The bad news is that he pitched only 30 innings.

Jones has been in the White Sox organization since 2007. That makes him far and away the longest tenured player on the team. He burst onto the scene in 2012 and was really good. In 2013 he was quite good, and in 2016 he was great. The problem for Jones, as you very well know, is that those are the only three seasons where Jones was able to stay healthy. 2018 was his seventh year with the White Sox. In 2012, 2013, and 2016, he combined to toss 220 innings and strike out 234. In 2014, 2015, 2017, and now 2018, he’s combined to throw 60 2/3 innings.

The 2018 Jones injury was a pronate muscle strain that kept him out from early June through early September. It was the kind of thing that had a very “here we go again” feel to it. The White Sox the last two years have entered the seasons with a few good bullpen pieces that were ripe for the picking by contending teams come the trade deadline, and center among them was Jones, particularly after a 2016 season in which Jones came back from Tommy John surgery and a 16-month absence and looked virtually the same as he did beforehand. But after now two straight seasons in which he’s missed considerable time, it’s safe to dub him nothing more than a question mark until proven otherwise.

In his 30 innings of work in 2018, the results were nothing special, but he didn’t exactly show any signs of the wear and tear one might expect from the injuries he’s suffered. The velocity and movement on his occasionally devastating sinker/slider combo fell right in line with his career averages, so while his walk rate was up considerably from his last fully healthy season, there’s nothing about the performance that screams “this guy is toast.”

Which is to say, we’ll likely see more of Jones going forward. His three-year, $8 million deal that ran through 2018 includes a number of team options, including $4.65 million in 2019. That’s not nearly enough for the White Sox to walk away from a potential bullpen asset, even with the injury risks, especially when you consider how few financial commitments they have in 2019 at the moment.

When healthy, Jones is about as steady as they come in terms of non-closer, but still reliable bullpen options (although I suppose he could still close and did a few times in 2018). He also represents yet another trade asset should the White Sox woes continue … say it with me: If he’s healthy.

Lead Photo Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

As much as the White Sox promise to be more entertaining, these things are going to happen. As I wrote Thursday, the construction of this bullpen was both admirable and reasonable. For one, the White Sox jettisoned David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle, Anthony Swarzak, Dan Jennings, and maybe even a few I’m forgetting in a series of trades last summer. For two, given the current window of non-competitiveness, spending more than necessary for a more talented bullpen would be illogical.

What we’re left with is a mixed bag of sorts. Despite Thursday’s events, Jones and Soria represent the two best options, regardless of how they’re deployed. Beyond those two, there’s an assortment of veteran castoffs (Danny Farquhar, Hector Santiago, Luis Avilan), young, unproven talents (Aaron Bummer), and guys trying to prove they belong at the major league level (Greg Infante, Juan Minaya).

There’s enough talent throughout, particularly at the back end, for the White Sox to feign competence more often than not. But it’s not impenetrable, so things like Thursday are going to happen.

2. HAD the White Sox closed out Thursday’s win, the story would have been an impressive offensive performance by an assemblage of less-than-proven regulars. Yolmer Sanchez went 3-for-5 with a pair of triples, Matt Davidson had a rare two-hit performance where neither ball left the premises, and both he and Tim Anderson walked twice. Anderson stole his fourth base of the season, and the Garcias, Avisail and Leury had two hits each.

The weather outside was not ripe for run scoring, and after several dinger-fueled performances to open the season, the White Sox stringing together multiple hits was … different. The competition wasn’t exactly menacing — Jordan Zimmermann was hittable, to say the least. But the likes of Sanchez, Davidson, and Anderson hitting as they have in the season’s opening week is better than them not.

3. Speaking of Zimmermann, Thursday’s pitching matchup between him and James Shields was as unattractive as the weather unless you took a time machine back to 2013. Shields labored kinda sorta around the zone for most of the afternoon, surviving five innings with just three runs allowed. The last batter he faced doubled as the first strikeout he recorded this season, getting James McCann on a knuckle-curve in the dirt.

Every Shields start is going to be an adventure for as long as he sticks around in the rotation — there’s certainly no end coming soon — but for the second straight start he lasted juuuust long enough to give the White Sox a chance. An admirable trait, no doubt.

