Tyler Clippard — Clippard served as the awkward throw-in of one of the White Sox’ biggest trades this season. He was sent to Chicago along with three prospects, which made him a very certain outlier. At first blush it seemed like he was included to merely cover innings for a team that was trading away two of their best relievers at once. When he was traded to the Astros almost exactly a month later, it was clear his inclusion in the inital trade was merely to balance out salaries. It’s hard to say whether the team planned to flip him all along or his strong performance (10 IP, 2 ER) ignited interest from other teams. Regardless of the why, Clippard was in a White Sox uniform for merely an uninteresting month of the season.

Todd Frazier — Frazier was one of the many White Sox players belonging to the group of last ditch players from the era of the team piecing things together in hopes of finding something that worked. He spent a season and a half with the team, showing power in 2016 and nothing of great significance in 2017. The team was forced to package him with two strong relievers to get a team to bite, and he went on to find a leadership role with a Yankees team that was just one win away from the AL pennant.

Miguel Gonzalez — One of the big stories of the 2015 season was the massive failure of the Jeff Samardzija acquisition. There was absolutely no chemistry between Don Cooper and Samardzija, causing concerns about Cooper to ripple through the White Sox fanbase and baseball world. If it’s even fair to say there was a revival of Cooper’s reputation, it came in 2016 when Gonzalez went from throwaway player on the Orioles to one of the White Sox best pitchers. The 2017 was much rockier for Gonzalez, who battled injuries in the early part of the season. His 4.62 ERA on the season certainly wasn’t great, but he was effective while in Chicago. He weaved his way through hard contact left and right to make himself a trade asset in August, which helped the White Sox gain even more young talent in quantity even if not in quality.

Derek Holland — Holland always seemed like a great fit for the 2017 White Sox. He was a free agent whose price tag was greatly reduced by injury concerns, but if he was healthy he could easily provide a multitude of innings at at least a passable quality. That was a perfect fit for a team in the very early stages of rebuilding, and if the team got lucky he could have been a trade target by July. Instead things went horribly wrong, and Holland was cut from the roster before the season ended. His 6.20 ERA and 4.6 percent strikeout minus walk rate was not a site to behold, and as the summer came to an end his starts seemed to get worse and worse. The pitcher who appeared to be a solid signing with plenty of potential turned out to be a dud.

Dan Jennings — Jennings appeared in 77 games this season, which was good enough to put him tied for third in all of baseball among relievers. Perhaps it was the frequency with which Jennings was used that caused the Rays to show interest at the deadline. At the time they were certainly contenders for at least a Wild Card spot, if not within reach of the division title. With limited resources financially and within their system, they were forced to go bargain shopping. It’s hard to say why or how they landed on Jennings, but the fact remains that he was the guy they wanted. The White Sox were happy to oblige as they handed out bullpen arms like candy on Halloween throughout the months of July and August, and in return got Casey Gillaspie, a prospect who is flawed but interesting enough to more than justify the trade.

Tommy Kahnle — Kahnle and his morbidly huge thighs stepped out of nowhere and into our world in 2017. Before this season he was merely a fireballer who couldn’t find the strike zone, hardly a rare breed in this day and age of baseball. All it took for him to take off, as is the case for so many relievers, was a bit of command. He was able to establish the fastball early in counts and blow hitters away with his devastating changeup. The White Sox could have held out to squeeze more value from what seemed to be a very good reliever, but the general principle of selling high on relievers whenever you can is a good one. Kahnle went on to be a crucial part of the powerful Yankees bullpen, making strong and important appearances in a multitude of postseason games.

David Robertson — Robertson, like Frazier, was part of the team’s last ditch effort at contention over the last couple seasons. With contention out of the picture and Robertson still a valuable bullpen arm with a large salary commitment through 2018, the White Sox decided it was time to part with him. His value was neither at an all-time high nor all-time low, but when he was packaged with Kahnle and Frazier the return was at the very least a couple players of interest.

