When the White Sox sent Aaron Bummer to Triple-A following a June 2 loss to the Brewers, it was a bit surprising. In 26 appearances to that point, Bummer had thrown 19 1/3 innings with 21 strikeouts against just six walks and a respectable 3.26 ERA. Still, the underlying numbers told us he was fairly lucky in the small sample size, as despite all that he was allowing a .321 opponent batting average, giving up 27 hits during that span. He rejoined the big club in September to worse results, allowing eight runs in just 12 1/3 innings. But still, his K/BB was fine in the small sample with 14 whiffs against just four walks, and it’s those numbers worth focusing on. Bummer still figures to be someone the White Sox hope to count on in their bullpens of the future — along with the likes of Ian Hamilton, Ryan Burr, and Jace Fry — and his ability to consistently throw strikes and show some swing-and-miss potential is his most obvious route to a spot with the team long-term.

Tyler Danish

After five years of trying to turn their former second-round pick into a viable mid-rotation starter, the White Sox put Danish in the bullpen for the majority of 2018. The results were … underwhelming. In 71 2/3 innings at Triple-A, Danish was fine from a results perspective, but he still doesn’t miss enough bats — or throw enough strikes, period — to warrant much excitement, posting just 53 strikeouts against 28 walks. Danish made seven appearances out of the White Sox bullpen in late July and August, tossing just 6 1/3 innings, giving up 5 earned runs with 5 strikeouts and 4 walks. At 25 by the start of next season, the hope for Danish becoming anyone worth rostering at the major league level has almost completely faded out.

Danny Farquhar

Everyone knows, of course, that Farquhar’s biggest victory of 2018 was fully recovering from a terrifying brain aneurysm that could have cost him much more than his baseball career. Farquhar threw only 8 innings for the 2018 White Sox, and an in-depth interview with The Athletic’s James Fegan revealed his progress in working toward a successful return in 2019. Here’s hoping we see Farquhar in a White Sox uniform — or any major league uniform, for that matter — next season.

Thyago Vieira

Adding a player like Vieira for what he cost to acquire is something any reasonable team does. The White Sox couldn’t spend any notable amount of IFA money after last year’s signing of Luis Robert and thus traded some to the Seattle last season during the Mariners’ pursuit of Shohei Ohtani. The scouting report on Vieira was that he had electric velocity but didn’t seem to have any clue where it was going. And let’s just say that checked out pretty well. Vieira struggled in Triple-A during the first half of the season, posting a 5.05 ERA with 50 strikeouts and 24 walks in 41 innings. He spent the last two months of the season in Chicago and 7.13 ERA in 17 2/3 innings. Vieira is probably the kind of guy who keep around in case one day he “figures it out.” But he doesn’t have any place in a major league bullpen at the moment.

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There’s not much to say about this other than the obvious: It’s a terribly scary situation. Farquhar is, by all accounts, an earnest, humble, and endearing guy, something we’ve learned in the just nine months he’s spent with the organization.

BP South Side joins the rest of the baseball community in sending our thoughts and well wishes to him, his wife, and their three children.

2. There were actual baseball games played this weekend, of course. The White Sox were swept by the defending World Series champion Houston Astros, getting outscored 27-2 over the three-game series.

They’re on a seven-game losing streak and have lost 12 of 13. They’re 2-14 in April after winning the first two games of the season against the Royals. Feels like a million years ago, doesn’t it? In seven of 18 games, they’ve scores 0 or 1 run, and their -56 run differential is worst in the American League, tied with Cincinnati for second worst in baseball, and only two runs better than Miami.

The White Sox aren’t good, folks!

3. The White Sox being bad isn’t necessarily unexpected, but it’s the way in which they are bad that’s concerning. The rotation was expected to be iffy, but to date that unit has collectively walked more hitters (62) than it has struck out (60).

The biggest issue is with Lucas Giolito, who had his fourth consecutive subpar outing to start the season in Saturday’s loss, and one that was significantly worse than the first three. After that start, in which he gave up nine earned runs and walked seven in just two innings, he’s now walked 19 in 20 innings this season and sports a grotesque 9.00 ERA. His mechanics are out of whack, and the consistent velocity he displayed all spring is nowhere to be seen. What Giolito needs to do to be successful is clear — particularly to the pitcher himself — but any sign of him putting what is preached into practice has yet to be seen.

Reynaldo Lopez, on the other hand, has looked quite a bit better than most projected even after Sunday’s four walk/two strikeout performance in a loss to the Astros. His strikeout rate is healthy, but he’s now walked 15 in 24 innings and his sparkly 1.50 ERA is aided, in part, by an unsustainable strand rate and BABIP against.

2018 is much more important for folks like Giolito and Lopez taking next steps in their development than for wins and losses. While it’s still early, that aspect of the season is off to a questionable start.