4. The White Sox offense, as I mentioned, looked good in Thursday’s loss, but that does not apply to Yoan Moncada, who finished 0-for-6 with four strikeouts. (Tigers pitching struck out 12, including an impressive six by Daniel Norris in 3 1/3 innings of relief).

There’s been some consternation about Moncada’s batting line, even just six games in, considering what it looked like in his debut last year. It’s difficult to worry, though, because it’s only been six games and because he continues to look good at the plate, despite the results. Maybe there will be a day down the road where Moncada’s performance will begin to bring pause that he’s not going to become the player the White Sox hope he can be. That day is not today.

5. Zimmermann-Shields is a pitching matchup for masochists, while Saturday’s Michael Fulmer-Lucas Giolito showdown is much more appetizing. The 25-year-old Fulmer has emerged as a reliable starter for the Tigers over the last two starts, and will undoubtedly find his name in trade rumors as the months go by the Detroit falls farther out of the race.

We know about Giolito, of course, but seeing how he bounces back from a subpar debut against the Royals will be worth watching.

Lead Photo Credit: Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports

1. Fulmer was about as effective as hoped following a precarious spring. He sat 94 with his fastball and consistently threw both his changeup and cutter for strikes. The cutter, in particular, was working from the start. In the first inning, he struck out Justin Smoak on three pitches following his only walk of the game, and ended a first-and-third threat by getting Randall Grichuk chasing on a 2-2 cutter.

In all, he threw 48 of his 73 pitches for strikes, including 12 of 14 changeups and 14 of 16 cutters. Nine of those 26 strikes were of the swinging variety, according to Brooks Baseball, and three of his five strikeouts came swinging.

There was a reason Fulmer only threw 73 pitches, of course, as Rick Renteria had a quick hook following back-to-back hits — a Josh Donaldson single and Smoak double — to lead off the sixth. But, in general, the start was exactly what we saw out of Fulmer at the end of last season, only against real professional hitters instead of the Quad-A rosters of teams 30 games below .500. The stuff has always been there for Fulmer, but his ability to maintain his mechanics and consistently throw strikes both with his fastball and secondary stuff are going to dictate whether or not he’s a starter long-term. It’s one start, but so far, so good.

2. After the Opening Day dinger-fest, I wrote that the White Sox probably aren’t going to lead the majors in home runs. Well … five games in, the White Sox lead the majors with 14 home runs, including Wednesday’s solo shots by Matt Davidson and Jose Abreu, the latter of which proved to be the game winner.

Of course, the aforementioned statement is still true, but there’s no denying the White Sox have been more powerful than one could possible imagine thus far. And it’s not just that the balls are leaving the yard, it’s how they’re leaving. Avisail Garcia’s 481-foot homer Tuesday was the longest by a White Sox hitter in the Statcast era. Yolmer Sanchez — YOLMER SANCHEZ — hit one 442 feet!

Abreu’s power is never going to be a surprise, and when Davidson makes contact and it doesn’t leave the yard, that’s surprising, but even in the current run-scoring environment, the White Sox weren’t particularly dinger-heavy a year ago. The likes of Anderson, Sanchez, and Welington Castillo getting into the act is a welcome sight, for however long it continues.

3. The White Sox bullpen got beat around in Tuesday’s 14-5 loss, but bounced back for four scoreless innings in Wednesday’s win. Sure, Aaron Bummer allowed two inherited runners charged to Fulmer to score, but after he got two outs, the game ended with 3 1/3 hitless frames by Danny Farquhar, Nate Jones, and Joakim Soria.

There’s a lot of volatility in the White Sox bullpen. Bummer and Greg Infante are erratic, and the likes of Farquhar, Soria, and Luis Avilan .. well, there’s a reason the veteran arms were available for very little. Still, after last year’s reliever clearing sale, the fact that the White Sox have any semblance of competence in the middle innings without breaking the bank is pretty impressive.

A team, whether it’s rebuilding or not, could do a lot worse than the Jones-Soria duo in the eighth and ninth innings, and while it’s yet to be determined how the rest will shake out, there’s a lot of upside in the eclectic mix of veterans and guys trying to prove themselves as major league relievers.

4. Oh yeah, back to the play. While it was refreshing to see replay work in what appeared to be correct fashion, and it obviously played out in the White Sox factor, the overturn also overshadowed what was a horrendous play on the basepaths by Castillo. With the bases loaded and one out, the leaping, falling-to-the-ground, initially-called-a catch by Curtis Granderson somehow didn’t turn into a run at first as Castillo didn’t tag up and attempt to score.