Anthony Swarzak — During most seasons you would be hard-pressed to find a reliever that came more out of nowhere to find success than Kahnle. However, in 2017 Swarzak did exactly that. The White Sox gave him a minor league deal, converted him to the bullpen and saw immediate success. He started the season on fire and finished with a 2.33 ERA and 30 percent strikeout rate. With Swarzak only signed on for the single season, it was an even easier decision to send him away to a contender. He landed in Milwaukee, where the Brewers were trying to keep themselves in the playoff race.

Jose Quintana — The most inevitable trade of the season was one involving Quintana. It was a shock, however, to see him sent to the other side of town. Despite struggling in the early parts of the season, he rebounded enough to convince teams that confidence in his past performance was enough to warrant sending prospects to the South Side. His departure was the saddest of the season from a rooting standpoint, but it sent the most exciting prospects the other way. Suddenly a White Sox system that still seemed arm-heavy had one of the best hitting prospects in baseball along with another high-ceiling pitcher. Seeing Quintana go after so many years of improbable success was unfortunate, but it was a huge step in the right direction for the White Sox rebuilding efforts.

Lead Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

As editor emeritus James Fegan pointed out on Twitter, Jennings has held hitters to a .146/.224/.270 line since June 1.  Jennings doesn’t offer classic LOOGY platoon splits or anything, but can be used for more than one inning and does a very good job of limiting home runs.  As a result he has been generally effective as a low-leverage option despite his poor K:BB numbers, and the White Sox definitely came out ahead in acquiring him for Andre Rienzo.

Tampa Bay sits only one game out of the Wild Card and two games back of Boston for the AL East lead, so a soft buy for a reliever on a modest salary makes sense.

As for Gillaspie, here are the pros:

• Former first round pick;
• Baseball America’s #74 overall prospect heading into 2017, and #69 overall prospect on their May 11, 2017 Top 100 update;
• Hit .286/.387/.482 across Double-A and Triple-A in 2016;
• Switch hitter;
• He’s a big dude;
• Conor’s brother!

That’s pretty much it for the good news. Gillaspie has had a down ’17 in his second look at Triple-A, turns 25 after this season and comes to the White Sox on the DL with a broken toe.  He can only play first base, even before his recent struggles he projected only as a 55 hit / 55 power ceiling guy, and our evaluators have questioned his swing, his contact skills, and his power.  If everything goes right, Gillaspie could look like a league average first baseman, but the Baseball America ranking looks like a bit of an outlier at this point.

That’s not to say this was a “bad” trade for the White Sox.  Gillaspie likely represents a competent major league bench bat, and if that doesn’t sound like much, remember that the most recent White Sox playoff “contender” was hoping to get bailed out of their DH black hole by Jerry Sands and Justin Morneau.  It’s a low ceiling without a whole lot of fallback options if he doesn’t hit, but he’s close to the majors and not without pedigree.

The White Sox have called up Aaron Bummer to take Jennings’ place in the bullpen.  At a glance, one could describe this as simply calling up a lefty reliever from Triple-A to replace the loss of a lefty reliever from the major league bullpen.  However, it does raise a bit of an eyebrow, as Bummer started this year in High-A, started last year in rookie ball, and had only thrown five innings in Charlotte.

A 19th round draft pick in 2014, Bummer missed 2015 with Tommy John surgery.  The organization is clearly high on the 6’3″ lefty who throws in the mid-90s, touching 98-99, and singled him out as someone to watch before the year for the High-A squad.  Bummer has missed bats at every level, and has seemed to improve with each promotion.

It’s the type of profile where one simply has to trust the organization’s pitching development and ability to find diamonds in the rough. If they think a hard-throwing lefty can succeed in a relief role, I hesitate to contradict them, and he has as much of a chance to succeed as anybody else who’s still left in the current White Sox bullpen.

