate by more than two percentage points, brought his walk total up slightly, and boosted his power numbers to levels that rounded out his slash line to look much heartier than it did in his first year on the South side.

It gets better though. Cabrera posted some of the best numbers he has in his 12-year career in 2016. Check it out:

Now sure, seeing that Cabrera’s slash line numbers in 2016 were only good enough to be ranked fourth seems as though it doesn’t exactly merit “career best,” but consider that Cabrera just finished off the 12th year of his career and is posting numbers this strong in his age-32 season before you scoff. I’d say that’s a quite laudable feat.

Cabrera’s 10.7 percent strikeout rate was not only a career best for him, but it was also the lowest of all White Sox hitters in 2016 just behind J.B. Shuck (8.7 percent).

The defense is the one aspect of Cabrera’s game that bogs down his ability to be labeled as an all encompassing force to be reckoned with in baseball after all this time. Baseball Prospectus’ fielding statistic, FRAA, gave Cabrera a -6.7 in 2016, which in part is to blame for his WARP of just 0.9 in 2016 (up from -0.1 in 2015 though!). However, his FRAA this season was a tad better than the -7.6 he earned in his first year with the White Sox. Still in the red, but improvements are improvements no matter how incremental. 

But as James so cordially pointed out in his piece on Cabrera just last month, when you’re putting Cabrera against the backdrop of an outfield that consists of Avisail Garcia’s infamous defense as well as Cabrera having taken the spot of Dayan Viciedo, it’s hard for White Sox fans to see anything but the grass being greener in Cabrera’s part of the outfield since his arrival.

Cabrera’s contract looked dismal in his first year with the White Sox. It seemed as though all Rick Hahn did was shell out an exorbitant amount of cash that the White Sox couldn’t technically afford after the expensive offseason they had laced together, for what appeared to be an aged outfielder with poor defensive marks and even poorer offensive ones. Perhaps it simply took Cabrera becoming acclimated to his new environment, but the second year success he had certainly makes the first year of his contract look a bit more tolerable.

As for the third year, we know Cabrera has this type of production in him, though he’ll be heading into his age-33 season and the final year of his contract with the White Sox, it’s not hard to believe we will at least perhaps see some middle ground of production from him at the plate in that final year. If not, well, it will be time to cut ties anyway. If one more year of Cabrera turns out to be the worst thing that the 2017 White Sox suffer though, I would say that 2017 probably turned out pretty well on the South side.

Lead photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

As White Sox fans gathered at U.S. Cellular Field on that evening, Anderson started off his career tugging at baseball’s heartstrings with a loud double off Royals starter Ian Kennedy. Of course, being haunted by the shortcomings of the White Sox prospects of past, the apprehension was high, and the expectations were rather low. At least they were for me.

But in 99 games and 431 plate appearances, Anderson didn’t disappoint. He even went as far as to impress, finishing the season with a slash line of .283/.306/.432, a 27 percent strikeout rate and a 3 percent walk rate. The latter two numbers sound rather dismal, but given the profile that Anderson brought with him, the final product of his slash line is more than laudable for a strikeout-prone White Sox prospect’s first 99 games in the big leagues.

It was well-known that Anderson would bring speed and pop with him to the major leagues, but along with those tools came that high strikeout rate, the inability to take a free base, and the uncertainty of his future as a shortstop.

In his first month, the strikeouts were significantly high — a whopping 31.8 percent, while the walks were low, just 1.1 percent. But oh, the power! Anderson put up a .512 slugging percentage in his first 19 games in the big leagues. Over the course of the season, he would hit nine home runs, four of which traveled 426 feet or farther, and four leaving the bat at 106 mph or faster. Anderson wasn’t simply holding his own in his first season in the majors, he was making baseball on the South Side joyful again.

Anderson kept the strikeout rate below 30 percent for the remainder of the season, which sounds as though it’s not praise-worthy for any other profile, but for Anderson it was an encouraging small step in the right direction. He even reached a walk rate of nearly 5 percent in September, and while his peripheral stats at the plate suggested a grim future for the shortstop, the slash line was hearty enough to suggest that when he was making contact at the plate, it was strong enough contact to merit optimism that future success is just a few walks and a couple of check swings away.