It was what amounted to a brain fart that didn’t have an affect on the game’s outcome, but baserunning woes have plagued the White Sox for some time now. Last year, they made 58 outs on the basepaths (doesn’t include pickoffs or caught stealing), which, while not among the worst in the league, was still worse than league average. This year that number is already at four through five games, and doesn’t include blips like Castillo’s.

The flip side of this, of course, is that aggressiveness can beget more runs if executed wisely. Last year, the White Sox were almost exactly average according to BP’s baserunning runs stat, ranking 14th in baseball at -0.1. Stats this year are, of course, far from stabilizing, but it’s maybe worth noting that they’ve taken the extra base on a league-high 67 percent of opportunities through this minuscule sample size after ranking slightly below average in the category a year ago.

There are a lot of noise in these stats, so take them with a grain of salt, but seeing how the White Sox balance aggressiveness with smart baserunning will be something worth watching throughout the season.

5. The White Sox home opener is today, weather pending, with James Shields making his second start of the season against Detroit and Jordan Zimmermann. There will be festivities — including A.J. Pierzynski throwing out the ceremonial first pitch — weather pending.

The Tigers have looked as bad as every expected them to be through five games, going 1-4 against the Pirates and Royals. The White Sox get to play them 19 times this season, so if they have any interest in staying competitive later into the season than anticipated, beating up on this team would be a good way to do so.

Lead Photo Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

Those things are still true, but Giolito’s season debut in Saturday’s 4-3 win over the Royals featured none of those aspects whatsoever. Giolito struggled to command his breaking pitches, walked four and just struck out, but survived six innings after a disastrous first inning in which he walked two (including one with the bases loaded) and hit a batter.

Giolito averaged 91 mph with his fastball and sat 91-93 most of the night. That’s not all that unexpected, but his troubles centered around an inability to locate his curveball that can be so deadly when he’s on. He abandoned it almost entirely, throwing it just nine times in the 89-pitch outing and inducing zero swings and misses, according to Brooks Baseball. He credited Welington Castillo for guiding him through an outing where his stuff just wasn’t working the way he would have liked.

“Overall, Wely is MVP,” Giolito said, after allowing three runs over six innings. “Helped me get through six innings and helped me spit that hook out as far as I was in line for the loss and it wasn’t looking too good, but he got it done at the plate. Just a fantastic job by him. I owe him a lot just from my performance tonight, him communicating and working with me really well, despite not having good stuff.” 

Viewing the start through rose-colored glasses, the fact that Giolito’s struggles were not tied to velocity is a positive. It’s easy to say any pitcher’s success is tied to them locating well, both with the fastball and the off-speed stuff, but with Giolito it particularly rings true. When he’s locating, his mixture of fastball command and that devastating curveball as a put-away pitch is tough to beat.

That’s what we saw in the spring and, to a certain extent, during the latter portion of 2017. In his thus far abbreviated career, he’s thrown his curveball 14 percent of the time. Saturday, he threw it just nine times and only once for a strike. It’s concerning, yes — the difference between Giolito being just another guy and a potential game-changer will be avoiding starts like this — but the fact that the conditions were less than ideal, and he was able to endure and post a quality start despite how much wasn’t working is a positive sign going forward.

2. Giolito called Castillo the MVP, and it wasn’t just for the way he guided his pitcher through six innings. Castillo took Giolito off the hook for the loss with a two-run double off Brandon Maurer that ultimately proved the difference in the win.

Catching has been a black hole for the White Sox since they let Tyler Flowers leave after the 2015 season. Castillo signed so early in the offseason, and the White Sox have so many exciting young players worth paying attention to, that he’s seemingly been overlooked as in terms of the makeup of the roster, but it’s worth noting how big of a boost it would be if the 30-year-old is able stabilize such an important position.

The RBI double is one thing — it was his first hit of the season in nine plate appearances — but if he’s able to hit with any consistency in addition to being a guiding force for the White Sox plethora of young arms, it will be a big boost.

3. Yoan Moncada hit his first home run of the season in Saturday’s win, a ball that was absolutely crushed into the wind off a low change-up by Maurer in the eighth inning. He also drew his first walk of the season, laying off a pair of tough pitches on a 2-2 count to lead off the game.