Lead Image Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

2. Following Shields’ departure, Rick Renteria had to cover five innings with a bullpen that has now lost its five best arms heading into the season to injury or trade. The cavalcade of fringe non-prospects and reclamation projects limped through admirably, but this area of the roster is where the impact of the rebuild is most palpable, particularly from the beginning of the season.  As you may recall, the White Sox went 13-10 to start the year largely on the strength of their absurd bullpen, where any lead could be locked in and held.  Dan Jennings was probably sixth in the pecking order to start the year and he is now comfortably their best reliever, although fortunately he has picked up his performance considerably since the arrival of June.  His ERA doesn’t show it, but Jennings’ DRA has improved from 5.01 to 4.38 from ’16 to ’17.

UPDATE: Immediately following drafting of this piece, Jennings was traded to Tampa Bay, analysis can be found here.

3. With that unpleasantness out of the way — Yoan Moncada crushed his first major league home run to dead center on an 0-2 pitch from Jake Arrieta, a hanging breaking ball on a night where his stuff was otherwise quite lively.  Moncada also walked and struck out twice, continuing to show a willingness to take close pitches and work deep counts, which is a stark change from his debut last year wherein he was completely overmatched at the plate.  His batting average is still quite low over a small sample, but his strikeout to walk ratio sits at a very comfortable 8:4, which includes two at bats where he was asked to bunt and fell behind 0-2, and at least one very close take on a two strike pitch.  There is plenty of reason for optimism here.

4. Speaking of optimism, Wednesday was a banner day for White Sox pitching prospects.  A day after Lucas Giolito pitched seven strong innings, a trio of White Sox arms vaporized the opposition.  Reynaldo Lopez continued his run of dominance in Triple-A, with a line of 10K 2BB 2R 4H across 5 innings, although one can infer that he wasn’t incredibly efficient.  Rick Hahn acknowledged that Lopez was “Getting close” and “forcing the issue” with regard to a spot in the major league rotation before this outing, so there’s good reason to believe there will be another exciting piece of the future arriving in Chicago sooner rather than later.

Between injury and suspension, heading into this year Michael Kopech‘s single season high for innings pitched came in 2015 when he threw 65 frames in Low-A.  So it wasn’t surprising when Kopech looked to be tiring as he approached the 70 inning mark in early July, posting back-to-back short and ineffective outings for Birmingham.

Then Kopech flipped the script and after his 12K outing on Wednesday, over his last three starts he has thrown 20 innings with 25K, 4BB, 10H, and only 3 ER.  Generally, scouting the stat line is an easy trap to fall into, but with a guy like Kopech whose build and stuff are unquestionably top flight, his walks allowed and innings pitched serve as about as good a shorthand proxy for development as you’re likely to find in the minors.  Given that he is now in uncharted territory in terms of workload, the White Sox will undoubtedly watch him closely for fatigue and handle him carefully, as there’s no reason to rush his development in 2017.  Still, for a guy who once looked like he might limp to the 90-100 inning mark, he has a good chance to finish the minor league season through the month of August and throw around 140, positioning him comfortably to continue ramping up through Triple-A next year.  That would position him to get a cup of coffee in September 2018 and compete for the rotation in 2019.

Oh, and Dane Dunning bounced back from a rare bad outing to strike out six against only one walk over seven shut out innings in High-A.  The true test for Dunning is likely to come at the upper levels as his stuff is more solid than the wipeout offerings of say a Lopez or Kopech, and his best offspeed pitch is a change up.  But, for a “third piece” in a deal, the White Sox look like they have yet another Top 101 prospect on their hands, and Dunning is positioning himself to start 2018 in Birmingham.

5. Avisail Garcia has landed on the 10-day DL with a strained ligament in his thumb, for which he will undergo an MRI. A corresponding roster move has yet to be announced, and although the pitching staff is already at 13*, given the issues both the rotation and bullpen have had of late, and the extreme positional flexibility afforded by a bench of Tyler Saladino and Alen Hanson (and a DH who can play 3B and 1B), it may make sense to call up a pitcher for a little while.

*12 with the departure of Jennings.