Anderson’s defense in the field was yet another aspect of his game that made baseball fun again. Going as far as to draw very deserving young Derek Jeter comps at some points, FRAA wasn’t a fan of all that met the eye, giving Anderson a -4.4 on the season. But he still showed plenty of promise, the eye test was approving, and for a player who just before the season started was still having his ability to stick at shortstop questioned, credit should be given where credit is very much due.

Anderson may not have had the perfect season, but all things considered, all context taken into account, and especially the franchise he’s a part of, he is one of the most solid and legitimate success stories the White Sox saw in 2016. Anderson is likely to only get better in 2017, continuing to smooth out the rough edges he has, but after just over 400 plate appearances in the majors, Anderson has made adjusting to big leagues look like no sweat.

Photo courtesy of Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

Of course, the entire idea of needing to rejoice because this season is “finally over” brings us back to the initial issue with the season itself — 2016 was a massive disaster that no one saw coming.

From Adam LaRoche grabbing national media headlines in March, to waving the white flag at the end of July, bright and quirky moments such as the Matt Albers Game, to the addition of Tim Anderson to the major league roster, 2016 was spanned the range of emotions for White Sox fans.

But there were just too many telltale and strange occurrences throughout the season, more than I’ve ever seen squeezed into a single year, as a White Sox fan. So in case some of you have forgotten just how strange this season was at 35th and Shields, let’s take a look back on my top seven oddest moments.

L’Affaire LaRoche

Fans should have sensed right away that things were going to get a little weird this season when the White Sox were grabbing national headlines and exploding the Twitterverse before Opening Day. Adam LaRoche’s abrupt decision to retire came as a shock to baseball, but what came as even more of a shock was the reason behind his retirement. After being told he was no longer allowed to bring his son, Drake, to the clubhouse, LaRoche decided to call it quits on March 16th. After Adam Eaton‘s comments that the White Sox lost a “leader” in Drake and Chris Sale‘s claim that the team was “bold-faced lied to by someone we were suppose to trust”, fears emerged of not only a division in the clubhouse, but also that a front office vs. players war was about to ensue before a pitch had even been thrown in 2016.

White Sox acquire James Shields, DFA Mat Latos

I think we can all agree that Mat Latos was simply terrible. Just like the rest of the South side crew, he started off hot, giving the White Sox hope that Don Cooper’s pitching magic was able to salvage a player many felt was dead on arrival. But as the calendar changed from April to May, things went south for Latos, who started six more games in a pinstripe uniform to the tune of a 7.62 ERA in 31 innings pitched. This problem needed to be solved.

Alas! James Shields, aka “Big Game James!” failed to provide a respite after coming over in a major trade. Shields had struggled a bit after hitting a sudden rough patch in San Diego, and the White Sox front office thought they could possibly capitalize on this tiny blip on Shields’ radar to get a discount and have Cooper do the rest. If this was 2009, perhaps that logic would have held up. As it was, and the White Sox sent failed starter Erik Johnson (who recently underwent Tommy John surgery) and infielder Fernando Tatis Jr. to San Diego for Shields. The Padres even threw in $22 million of Shields salary, what a bargain!

Wrong. The struggles Shields endured during his final days in San Diego were more foreshadowing than blips on the radar, and his struggles became even worse as the dingers sailed farther in a smaller ballpark (31 in 114.1 innings). Somehow, Mat Latos and his 4.62 ERA on the season seemed like that one person whose phone number you wish you hadn’t thrown away…

Jimmy Rollins…

Veteran leadership was the guise under which the acquisition of 37-year-old shortstop Jimmy Rollins was sold to the White Sox fan base. It took the famed shortstop of yesteryear 41 games before the Sox brass realized that his .221/.295/.329 slash line were not sufficient among a lineup that also included names such as Dioner Navarro and Avisail Garcia and their less than stellar offensive marks. Rollins may certainly have brought veteran leadership, wisdom, and experience to the clubhouse, but batting him–often at the top of the order–in more than a handful of games for the first two months of the season didn’t slow the Sox slide down from their hot start. Hey, at least we can all go get Jimmy Rollins Sox shirseys on the clearance rack though, right?