4. How about some positives? Yoan Moncada is starting to get on base at a respectable clip. Even with a 1-for-7 weekend against Houston, he drew a walk in two of the games and, going back to the last two games against Oakland, has four walks, three stolen bases, and two home runs in his last five games. Baby steps? Sure. Moncada’s .214/.329/.400 line isn’t what you’d hope for from a former global No. 1 prospect, and yes, he’s still striking out at an insane rate. But the odds are still with him being a significant contributor over the long haul, and methinks the numbers will start to show that before long as well.

It’s kind of weird considering the White Sox offensive struggles as a whole, but when you look up and down the lineup it’s hard to be all that disappointed with several of the regulars. Tim Anderson has drawn seven walks and has eight stolen bases. Matt Davidson is tied with Moncada for the team lead in walks despite his numbers beginning to dip after his scorching start. Yolmer Sanchez has six extra-base hits already and somehow leads the team in batting average. Jose Abreu has been, well, Jose Abreu.

And then there’s Avisail Garcia. The 2017 All-Star is at .225/.243/.310 with 17 strikeouts and zero walks thus far. The weak contact that plagued the seasons prior to last year’s breakout is back. There was a lot of noise in Garcia’s surprising season a year ago, but the fact that it never subsisted brought some hope that, even with some minor regression, he’d still be a valuable player for the foreseeable future. That still may be true, but right now, it’s not happening.

5. Welcome back, Trayce Thompson! I’ve always had a soft spot for the 27-year-old outfielder the White Sox re-acquired last week, as despite his flaws he seemed easy to root for. His debut with the White Sox in 2015 went better than anyone could’ve expected, and is one of the reasons they were able to package him in acquiring Todd Frazier the following offseason, but he hasn’t been the same since, save for a hot start to 2016 with the Dodgers.

Thompson homered in Saturday, his first start since his return, and it will be interesting to see how the White Sox deploy him between spelling Nicky Delmonico or leapfrogging Adam Engel entirely. If he could just go ahead and return to that 2015 form, that’d do nicely.

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Castillo somewhat represents the type of relatively cheap veteran the White Sox were expected to target this offseason, but the deal is nonetheless surprising given the 30 year old’s solid 2017 season, as well as the dearth of quality catching options on the free agent market. While splitting time with Caleb Joseph in Baltimore, he posted career highs in both home runs and slugging percentage, while his FRAA of 7.4 was sixth best among the 22 catchers who saw as much or more playing time. He was also an above average pitch framer according to BP’s framing metrics. All in all, he was worth 2.8 WARP, which more than doubled his career best season.

An upgrade at catcher is logical even in a year where the White Sox aren’t expected to contend. Omar Narvaez and Kevan Smith both manned the position admirably in 2017 and received rave reviews on their game calling ability, despite shortcomings that make it obvious they’re both better served long term as backups. But whether it was Castillo or someone less heralded, catching depth was an area of need for the White Sox with nobody else looking near major league ready.

Castillo is a significant upgrade both offensively and behind the plate, helps the position from a depth perspective with either Narvaez or Smith destined for Triple-A, and helps bridge the gap between the present and when the White Sox believe Zack Collins will hopefully be ready to take over at the major league level. And while the likelihood that he maintains his success as he plays into his 30s is slim, he could be a potential trade chip down the road, as well.

In a second noteworthy move of the day, the White Sox also agreed to a 1-year, $1.05 million contract with Danny Farquhar, thus avoiding arbitration with the 30 year old right-hander who spent the latter portion of 2017 with the team.

Farquhar became available to the White Sox last season after a miserable first half in Tampa where his walk rate spiked to a career worst 5.7. But he’s only a year removed from being a reliable middle reliever and on a team starving for relievers after The Great Reliever Purge of 2017, is competent enough to prove a logical fit to eat up innings in 2018.

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It’d be difficult for any pitcher to epitomize the fact that relievers are weird than Danny Farquhar. After alternating between good and bad seasons, and bouncing between Triple-A and the majors the last few seasons with Seattle and Tampa Bay as a result, the veteran right-hander finished 2016 on a strong note and entered this season as one of the primary bullpen pieces for a Rays team that had thoughts of contention. But after walking basically everyone under the sun through the first 3 1/2 months and with Tampa in the thick of the wild card race, he was cut in July and promptly picked up by the White Sox, spending a few weeks back down in Triple-A before an August call-up in the aftermath of the White Sox Great Reliever Purge of 2017.

Like a good number of the pitchers to take the mound for the White Sox during the final two months of the season, Farquhar’s role was simply to eat innings, and he ate exactly 14 1/3 of them. But he also has the stuff and reputation that it wouldn’t be out of the question for him to be a member of the bullpen during what will likely be another rebuilding year in 2018. He has an out pitch in his changeup, and despite striking out only 12 in his time with the White Sox, has a career K/9 of 10.2 in 264 career innings that portends success if and when he’s commanding. Farquhar isn’t a shiny new arm or anyone you’d expect to be on the next White Sox contender, but he’s interesting enough as a rebuilding bullpen option that I guess it’s probably time to make sure you know how to spell his name.