 Lead Image Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

That said, hearing the Yankees are dropping out because they don’t want to give up “three elite prospects,” calls back old memories of the Sox and their stringent high demands stagnating trade progress (though a quick look at their prospect list shows its benefits, of course). Speculation that the Braves could still be in provides a reminder of the transience of these things, but so far they have traded one of the greatest talents to ever hit the trade market, victimized a desperate Nationals team looking for a consolation prize, and appear to have a good demand for the third super cost-controlled All-Star talent in its prime.

Moves for the guys who are not providing useful value if they are not contributing to a winning White Sox team such as Todd Frazier and Melky Cabrera, however, have lacked any real momentum. Nothing has percolated on David Robertson for a while, not that there’s the same rush, and why there isn’t a feeding frenzy for Nate Jones continues to be baffling. The Los Angeles Dodgers, the win-now team most in need of a real second baseman, just had their trade talks for Brian Dozier fall through, which at least provides a theoretical opening for Brett Lawrie, if not one that has his name attached in any meaningful way. It’s more important to max out the returns for their super pieces, but confusing they still have all these players who obviously should be traded.

Just the return on a Quintana trade alone will likely be enough to vault the Sox to having the best farm system in the game, so nitpicking about whether they are approaching moving the smaller bits of their roster aggressively feels a bit silly. But when we’re talking about what kind of homegrown core is needed to build a World Series winner on presumably a $120 million budget three years from now, no prospect buildup is enough.

The common reason to fret about this is the new wave obsession with maximum tanking during a rebuild, and gunning for the No. 1 pick with the cynical force of a thousand suns. My reason for focusing on it probably reads as trivial as quibbling over the expected value of the second pick vs. the first pick: clarity of purpose. Clearing the house quickly eliminates the weirdness of entering the year full of vets who expected to play for a contender, shows the Sox are committed to an extreme, scorched Earth approach that will maximize their efforts, and allows them to use 2017 as an opportunity to try out projects rather than to carry out trade auditions.

But I don’t even waste time writing that paragraph if I’m not a little bored with a quiet January. The market still has left the Sox behind in many real ways. Frazier has not been left out of any run on third baseman, there’s a very real glut of first baseman and designated hitters to suppress Jose Abreu‘s market. Only relievers seem like territory the Sox could be pushing into, and there’s no end in demand for that ever.

To that end, avoiding arbitration with Dan Jennings and Jake Petricka is the actual transactional news of the week. Both could be traded for some sort of lotto ticket if they prove themselves capable in 2017, and both seem like the type of projects who fit within the typical constraints of a rebuild. They’ll also be more interesting to watch than they will have significant effect on building the new core, which is a good preview on how watching the activities of the big league club will be going forward.

Lead Image Credit: Rick Osentoski // USA Today Sports Images

The Sox certainly won’t have an easy time if they cut the head of their relief corps off and trade David Robertson and Nate Jones, but there’s really no shortage of spare arms to give opportunities to out of the pen, partially because they tried out nearly all of these people already last season. Even if the Sox dealt Robertson and Jones, they could break camp with a seven-man bullpen composed entirely of pitchers with major league experience.

Zach Putnam – If healthy again–and that’s a big if considering he’s hit the disabled list each of the last two seasons and throwing endless splitters is not conducive to staying off of it–he has the numbers of a late-inning guy. He’s posted a 2.82 ERA in 130.2 innings with the White Sox, and struck out 26 percent of hitters in that time. Non-stop high-leverage work could expose his shortcomings and the limits of his approach, but he’s not just a viable late-inning reliever if he holds up, he’s a trade piece.

Dan Jennings – He’s a viable major league reliever who started striking out a batter per inning in the second half of 2016. He lacks real advantage against lefties and probably can’t get more than a song at the deadline if he has a good 2017, but he’ll help keep games under four hours and the Sox are light on proven professionals with his experience.