The Justin Morneau Thing

Yes, it’s a thing because on June 9th, when the White Sox began to realize that they were at the crossroads of “We Can Get Out of This Slump Avenue” and “This Season Is Over If We Don’t Move Quickly Lane”, they decided to sign a 35-year old, banged-up first baseman in Justin Morneau. Sounds bad already, but there was more! He wouldn’t even be able to join the team after rehabbing from an injury (Sounding even better!) until after the All-Star Break.

Morneau was the red flag that was waved before the white one was later unfurled. He was everything the White Sox aim for, and a symbol of everything wrong with this team’s idea of fixing a poor situation. Some felt a twinge of hope that perhaps by some unbounded miracle Morneau would play the way he did when he was 25 because baseball can be magical sometimes, but others saw the White Sox take the wrong turn at the crossroads.

Matt Davidson, Charlie Tilson, and the barrage of ruined major league debuts

The White Sox were already having a weird season injury-wise, after Jason Coats‘ bloody outfield collision during his debut, and catcher Kevan Smith being placed on the disabled before even officially appearing in a single game, but the worst two of all certainly had to be Charlie Tilson and Matt Davidson‘s debuts.

Davidson has been in the White Sox system for a very long time. After posting strong power numbers and lackluster performances in all other aspects of the game for parts of three seasons, his status as future star third basemen fizzled, and has remained dormant for quite some time. Davidson finally made his debut with the White Sox on June 30th, and while running the bases in his first major league game, he fractured his foot. Goodbye season, goodbye Matt Davidson.

Tilson, who was originally drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2011, was traded to the White Sox for reliever Zach Duke at the 2016 trade deadline. Tilson made his major league debut with the White Sox on Aug. 2, and right after collecting his first major league hit in the third inning, two innings later he curiously fell over while chasing a liner to the gap. The effort had torn his left hamstring, requiring season-ending surgery. 

“I can’t even imagine,” Sox manager Robin Ventura said. “This is a dream. He gets called up, gets a hit in his first at-bat and after that it all gets taken away from you for a while. It’s tough. All the guys on the team, as much as you want to put it out of your mind, you feel for the kid.” 

One can only find so many ways to say “bizarre,” and this season exhausted them all.

“We’re mired in mediocrity”

Unforgettable is probably the word I would use to describe how I felt the moment I read this quote from the only person in which I still had unwavering faith in the White Sox organization, general manager Rick Hahn. It was just before the trade deadline, and the White Sox still had over two months of a season of baseball left to play, yet the only person for which myself and many others looked to for direction through the murkiness of 2016 had found a way to eloquently dress up the phrase “It’s over.” I’d known for a while, much like many Sox fans, that the season was nearly over. The hope still hung by a thread though. But Hahn’s words on that afternoon cut that frayed little thread for me — with half of a season of baseball left to play. White Sox fans didn’t know how or what to feel, and despondency quickly took the place of hope on the South side.

Chris Sale cuts up an entire team’s jerseys a few hours before first pitch

After a week that felt as though it had lasted a decade in the lives of White Sox fans, another bizarre moment occurred. ESPN updates lit up phone screens across the city as Chris Sale abruptly left the White Sox clubhouse an hour before his scheduled start. Coming less than one week after Hahn’s white flag waving comments sparked conversations on whether Sale would be moved at the deadline or not, and days before the deadline, this moment felt as though the thin walls of sanity still propped up at 35th & Shields and around Sox fandom during these perilous times were crumbling down.

For a time during his inexplicable absence from the clubhouse, it seemed he must have been traded, confirming the dire situation long feared: that the organization really had to trade their franchise player. But, as it turned out, Sale simply had a meltdown, and destroyed the entire team’s uniforms just before the start of the game because they were “uncomfortable”. Just when folks thought things couldn’t get any weirder for the White Sox, they did.