For some players more than others, you can glean certain things from early-season performance, even if we’re still a long way from stats stabilizing. With Moncada, it’s nothing more than him looking comfortable in the leadoff spot early on. It’s only been 11 plate appearances, but he’s seeing a completely respectable 3.73 pitches per plate appearance.

There are obviously a ton of variables in how much P/PA over a full season, let alone in a small sample size, but we’ve seen how patient of a hitter Moncada can be (sometimes even to his detriment), and if he continues to develop in that spot as the White Sox hope, he’ll be a real asset as a table setter going forward.

4. Joakim Soria got the call for the White Sox first save opportunity of the season on Saturday, but it was the effective return of Nate Jones that was most noteworthy in the first two games of the season as far as the bullpen is concerned.

Jones, appearing for the first time in 11 months, showed no ill signs of the nerve injury in his elbow that kept him out for almost all of 2017. In one inning of work, his fastball sat around 97 mph and he broke out his slider twice, putting away Mike Moustakas for one of his two strikeouts in the inning.

Rick Renteria has talked like a manager willing to mix-and-match in the late innings between Jones, Soria, and maybe even Juan Minaya, a refreshing approach if it does, indeed, play out that way. But regardless of how the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings work out throughout the season, a health and effective Jones would be great to see, and he may even turn into a valuable trade chip in a few months.

5. The White Sox leave Kansas City 2-0 after Sunday’s rain out, and head to Toronto where there will be no weather concerns and what is pretty assuredly a better team waiting. Going from cold Kansas City to the domed stadium in Toronto is likely welcome news to Reynaldo Lopez, who will get our first 2018 look at Monday, followed by Miguel Gonzalez and Carson Fulmer. The rain out also means James Shields is scheduled to take the mound in the home opener Thursday against Detroit, although Mother Nature may have something to say about that, as well.

Lead Photo Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Starting rotation

Opening Day starters: James Shields, Miguel Gonzalez, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Carson Fulmer

All-Star Break starters: James Shields, Carlos Rodon, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Hector Santiago

End-of-season starters: Carlos Rodon, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Michael Kopech, Alec Hansen

Optimistic take: Progress all around. Shields rounds back into acceptable form, providing mentor-ship to the young bloods and possibly managing to bring back a C+ prospect at the deadline. Gonzalez soaks up innings before being flipped for another toolsy young infielder. Giolito makes the “Gavin Floyd freed from the team he was disappointing” jump. Lopez shows he’s more than just a future bullpen ace. Rodon comes back healthy, throws 170 innings, and starts looking like the ace everyone dreamed he would be. Fulmer makes everyone forget his rough spring training and settles into a back of the rotation role.

Pessimistic take: Things fall apart. Shields leads the league in home runs allowed. Lopez averages four innings a start before being repackaged as a reliever. Giolito’s command abandons him and he’s sent back to Charlotte in May. Rodon’s injury issues continue, putting his future with the White Sox in doubt. Fulmer proves the skeptics right and accepts his new role as a seventh inning man. Hansen and Kopech get hurt.

Hot take(s): Alec Hansen has a better September than any of his fellow young hurlers and its not even close.

-Mark Primiano

Bullpen

Opening Day relievers:  Nate Jones, Joakim Soria, Luis Avilan, Danny Farquhar, Juan Minaya, Hector Santiago, Aaron Bummer, Gregory Infante

All-Star Break relievers: Nate Jones, Joakim Soria, Luis Avilan, Danny Farquhar, Juan Minaya, Thyago Vieira, Aaron Bummer, Gregory Infante

End-of-season relievers: Nate Jones, Juan Minaya, Thyago Vieira, Aaron Bummer, Jace Fry, Danny Farquhar, Zack Burdi, Gregory Infante*

*Not attempting to address the expanded roster flood of relievers as any of the Spring Training NRIs or midseason waiver claims could feature heavily.

Optimistic take: Like last year, the group is remarkably good for a rebuilding team.  Jones is 100 percent healthy and, as usual when he’s on the mound, shoves.  Newcomers Soria and Avilan perform to the better end of their track record and form a strong brace of setup men. Minaya continues to improve and Gregory Infante holds his startling gains from last year. Bummer starts to harness his high-octane velocity and is particularly tough on lefties.  Santiago serves admirably as a situational reliever, long man, and spot starter.