In early September Nick Schaefer and I were putting a list of players together for the White Sox player comments in next year’s Baseball Prospectus Annual. We included every player on the team’s 40-man roster, pretty much any prospect with any hint of potential, and a few other random organizational guys we thought were interesting. The list grew to 70. The day the list was due for submission, the White Sox surprisingly promoted Jace Fry to the major league roster. Fry was not among the 70 White Sox players we were set to include.

It’s not that we weren’t aware of Fry, it’s just that expectations for the former third round pick who’s already had Tommy John surgery twice in his baseball career weren’t exactly sky high. But the White Sox relief situation became, well … we’ve covered that already. The second surgery sent Fry from semi-enticing starting pitching candidate to someone whose chances of sticking around as a reliever were slim, but his numbers at Double-A Birmingham warranted a September trial where he got 6 2/3 innings of major league experience he’ll never have to get back. The perks of pitching for a rebuilding organization afforded him that opportunity, but the odds of a prolonged major league career remain long.

Two years ago if you’d have told me that in 2017 Carson Fulmer would walk nearly five batters per nine and post a 5.79 ERA in Triple-A Charlotte I’d have quickly identified you as some sort of soothsayer and asked you a bunch of sports results I could bet on so I could make a lot of money. I’d then have realized what you told me and become really sad. Since Fulmer was selected eighth overall in the 2015 MLB Draft, the White Sox have added a good many quality arms to their system, making Fulmer’s success less of a requirement than it was at the time. That’s not to say Fulmer’s struggles this season weren’t troubling, just that it’s a lot easy to muster a failed pitching prospect when your team has five or six of them than when they have just one or two.

Of course, Fulmer is not yet in the category of “failed pitching prospect” given he just completed his second full season of professional baseball and showed glimpses of why the White Sox still believe he can be an impact starting pitcher during the last month of the season. September stats are tricky to decipher, but after struggling against Triple-A competition for the majority of 2017, back-to-back September starts where he struck out a combined 14 and allowed just two earned runs in 12 innings is something to build off of, if nothing else. Still, Fulmer’s pendulum is definitely tilted closer toward “reliever” than “starter” at this point.

Fulmer’s stuff has always been such that you can see the potential if and when everything’s clicking, but while he’s shown glimpses, the command hasn’t been consistent enough for him to put it all together for any lengthy period of time. When his fastball has the kind of life we saw in September and he’s throwing it for strikes, it makes his offspeed stuff that much more dangerous. When none of that is happening, walks and dingers usually come in bunches. We’ve seen more of the latter during Fulmer’s time in the White Sox organization, including in 2017, but enough of the former to envision a world where Fulmer re-adds his name to the list of White Sox pitching prospects on which to dream.

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“(He) woke up a little sore. But he’s icing,” Renteria said. “We don’t think it’s anything significant. I’m sure we’ll be very cautious with him and we’ll see.”

The injury may very well not be serious, but the White Sox have every right to be cautious, particularly given how the injury was discovered. Lopez being a healthy and effective starter is much more important to the White Sox in 2018, 2019, and beyond than it is in August 2017. So while it’s unfortunate that we won’t be able to see Lopez pitch for at least the next 10 days, everything about this decision makes sense.

Farquhar is one of the veteran relievers plying their trade in Triple-A as insurance for this exact kind of thing. The 30-year-old right-hander threw 35 innings with the Tampa Bay Rays this season before being released on July 20. The White Sox signed him four days later and he’s tossed nine innings of relief in Triple-A Charlotte prior to this promotion.

While one young starting pitcher acquired for Adam Eaton goes to the disabled list, another young starting pitcher acquired for Adam Eaton heads to Chicago.

Lucas Giolito will make his White Sox debut Monday, starting one of the games in a doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins. The former No. 1 prospect in baseball struggled at times this season in Triple-A Charlotte as the White Sox tinkered with his mechanics. But he’s appeared to turn a corner over the last several starts.

“He’s a good arm acquired in a big trade,” pitching coach Don Cooper said. In Spring Training, we saw the good arm. We were looking for more strikes and obviously he’s throwing more and more strikes and he’s earned that. I did happen to see him on TV the other night. He looked calm, collected and was dropping all of his stuff in there for strikes which is the first prerequisite to come here. You gotta be able to throw it over. He’s earned his way up. The rebuilding process continues with (Aaron) Bummer coming here, with Lopez coming here and now Giolito.”

The White Sox are afforded the opportunity to give Giolito a shot without committing, at least publicly, to keeping him up, as he’ll serve as the 26th man for the doubleheader. Renteria wouldn’t say whether or not Giolito will remain with the team beyond that start, but given the fact that roster expansions are two weeks away, even if he’s sent back down, you’d have to imagine he’ll be back in September.

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