White Sox fans have suffered their share of heartbreak over the last decade, but it’s safe to say that 2016 has provided them with a vast array of reasons to feel like this year was unique. From a 23-10 start to Guaranteed Rate Field… 2016 saw everything. Bring it on, 2017! It can’t get much weirder than this (But it still can).

Gonzalez’s final start of the season served as a reminder that throughout the year, we’ve watched him transcend on the mound right before our eyes, and that during the past four months he went from questionable organization swingman to solid fourth starter in a White Sox rotation, a rotation that has had it’s share of struggles and fluidity in 2016.

After Gonzalez’s first start against the Blue Jays in May, an outing that kept me fascinated with Gonzalez from the start, I wrote about how perhaps the best way to approach the idea of Gonzalez was to wipe away any memory baseball had of him as a successful Orioles starter, before his slew of injuries. I pressed that the best way to look at Gonzalez was to evaluate his performance from the moment he put on a White Sox uniform in isolation.

Well, I may have been wrong about that. Even when you hold Gonzalez’s final totals from 2016 up against the backdrop of his previous four seasons as a major league starter, with the exception of 2015, he looks as good as he ever was — and in some ways even better and more refined. Let’s take a look at the ways in which Gonzalez has improved in 2016.

His walk rate was low … very low

At just 6.2 percent, Gonzalez put up the lowest walk rate of his career in 2016. He learned to control the strike zone, and though his swing rates haven’t seen any sort of significant change indicating that the movement on his pitches has become more deceptive and whiff inducing — as long as Gonzalez is throwing in the zone and not off the plate, things are looking a lot better for him. Gonzalez had a walk rate of 9 percent in the first half, and though he missed nearly the entire month of August on the DL with a strained groin, he posted just a 3 percent walk rate in the second half.

His home run rate sank … a lot

Another career low number for Gonzalez came in a White Sox uniform this season as well. In 2016, Gonzalez successfully lowered his HR/FB rate to just 6.8 percent. That’s an 8.2 percentage point decrease from 2015, and a 5.3 percent decrease since 2014, his last successful year before the injuries occurred in 2015. This is all despite the fact that while not exceptionally meaningful, Gonzalez did see a 2.2 percent increase in his flyball rate this season after moving to hitter friendly U.S. Cellular Field. (Though Camden Yards is quite similar in the way of park factors.) All of this leads me to my next point…

His FIP was finally in line with his ERA

After season upon season in which Gonzalez failed to post a FIP nearly as quality as his ERA, it finally has happened. A nearly perfect harmony was found among the two numbers when Gonzalez finished 2016 with a 3.73 ERA and 3.71 FIP. Now, before the celebration ensues, DRA was not as much of a fan of Gonzalez this year, giving him a 4.70 mark which is quite in line with his career DRA. While FIP looks at the barebones of fielding independent stats to measure a pitcher’s true performance — strikeouts, walks, home runs — DRA looks a bit deeper into the nuances of the game that can affect a pitcher’s performance and the lens in which we view it through, which can be better detailed here. FIP is a great way to look at how well Gonzalez is limiting walks and home runs allowed (the two points above illustrate better why FIP liked Gonzalez so much this season) while DRA is a truer look into the pitcher’s performance. For now, though, I’m happy with Gonzalez having the lowest FIP of his career.

He lasted longer through starts in the second half

Since July 1 (so even a bit before the second half was officially underway), Gonzalez only had one outing in which he did not pitch at least six innings. Despite having outings in which he threw more innings in the second half, Gonzalez’s pitch totals were quite similar as they were in the first half. He was throwing nearly the same amount of pitches across more innings, indicating that his repertoire was suddenly more effective. Should Gonzalez have not missed approximately four starts, and should he have pitched at least six innings in each start, he would have concluded the season with around 160+ innings, something he has not done since 2013.