Michael Ynoa – His 4.43 DRA was nearly a run and a half worse than the 3.00 ERA he held down over 30 major league innings in 2016, as his control was poor and he six-feet, seven-inches of downward plane cannot alone account for his good fortune to avoid allowing a single home run. His arm is still lively and his stuff misses bats, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him struggle and split time between the majors and Triple-A, either.

Tommy Kahnle – Given that he didn’t make the 2016 Opening Day Roster after being traded for Yency Almonte, and his fourth appearance of the year was coming in for the end of the May 28 bullpen meltdown, most could be forgiven for being unaware that Kahnle shoved for the month of September. He struck out 11 in 10.1 innings with a 0.87 ERA and allowed just nine baserunners over the final month. His control gets him into as much trouble as Ynoa’s does, but Kahnle sits in the upper-90s with ease and that kind of potential is what the Sox should spend time giving a chance to.

Jake Petricka – When he’s right, he throws a big, low-to-mid 90’s heavy sinker that looks like it should keep him employed into his mid-30s (66 percent career groundball rate). But he struggled mightily for eight innings in 2016 before going down for the year with a hip injury, so how he looks going forward is anyone’s guess. He lacks standout skills if his sinker doesn’t come back with full force.

Chris Beck – Moving him from a starter in Triple-A to a major league bullpen did increase his strikeout rate and his fastball sat 95 mph, but he mostly got hit very hard and a 117 cFIP suggests it wasn’t much of a fluke. Robin Ventura gave him a lot of chances and as a former second round pick he stands to get more opportunities from the organization, but he could definitely find himself as part of the churn at the back of the pen throughout the year.

Juan Minaya – Was one of the best arms in Triple-A by the end of the year but did not show much in his big league audition. He has solid velocity and an OK slider but not a ton of upside.

Zack Burdi – So here’s where the fun begins. The 2016 first round pick is only beginning to get a firm idea on where his stuff is going, but it’s top of the scale late-inning material once he shakes out his command. Triple-A hitters couldn’t touch him even as he was issuing 11 free passes in 16 innings last Summer, and an ideal 2017 sees him start stealing high-leverage innings from Putnam and others after a midseason call-up. A more modest 2017 sees him walking the park frequently but still showing more potential to be part of the next Sox contender than the rest of the crop.

Dylan Covey – He’s not Burdi, but he’s unknown at the major league level and there is some potential, and the Rule 5 status means he will get a real shot to break camp with the big club. Covey has barely pitched above High-A but his star turn in the Arizona Fall League will give him a chance to make a big jump. As the esteemed Melissa Lockard of 2080 Baseball reports, Covey is a sinker-baller who could touch low-90s as a starter and generate groundballs with his split-change, and the Sox should see if the stuff plays up out of the pen.

Giovanni Soto – The Sox quietly acquired the other Gio Soto in baseball off waivers last month. The 25-year-old has made all of 10 major league outs, and we’re reaching a large number of relievers now with gulp-inducing walk numbers that I have tried to describe lightly as “he might struggle with control,” but Soto is a lefty in a relief corps very light on them, especially since Jennings is not a typical specialist.

Will Lamb – To that end, Lamb was the primary left-hander all of last year in Charlotte’s bullpen and he just stayed in Chicago despite the Rule 5 Draft. FutureSox had been diligently noting him as the top LOOGY candidate in the minors over the last year. Standing against him is that he’s not on the 40-man roster and would need very strict monitoring for handedness: he had a .946/.527 platoon split in Triple-A last season. You can probably guess which side was righties and which was lefties

Brian Clark – With a promising start to 2017, the 23-year-old could jump over Soto and Lamb. The left-hander fills up the zone unfailingly and generates grounders in absence of impressive swing-and-miss stuff, which Future Sox notes is a product of a sinker with a high arm slot, but takes him out of traditional LOOGY territory as well.