Also, like last year, the White Sox are able to trade most of the relievers they don’t plan on keeping for the future. They bundle Soria and Avilan to a playoff contender for surprisingly interesting prospects, a la the Sean Doolittle/Ryan Madson and Tommy Kahnle/David Robertson trades of last year. And, as surprising and Dan Jennings getting traded was last year, you never know if Infante or Farquhar might get you an offer you can’t refuse.  There’s a chance Jones gets traded, but with options through 2021 they don’t have decide right away.

This clears room for the next wave of prospects, as the hard throwing Vieira will get a chance to try to work on his command and offspeed offerings in Charlotte, Fry will continue adapting to relief, and Zack Burdi will return from Tommy John surgery to resume his path to a closer role.

Pessimistic take: Jones gets hurt again while Farquhar, Infante, and Santiago all revert to the waiver bait they were not so long ago.  When Vieira comes up to stop the bleeding he is Maikel Cleto 2.0 and it isn’t any fun. Soria and Avilan are only OK and nobody wants to trade for them, or at least, nothing worth anything, while the Dodgers turn Jake Peter into a good major leaguer.  Bummer, it turns out, was really rushed to the majors and needs to get sent back down, to the detriment of his confidence, and Burdi isn’t ready by the All-Star Break as expected.

Injuries to young pitchers is the worst thing that could happen — well, that and a whole lot of unwatchable baseball.

Hot take(s): Ryan Burr and/or Ian Hamilton eviscerate Double-A and Triple-A and are even pretty effective in a glimpse at the majors in August and September.  As a result, they start challenging for steady work in the 2019 bullpen, moving the competition window up even sooner.

—Nick Schaefer

Lead Photo Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

We can only smash the “like” button on the tweets with said content so hard until our fingers start bleeding, but the news Tuesday was that a sizable chunk of players were already getting work in a day ahead of schedule. This type of news isn’t exactly irregular anymore, but at the very least it signals the start of actual baseball things we can see and read about and talk about.

2. While the start of spring training is exciting, we still have about six weeks until real, meaningful baseball is played. However, while the White Sox roster seems mostly set, there will be a number of questions that will likely be answered over the next month-plus. Are the White Sox content with Yolmer Sanchez as the everyday third baseman? How about Nicky Delmonico in left field? Who among Adam Engel, Leury Garcia, or Charlie Tilson will emerge in center field? Will a new contender enter the arena in any of those position (or DH) in the form of a free agent? What is the meaning of life? When is Carlos Rodon going to be ready? Who is going to close? Is Scott Merkin on track to return by Opening Day? Who is the next Anthony Swarzak? What’s the bullpen going to look like?

3. None of those questions are likely going to be answered anytime soon, but the most noteworthy development from Tuesday’s pre-report date reporting was news that Nate Jones is throwing baseballs. Jones, as you might recall, missed almost all of the 2017 season after undergoing nerve repositioning surgery in his right elbow, and has pitched a grand total of 100.1 innings over the last four seasons (70 of which came in 2016.

Last season’s injury coupled with Tommy John surgery that cost him almost all of 2014 and 2015 have put Jones in a precarious position, as he continues to be thought of as someone who can provide valuable innings in the back of a bullpen when healthy, but has had trouble, ya know, staying healthy. The fact that he’s already throwing, albeit minimally, in the early days of the spring is a good sign for him to start the season with the major league club.

4. Spring Training also offers a glimpse of White Sox prospects invited to big league camp, such as Michael Kopech, who said he’s more comfortable in his second go-around at big league camp. For players like Kopech or Eloy Jimenez, the fact that they’re so close to the majors make their time in big league camp all the more interesting, as we’ll get a glimpse of them against major league level(-ish) competition in spring training games. Likewise, it will provide us with our first extended looks at players a bit farther away, such as Luis Robert and Jake Burger.

5. Lauren Comitor of The Athletic took an extended look at the roles of women in the front offices of both the White Sox and Cubs, including the Sox hiring of 24-year-old Emily Blady as a baseball operations analyst last month. It’s a great long-form piece that provides some insight into both the growth of women’s roles within the game as well as how far the game has yet to grow in that regard. It’s absolutely worth your time.