His velocity went back up

During the end of 2015, Gonzalez’s velocity took a steep decline, dropping off by 2-3 miles per hour on every pitch he threw across the board. But in 2016, some of that velocity was recovered — an issue White Sox fans had been keeping a watchful eye on. His fastball touched 95.3 mph at one point, his slider was back up to 89 mph, his curveball was sitting happily at 80 mph, and one of his signature pitches — the splitter — was back touching 87 mph. These velocities are perfectly adequate for these pitches, and though Gonzalez’s fastball only rarely touches 95 and mostly sits at 92, his repertoire has become so strong and interchangeable that Gonzalez rarely needs to rely on the pitch to survive. So his fastball sits at 92 mph, and that’s OK.

Gonzalez was certainly one of the most pleasant surprises the White Sox were graced with among what felt like constant pitfall in 2016, and the best part was that Gonzalez was not even part of the Opening Day rotation. He was a total surprise. White Sox fans were not even sure what Gonzalez’s future held after his one outing against the Blue Jays in May. But four months and a 3.73 ERA later with many improvements on his 2016 resume, Gonzalez has seemingly carved out a place for himself in the 2017 White Sox rotation. And I am more than comfortable with that.

Photo courtesy of John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

White Sox fans have taken pride in Chris Sale’s success this season, Jose Quintana’s silent and strong emergence as an important part of this rotation’s future, and the instant success that rookie Tim Anderson has seen over the past few months.

But one positive aspect that might get overlooked in the discussion of favorable outcomes in the 2016 yearbook is the success of outfielder Adam Eaton.

Eaton has had consistent success in his three seasons since joining the South siders after coming to the team from Arizona, and has posted nearly identical offensive numbers over the last two years. Take a look:

At the plate, Eaton has been a model of consistency, and considering he is simply a five-foot, 11-inch (listed) 185-pound spark plug whose profile makes him best cast as a the top of the order speedster rather than of a middle of the lineup slugger, his performance year in and year out has been above average, but not really stellar or All-Star worthy. When paired with consistency, above average is not bad at all. It’s something many players strive for. Not everyone turns into Mike Trout.

Eaton has even lowered his strikeout rate by 2.4 percentage points this season, going from 19 percent in 2015 to 16.6 percent in 2016, and his walk rate is now nine percent, a career high.

But the most impressive thing that Eaton has done this season to solidify his status as an invaluable member of the White Sox organization has nothing to do with his consistency at the plate, his lowered strikeout rate, nor his slightly improved ability to take walks.

Defensively, Eaton has risen to new levels of eliteness in 2016. He is currently posting a 27.3 FRAA (Fielding Runs Above Averages) in just this season alone. Over the span of his entire major league career, Eaton had collectively posted an FRAA of -4.7, due to some poor fielding during his time in Arizona that was bad enough that his time spent in Chicago couldn’t get him out of the red.

Eaton is currently ranked No. 1 in baseball by UZR at 24.9, with Kevin Pillar being the second ranked player and a 5.6 differential separating them. Eaton ranks second just behind Red Sox defensive phenom Mookie Betts in Defensive Runs Saved with 23 on the season. The most defensive runs saved Eaton had previously in his career? That number would be 11, which he posted in 2014, his first season on the South side.

We know that defensive statistics at this point can only serve as a baseline to judge a players performance in the field, but just watching Eaton every night, it’s not hard to notice the improvements. The move from center to right certainly helped Eaton let his defensive prowess shine through to its full potential, and had Austin Jackson not suffered a season-ending injury, causing Eaton to have to shift back to center on occasion, who knows how high his defensive numbers would climb as the White Sox everyday right fielder.

“We’ve had to use him in center out of necessity,” White Sox manager Robin Ventura told the media. “But in right field, I haven’t seen anybody that’s better than him this year.” The massive improvement in Eaton’s defensive numbers certainly would agree.

Eaton has expressed his desire to be a Gold Glove winner all of his career, and this season is certainly his best chance so far.

“You work your butt off to be in a position to hopefully be in the top three (Gold Glove finalists) and (you) want to win every year,” Eaton told the media this past week. “It takes effort and focus and some good luck and some great teammates.”