Tyler Danish – He too, has major league experience after a surprising promotion last year, and his low three-quarters arm slot and lack of an average changeup has always suggested his future is in relief. But with the new name of the game of White Sox business being patience and trying to max out their prospects’ potential, rushing the 22-year-old Danish into a major league relief role rather than letting him start some more seems a little unnecessary.

Brad Goldberg – His absence from even the most thorough White Sox prospect lists and lack of good peripherals are conspicuous, but he is on the 40-man roster and avoided runs last year in Triple-A. The 26-year-old righty is hanging around and could get a handful of innings along the way.

Robinson Lever – He throws hard with few other standout skills and has bumped his head at Double-A in each of the past two years. Let no one say this list is not thorough. He has not been promising but he’s at a level where a strong stretch will get him a look.

Nolan Sanburn – There was more excitement for him and his stuff when he first came over from Oakland for Adam Dunn near the end of 2014, but Sanburn has dealt with shoulder problems that have sapped the electricity from his fastball-curveball combination. He held his own during a heavy relief workload this past season in Double-A Birmingham, but was far from dominant. He doesn’t stand out from the pack right now, but like many others, will be one breakthrough away from a shot at a promotion.

Thad Lowry – He’s been an unspectacular sinker/slider guy for the last few years, but the Sox have been working him nigh-exclusively as a starter. The suddenly crowded crop of starter prospects in the upper minors could push him to a switch soon, though.

Reynaldo Lopez, Carson Fulmer and Michael Kopech could all definitely be relievers down the road, but the Sox forgoing their starter potential in a season like this one will probably require a first half disaster. Given the struggle to form up his mechanics that’s already taken place with him in the organization, Fulmer would be the most likely to suffer this unlikely fate.

This certainly does not project to be a good unit. If Robertson and Jones leave, Putnam–a guy who throws low-90s with tons of splitters–will be their best high-leverage reliever and a kid who was pitching in college last year and has walked 20 in 38 professional innings will be the best bid to unseat him. However, there are plenty of options to churn through at least, which is what a rebuilding pen needs.

The Sox aren’t likely to make any real competitive bids to rehab a reliever outside the organization, and Daniel Hudson getting two years, $11 million really makes it hard to figure how far to slide down on the market to find cheap lottery tickets. We mentioned Rubby De La Rosa as a post-hype recovery option as a starter, but the essential issue with him a starter is that he probably only has a reliever arsenal, and that just might be too obvious for everyone for him to be left over for the Sox.

Shawn Tolleson was a closer before back problems hampered an awful 2016 campaign, David Hernandez still gets big whiff numbers even if he’s a couple years removed from his last standout year, Santiago Casilla will be 37 in July but still struck out over 27 percent of opposing hitters last season. J.P. Howell could still be a capable lefty who would appreciate a significant role and opportunity to boost his value. Gavin Floyd has absolutely not been able to stay healthy the last four years, but a reunion is a tempting idea.

Anyone with half of a good reason for a reclamation and coming in at $4 million per year or less would be a fun signing. A veteran that could help stabilize a group of mostly nervous rookies could be a big lift, though a fading vet who will raise hell if they don’t get closer treatment and workload would be less of one.

Lead Image Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki // USA Today Sports Images

And yet they still were able to tune up the Sox bullpen to snatch two games out of three, winning 6-5 in 11 innings Wednesday.

1. Leonys Martin‘s second home run of the game, and the third home run allowed on the day by the Sox bullpen, sealed a Mariners comeback from what was a 4-0 deficit in the second inning, and what was a 5-2 lead in the seventh.

Martin got a hanging slider from Dan Jennings–a poor reliever in his second inning of work–on an 0-2 count and drilled it out to left, giving the Mariners their second walk-off win of the week, after Adam Lind–who also homered Wednesday–walked it off on Monday. Thanks to a 1-5 west coast swing to start the second half, the Sox are now 10 games out of the AL Central, and have six teams in front of them for the final Wild Card. Six!