Lead Photo Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

This guy is throwing again pic.twitter.com/0gGIWTOg95

— James Fegan (@JRFegan) February 13, 2018

I have never hidden my love of Nate Jones and his idiosyncratic pitching motion. It’s what makes him him. His stuff is certainly good enough that he’d still be a very effective late innings reliever without his awkward pause of doom, but it’s so much easier to get emotionally invested and attached to someone who does things differently. It’s my favorite thing about baseball.

No other sport has so many athletes doing such fundamentally necessary actions in such a wide variety of ways. You might see a slight difference in how some quarterbacks throw, but the motion is essentially the same. Slam dunks offer the chance to showcase individuality and creativity, but more so during the dunk contest as opposed to in the average game. But baseball? Think of how many bizarrely unique batting stances you could mimic flawlessly if I threw you a wiffleball bat right now. It’s the only reason people remember Craig Counsell’s career as a player.

The same truth holds for pitching motions. Yes, there are standard and technically-correct ones but you don’t fall in love with those. I was seven years old when Hideo Nomo came to the United States and his windup has haunted my dreams ever since. I scour YouTube semi-regularly for clips of it to show my incredibly patient and indulging wife how a man could somehow be effective despite turning himself into a cyclone before launching a ball towards a rapidly shrinking rectangle. It may not be ballet, but it’s definitely an art.

Bullpens seemingly used to be full of unconventional arm angles. Even just looking back at the White Sox over the past 15-20 years it’s not hard to conjure up memories of distinct approaches. Chad Bradford threw so underhanded that he routinely scraped his knuckles on the mound. Kelly Wunsch looked like a lost disc golfer who decided to wear a full baseball uniform for some reason and decided to make the best of a bad situation. El Duque would not spare you his leg kick solely because he had been shuffled into the bullpen. You would see that knee rise and rise and forget that a pitch was coming until it was too late. Ehren Wassermann looked like a drunken bowler who somehow manages to never topple over despite getting so much rotation out of his waist.

But that beautiful weirdness seems to be dying out. Bullpens have become home to uniform flamethrowers that pummel hitters into submission instead of using deception and guile to trick them into wandering off the cliff like so many Wile E. Coyotes. Brad Ziegler will be 38 this season. Pat Neshek turns 37. Baseball needs strange folk like Nate Jones keeping things weird. There’s a reason ice cream shops sell more than just chocolate and vanilla.

Photo credit: Jake Roth- USA Today Sports

1. Jose Abreu & Nate Jones: These are the two players I was referring to above as trade chips. Rick Hahn & Co. were so effective at cashing in major leaguers for future pieces that they scorched all the way down to shuffling Dan Jennings and World Series Champion Tyler Clippard off the roster. One imagines Jones might have fetched a significant return if he had been healthy, and it seems unlikely that he would be dealt over the winter before he could demonstrate he is healthy again.

Abreu is even harder to evaluate. Not in terms of who he is on the field (or off it, for that matter) as his superlative 2017 corrected data points which had previously been trending downward, and he grabbed hold of the role of clubhouse leader with both hands and a big smile as all other veterans were purged. Abreu is under team control through 2019, which may mean he is around for the first good White Sox season in almost a decade, and departing as the window truly opens in earnest. Maybe he sticks around and is dealt at the deadline in 2019 if they’re not in it. Maybe he and the organization agree to buy out his arb years and tack on a few more. As it stands now, anyway, my sense is that the White Sox would have to be absolutely blown away to part with him this winter, as he means more than just the excellent offense he provides. It also strikes me as unusual that someone would want to “overpay” in talent for Abreu when there are good corner bats on the market for only money.

2. The “Jon Lester” Deal: This is a label that I have given this kind of signing, and I’ve mentioned it on a few podcasts and articles. The Cubs signed Lester to a huge deal before it was necessarily clear that the new crop of talent was ready to contend for the playoffs. Obviously that 2015 team did contend, but even if they hadn’t, the organization identified Lester as someone they wanted to have around through the next competitive window, and he would be a free agent before 2015 and not after.

Another thing to consider here, however, is that as a class, most free agents are reaching the market either in the middle of their peak or, as is often the case, on their downside away from it. Most free agent contracts are intended to provide most of their value up front, with the back end of the contract being less pleasant. In that sense, it may not be very helpful to line what should be the best year of a contract up with a season where you’re not trying to contend yet. Still, it’s worth remembering that it is nearly impossible to graduate a whole playoff team at once, and the free agent market may not always have what you want when you want it.