The White Sox secured Eaton’s status as part of the face of the White Sox franchise when they extended him to a five-year, $23.5 million deal with two team options in 2020 and 2021 back in March of 2015. If Eaton continues to demonstrate his consistent offensive ability while emerging as one of the best defensive right fielders in the game, that deal will certainly look like a bargain for the White Sox in the future. It’s already starting to look like one now.

Though this has been one of the toughest seasons the White Sox have faced in years, not only due to the results on the field, but due to the trials and tribulations in the clubhouse early in the season, the lack of success this organization saw when attempting to salvage what started off as a historically great campaign, to dissonance from key figures in recent weeks, this season has had its bright spots. Adam Eaton in right field has certainly been one of them.

Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Rodon struggled early with command, which would plague him throughout most of the rest of his first season in the majors. In Rodon’s first outing, a chilly April night at U.S. Cellular Field, he allowed two earned runs and walked three Cleveland batters in 2.1 innings of work. He faced 13 batters in all and managed just one strikeout. He was simply stated, a work in progress.

As the season progressed, fans would watch with an uncertain eye as Rodon struggled with his command and the ability to harness a useable third pitch, even as he made his way into the Sox rotation after just three games working out of the bullpen. Rodon showed flashes of grand ability that were often muddled by his rookie struggles, but he possessed  a sharp slider, and good velocity — the type of brilliance that reminded Sox fans that the potential for success was certainly there and why the patience was necessary.

“You’re not going to be throwing 40-plus percent sliders for a long time,” GM Rick Hahn said of Rodon during his time in Triple-A in 2015, indicating that finding a third pitch was key to helping Rodon succeed as a starter. The command needed to improve on all his pitches, but most importantly, the changeup needed to develop into a strong third option.

“In our opinion, Carlos can be a front-end type starter, and it’s a matter of developing him along those lines and getting him there.” Hahn continued. A year and a half later, Rodon is showing the White Sox that Hahn was right.

“It’s a pitch I’ve been trying to develop since I’ve been in professional baseball,’’ Rodon said of his changeup after an outing this September.

That’s been the key to putting it all together for Rodon in 2016. In the first half of the season, the White Sox simply saw more of what had made many more impatient souls skeptical of Rodon in 2015; a 15.5 percent  HR/FB rate, a 4.50 ERA, and a .291 opponent batting average.

Fast forward to now. It’s still just the second half of Rodon’s second season in the majors, and he is pitching to a 2.52 ERA, has lowered his opponent batting average to .236, and has worked on commanding the strike zone — lowering his walk rate from 7.8 percent in the first half to just 5.9 percent in the second half.

It all came together at once, the third pitch, and the improved command, and the ability to deceive batters via strong sequencing.

“It’s a pitch I’m definitely going to use more often,’’ Rodon said of his newfound confidence in his change.  “The changeup gets them off my fastball and makes it seem a little harder. It opens up the plate for me to throw heaters in there, and they just beat it in the ground or pop up.’’

Check out the progression on Rodon’s changeup, as well as his slider, in the second half of 2016:

That’s quite the improvement, and certainly evidence of where Rodon’s exceptional second half success has stemmed from.

The proof is in the numbers as far as Rodon’s command of the changeup goes as well, in the 2015, Rodon’s changeup was seeing the zone just 27.7 percent of the time he threw it, causing his walk rate on the pitch to climb to 15.6 percent. In 2016 though, Rodon is throwing the pitch in the zone with 35.7 percent frequency, and has seen the pitch’s walk rate dip to just 6.3 percent.

As far as the slider is concerned, Rodon now has a 47.4 percent strikeout rate and a four percent walk rate on the pitch in 2016, as opposed to just 44.7 percent strikeout rate and 8.3 percent walk rate in 2015. These may seem like small variations to some, but these incremental gains in baseball can help a pitcher make large strides towards success.

“If you have three pitches a hitter has to worry about, it makes you so much better. And now we found out we can throw the slider back door (to the outside corner to right hand hitters) so that helps us a lot. He’s been pretty good.’’ White Sox catcher Omar Narvaez said of Rodon.