2. Jennings joined Nate Jones, who had Lind spray an outside fastball just over the left field bullpen to tie the game at 5-5 in the eighth, and Zach Duke, who came on in the seventh and allowed a massive two-run shot to the recently recalled Mike Zunino, among Sox relievers allowing home runs.

David Robertson, amusingly, pitched a perfect ninth inning and was the only reliever who wasn’t scored upon.

3. Besides ‘most handsome White Sox rotation member,’ Miguel Gonzalez will not earn any awards for his Wednesday performance, but was certainly functional over six innings and left with a 5-2 lead, which was also his strikeout-to-walk ratio. He was overly reliant on the lineout as a means to an end early on, and certainly earned every bit of the towering two-run bomb Martin launched off of him in the bottom of the second given the fat fastball he threw him.

Gonzalez still kept the Mariners scoreless through the sixth, and got taken out after a leadoff walk, only for the bullpen to nigh immediately add that as a run to his tab.

4. The White Sox offense was spunky enough–or so it was thought!–against a freshly activated from injury Felix Hernandez. When Hernandez didn’t get a call he wanted on a 3-2 delivery to walk Justin Morneau in the first, the Sox took advantage with Todd Frazier belting a three-run home run on the first pitch he’s ever seen from Hernandez. The next inning, Tyler Saladino, Adam Eaton and Melky Cabrera strung together three-straight two-out singles to plate another run, and Morneau made his first big contribution in the fifth when he drilled a high fastball for an RBI single to score Cabrera after a leadoff triple.

This all came with a getaway day lineup that rested Tim Anderson, still doesn’t have Alex Avila, and treats J.B. Shuck as a regular. They did ok, even well.

5. Jose Abreu went 0-for-4 and only reached base when Steve Cishek threw a slider at his butt. To his credit, he has one of the better statistical lines among players I consider it a nightmare to watch.

Team Record: 46-48

Next game is Thursday at 7:10pm CT vs. Detroit on CSN

Lead Image Credit: Joe Nicholson // USA Today Sports Images

1. Danks kept the ball around the plate for most of his five innings of work, finishing with six strikeouts and just one walk. But unfortunately, he also left the ball up throughout and was pounded for eight hits and five earned runs. It was the kind of Danks performance you’ve come to expect, as he needs basically everything to break right for him to be effective, and it didn’t turn out that way. The first and second innings dug the White Sox into a hole their moribund offense was unable to get out of.

2. The two unearned runs came on a strange play in the first inning when, with the bases loaded, Carlos Santana tapped the ball in front of home plate. Alex Avila fielded the ball and, after looking back and realizing he had no shot at retiring the runner at the plate, rifled the ball right in Santana’s running path and past Jose Abreu for an error, allowing two runs to cross the plate. Had he stayed home, Danks likely had enough time to flip him the ball for the force at home, or at worst a non-hesitation gives him an easy out at first base with the plodding Santana running to first.

3. The White Sox seemed in good position to take advantage of a wild Danny Salazar, and were at least somewhat patient early on with four base on balls. But walks only pay off if the guys behind them can make it hurt and, aside from Todd Frazier‘s solo shot in the fourth, the White Sox bats were cold. Things like Avisail Garcia getting picked off of first base WITH A RUNNER IN FRONT OF HIM ON SECOND BASE didn’t exactly help matters, either. The season is young, but Garcia’s major league career continues to get old really, really fast.

4. Frazier’s second home run came on an 0-2 pitch when Salazar grooved his third straight mid-90s fastball in the zone and Frazier took advantage of it. Both of Frazier’s homers this season have come on 0-2 counts.

5. Lt. Dan Jennings made his season debut in what appears to be his role in this bullpen: mop-up duty. But mop-up, he did, as he went three innings, allowing just one hit and striking out three. Perhaps more important was the fact that, in what was a mostly lost cause, he gave the good relievers another day of rest.

Record: 3-2
Up next: Chris Sale Day! The White Sox will play Game 2 of their home-opening series against Cleveland at 1:10 p.m. CT Saturday in Chicago on WGN and WLS radio. Chris Sale vs. Cody Anderson.

Top photo credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

The highlight, of course, was the Yankees adding Aroldis Chapman to a bullpen that already featured Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller, but there were plenty of other arms on the move.

Craig Kimbrel went from San Diego to Boston, and Carson Smith joined him from Seattle. Oakland spent money on Ryan Madson, the Tigers acquired Francisco Rodriguez, the Orioles kept Darren O’Day, Washington brought in a host of guys headed by Shawn Kelley, Houston traded for Ken Giles, you get the idea.

The White Sox mostly stood pat when it came to their bullpen, with the lone exception coming in the form of a minor trade that brought Tommy Kahnle from Colorado. And there’s a good chance Kahnle doesn’t break camp with the 25-man roster.

The reason why is understandable. The White Sox made their big splash during the previous offseason, inking former Yankees closer David Robertson to a four-year, $46M contract that also cost them a draft pick.

Robertson was part of an overhauled White Sox bullpen in 2015. He joined Zach Duke, Dan Jennings and Matt Albers as bullpen pieces who were expected to help the team improve on a dreadful 2014 season in which the bullpen walked everyone under the sun, ranking dead last in the league in BB/9 at 4.06, 25th in the league in K/9 at 7.91, and 26th in the league in ERA at 4.03. By just about every statistical measure, the White Sox had a horrible bullpen in 2014, which played a big part in their 73-89 finish.

And while the 2015 White Sox were only slightly improved, finishing 76-86, the bullpen did get better, jumping to 16th in ERA and 13th in K/9 (they were still 21st in BB/9).

The point of this post isn’t to dwell on 2015 and what went wrong and didn’t go wrong, however. It’s to look at what we can expect in 2016 out of essentially the exact same bullpen we saw a year ago.

Bullpens are unpredictable, and outside of a handful of truly elite arms, it’s difficult to project exactly what a team will get out of their bullpen on a yearly basis. But when you look at the performance of the White Sox bullpen in 2015, coupled with the track records of the same group of guys who will be relied upon in 2016, there’s reason to believe the unit will be a strength.

Robertson, the team’s closer, had virtually identical stats in 2015 as he did in years past with New York, with one exception: His 3.41 ERA was his highest since 2010. In fact, his BB/9 actually dropped to a career-low and the only number that saw any significant loss was his ground ball percentage, which went from 47 percent to 38 percent. And even with that, he allowed as many home runs (seven) as he did in 2014. So despite the ERA rise, he remains a productive pitcher at 31 with no signs of slowing down.

Duke, on the other hand, was a bit of a letdown. After a career year in Milwaukee that saw him post a 2.45 ERA in 58.7 IP, his ERA rose almost a full run and he actually pitched much worse than that, posting a career-high BB/9 and allowing as many home runs (nine), as he had in the previous two years combined. It was probably unfair to expect Duke to perform like he did in 2014, in hindsight. After all, this is a pitcher with a 4.41 ERA and 5.14 DRA in more than 1,200 career innings (granted a majority of them came early in his career when he was starting). But even with his perceived struggles in 2015, he wasn’t a net negative to the team, just maybe not the high-leverage reliever they had hoped for.

Which is OK, because when it comes to the bullpen, the White Sox have strength in numbers. While Albers, Jennings, Zach Putnam and Jake Petricka all have their faults as relievers, in those four, Duke and Robertson, the White Sox have six relievers who should be, over the course of 162 games, a net positive. Group them alongside Nate Jones, a one-time future closer who missed almost the entire 2014-15 seasons and could wind up being the best of the bunch, and Robin Ventura has options. They might not be the flamethrowers of the Yankees or Royals, but if Ventura can manage to their strengths (yes, that’s a big IF, but hey, he’s actually above-average in that department, per DMAR), instead of attempting the more traditional “seventh inning guy, eighth inning guy, closer” strategy that can get you in trouble if you DON’T have those lights-out relievers, the White Sox bullpen could be better than people expect.