Still another general principle influencing the process here is that one of the biggest benefits of being a team that “plans” on losing a lot is having a surplus of playing time to distribute among players who may or may not be good for the purposes of evaluation. Sure, the Astros got Correa as a direct result of being the worst team in the league in a given year, but they also still have Marwin Gonzalez and Dallas Keuchel because who else was going to get those at bats and those innings on those teams? And hey, they turned out to be crazy valuable. Signing mid-level free agents in a rebuilding year may only serve to block an audition for a player who turns out to be much better than you anticipated.

There may not be a Lester-esque fit in this class. But, it might make sense to scoop up Lorenzo Cain if it looks like he’s going to sign for less than he should. He’s older than one might think, but as a plus defender with good on-base skills, Cain may age more gracefully than some.

3. Buying A Potential Mirage: In the 2015 playoffs, Daniel Murphy morphed from a slightly above average hitter with a below average glove to a juggernaut and then hit free agency. Clearly, given that he was only able to command a 3-year, $37.5 million contract, teams didn’t buy that those playoffs were for real. Turns out it was! Murphy has gone on to slaughter baseballs for the next two seasons and the Nationals found an absolute steal.

Logan Morrison and Yonder Alonso, 30 and 31 years old respectively, are both free agents coming off of very good years at the plate after drowning a good amount of prospect shine with thousands of plate appearances of mediocrity. If pressed, I would certainly predict them both to fall back toward their previous performance levels. But at a certain point, if the price tag is low enough, the risk that they do may be offset by the possibility that 2017 represents their new normal and you wind up with a good bat on the cheap.

This is only scratching the surface of the possibilities out there, but we hope you join us for another White Sox offseason, and thank you for spending the 2017 season here at BP South Side.

Lead Photo Credit: Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports

The most astonishing thing about David Holmberg is that he’s somehow only 25 years old. This is a guy traded by the White Sox to Arizona back in 2010 along with Daniel Hudson for Edwin Jackson before bouncing around multiple organizations and ultimately ending up back in Chicago. Holmberg is one of the rare high school players drafted by the Sox to actually make it to the majors. He was once even thought of highly enough to be the Diamondbacks sixth best prospect back in 2013 but every time one of his parent clubs called him up, he disappointed. 2017 saw more of the same, but with slight improvements.

Holmberg isn’t quite talented enough to be anything more than a swingman and to their credit, the Sox seem to know this using him as a starter seven times this summer and 30 times as a reliever. Like just about every sinkerball pitcher ever not named Brandon Webb, Holmberg does not strike hitters out (5.2 K/9) which is fine enough when his command is on. Unfortunately, his command isn’t on terribly often and he walked more hitters than he managed to punch out. A season of just below replacement level represents marked improvement for Holmberg and there might be a place in the bullpen for him to start the 2018 season, but there are enough interesting young arms coming down the pipeline that Holmberg might be looking for work again soon enough.

Gregory Infante was another delightful case of the 2017 bullpen becoming a late 2000s Birmingham Barons class reunion. Infante had last pitched in the majors in 2010 for … the White Sox. After spending the last half decade bouncing around various minor league cities, he came to Spring Training on a minor league deal and managed to finally put it together. Strikeouts have never been a problem for Infante, and in general they never should be for someone whose fastball comfortably sits in the upper 90s. But in the last seven years, he only managed to have a BB/9 below 4 once until this year’s 3.3. Was it magic or smoke and mirrors that finally resulted in the turn around? Who knows! His peripherals suggest this mini-breakout should be repeatable enough and if not, hey, he’s at least another fun mildly successful flamethrowing Don Cooper scrapheap revival project.

Of all the players I had expected to be shipped out for prospects before the 2017 season came to a close, Nate Jones is the only one still with the White Sox and not for happy reasons. Back on Valentine’s Day, I wrote about how he could bring back a sneaky good return seeing as when healthy he’s been one of the American League’s premier yet unappreciated setup guys. His April was consistent with what we’d grown used to from him: vicious strikeouts on dominating heat and impossible sliders presaged by a waggling ball held high in the heavens.

But his elbow would not allow such wonders to be viewed for long. His ulnar nerve acted up, sitting awkwardly post-2014 TJS and required surgical repositioning in mid-July. The good news is his UCL remained intact and undamaged. The bad news is he lost a year of his prime and will now be paid far less than he would before the surgery thanks to some interesting wording in his contract. Jones should return at some point next season, giving the Sox a bonafide closer or ace setup man that may be able to tempt a contending team into parting with prospects.

Rymer Liriano is sadly saddled with the Quad-A label. He’s still young enough, but doesn’t really do anything well enough to get over that hump. In an offseason full of grabbing any and every franchise’s troubled young hitter who fell victim to roster crunches, Liriano was yet another attempt at finding something worthwhile. He only managed a .740 OPS while playing right field for Charlotte, keeping him firmly at the end of the line for MLB at bats. When he finally made it to Chicago in September, he did not impress. No corner outfielder’s defense is good enough to make hitting .220/.304/.341 palatable and the influx of new corner outfielders in the system have likely spelled the end of the line for Liriano in Chicago.

Lead Photo Credit: Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports

Still, Freeland worked wonders all afternoon, inducing weak contact while working around the zone throughout. He struck out nine, walked three, and the only trouble he found himself in was back-to-back walks to Jose Abreu and Todd Frazier leading off the seventh inning before promptly getting Avisail Garcia to ground into a double play. Melky Cabrera saved the White Sox the embarrassment with a one-out single in the ninth inning, which also ended Freeland’s day at a career high 126 pitches.

2. As mentioned above, the overarching theme of the series was the White Sox pitching staff getting battered around. They were outscored 26-9 over the weekend, allowing double-digit runs in both Friday’s and Sunday’s losses.

Derek Holland‘s performance Friday is what we’ve come to expect since the calendar turned to June. In his last seven outings, he’s failed to get through five innings four times and in two of those couldn’t complete three. Coming into the season, the main concern with Holland was health. The White Sox have done a fine job keeping him on the mound, but he’s completely lost his command and it’s resulted in a whole heckuva lot of hard contact.  His DRA now sits at 6.35, 14th-worst in the majors among pitchers who have thrown 75 innings or more.

3. Carlos Rodon, on the other hand, looked a lot better than his resulting line. He wasn’t quite the pitcher who generated 26 swings and misses against Oakland last week (he had eight on Sunday), but was still a lot better than the pitcher who couldn’t throw strikes in his 2017 debut. He stayed in the strike zone and induced weak contact pretty well through the first five innings. The sixth inning is where things unraveled a bit, as he allowed a massive home run to Charlie Blackmon–which is hardly the most embarrassing thing for a pitcher to do–on a low fastball that didn’t get low enough, and followed that up by issuing two of his three walks on the day, before being replaced and having Chris Beck allow those two to score.

The highs and lows of Rodon from start to start or even inning to inning or pitch to pitch is like a roller coaster. But just as it’s important to temper expectations when he shows what he’s capable of in starts like the one we saw in Oakland, it’s also important not to get too down when he’s working through struggles. We saw a little bit of both on Sunday, but at the very least it seems his development has picked up right where he left off pre-injury.

4.  Avisail Garcia is limping across the finish line after earning a place on the All Star team.  He’s hit .172/.238/.241 over his last fifteen games while battling through a couple of injuries.  Ironically, it looks like he could really use the full All Star Break to rest his sore finger, but barring a setback or some other incident, he seems set to attend the festivities in Miami.  It should still be less demanding than a regular schedule, and it almost certainly means a lot to him to be able to go.  Moving forward, although there were always BABIP and approach questions about the strength of Avisail’s first half, but it is hard to say just how much of this regression is luck abandoning him or his “true talent” rearing its ugly head as opposed to simply fatigue and playing hurt.

5.  Nate Jones experienced a setback while throwing off of flat ground over the weekend.  He will be re-evaluated over the All Star Break and hasn’t pitched since April 28th.  Although injuries are now unfortunately an expected part of Jones’ profile, this virtually guarantees that the potentially extremely valuable reliever won’t be traded this season.  Jones is signed through 2018 with two cheap team options for 2019 and 2020 that drop to the league minimum if Jones undergoes elbow surgery.  So, this won’t be the team’s last chance to deal him when and if he should return to form.

Lead Photo Credit: Isaiah J. Downing – USA Today Sports Images