There hasn’t been a lot to look forward to as the days roll onward on the South side, so keeping a watchful eye for the future is the goal. The improvements that Rodon has made over the last several months have helped him become the well-rounded pitcher that baseball expected him to become for the White Sox back in June of 2015. His developmental path may have put his flaws and struggles in the spotlight, but all it took was a little patience and faith to see Rodon’s true talent and success unfold.

Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

The Aug. 1 deadline passed quietly on the South side, and left the mediocrity of the White Sox still intact as it moseyed away. Despondent as ever, fans checked off each game in August wondering why they had to bother with this month that felt like nothing more than purgatory anyway. The season’s second half on the South side was nothing more than a white walled, windowless waiting room in which to expel impatience for the slowly arriving offseason.

Now, that offseason is barely more than three short weeks away, and the dirt is yet again being kicked up on the real question at hand: what will happen to this team? For a moment, let’s say they do blow it all up. There are a few valuable assets it would be hard to see go, because it would be counterintuitive to trade away pieces of a young, controlled, affordable core such as Sale, Jose Quintana, or Jose Abreu when attempting to rebuild. If the Sox are looking to start small and shed some extraneous payroll, the first piece that needs to be discussed is closer David Robertson.

As part of the infamous 2014 offseason haul that left the baseball world buzzing, Robertson signed a lofty four-year $46 million deal with the Sox. It seemed steep even at the time when money was of little object for a team that was a World Series contender in December, but if an organization is going to go for a quality closer in free agency, then they better be ready to pay the price.

Robertson was impressive during his first year on the South side, despite a career-high seven blown saves, posting his lowest career walk rate and striking out 34 percent of batters he faced — the third-highest mark of his career.

But during a 2016 season in which everything that could have went wrong for the White Sox did, Robertson simply added to their bounty of troubles. This year, Robertson has seen his strikeout rate plummet to just 26 percent, a low which he has not seen since 2010, when he was with the Yankees. The interesting thing about Robertson is that this isn’t the first time he’s suffered such a poor season. Robertson is actually posting some nearly identical numbers in 2016 to the ones finished with in his 2010 campaign in the Bronx. Take a look:

The FIP and DRA differ between these two years, mostly due to the amount of home runs Robertson is giving up this season (Robertson has actually lowered his HR/FB rate by almost four percent from last year, though), and the change of environments between the two seasons. Other than that, in the two most concerning categories for a closer, walks and strikeout rates, the seasons are a match.

So what’s the purpose of pointing out that Robertson has had two identical seasons, six years apart? Well, he ended up bouncing back. Eventually. Check out what happened in Robertson’s next two seasons after his poor 2010 campaign with the Yankees:

In 2011, Robertson was good. So good in fact, that it wasn’t sustainable, and the extremely low ERA is mainly due in part to that extremely high strand rate. The walks stayed high in 2011, but the strikeouts returned–Important point No. 1.

Then in 2012, everything evened out. The walks went down–Important point No. 2. The strikeout percentage stayed good, the left on base numbers returned to a more sustainable level and the home run rate wasn’t as suppressed. Robertson was good again, and normal good. So is there hope for Robertson to have a good rest of his White Sox contract? Possibly.

Now, is that to say that the White Sox should stick with Robertson for another year or the remainder of his contract? No. But it is a telling sign that if they do decide to wait it out, Robertson may look a bit better on the trading block than he would after such a shabby season.

If the White Sox decide to trade Robertson now, they’ll be left with a dismal bullpen with no solid foundation and no direction for a closer, and they certainly won’t be able to capitalize on his value. Down years are never a good time to attempt to leverage value out of a player, especially one who is still owed $25 million over the next two seasons. So, they should wait it out.

It’s a sticky situation for the White Sox, as an offseason approaches in which they need to leverage as much of their unwanted talent as possible for the trade market, but one of their main bargaining chips is coming off one of his career-worst seasons. The bright side of the situation at hand is that Robertson has suffered a year like this before, and he bounced back. Of course, he wore a younger man’s clothes back then, but at 31-years-old, it’s not impossible. Another year of Robertson on the South side wouldn’t truly hurt anyone, so why not?

Photo courtesy of Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports