Neither player figures to be on the roster the next time either of the franchises make the playoffs–provided they make it before the fall of Western Civilization at all–but Storen fills the more typical profile of a rebuilding signing. He’s a former name brand talent who could be worth something in a trade if finds some of his old magic, and since he doesn’t turn 30 until August, the magic is not particularly old.

He had success in the second half with Seattle (3.44 ERA in 18.1 innings with a 5.33 strikeout/walk ratio), so there’s some reason to hope he’s not all the way gone. It bears some resemblance to the Sox signing Derek Holland in that way, even if the starter/reliever dynamic gives Holland a higher value ceiling. Storen is also missing as much as 3 mph from his peak and never missed bats at an elite rate, a transition from Safeco to Great American Ballpark should bring that home run rate back to normal, and he is unlikely to do much to fix the Reds’ historically awful bullpen.

With Storen possibly representing the Reds’ only major league signing of the offseason, the Reds look like an uninspiring alternate history version of the future White Sox at this point. Not fencing their homegrown superstar–Joey Votto–to aid their rebuild seems like a merciful nod to their fans, but it was not coupled with groundswell of investment to build around him, met with uninspiring prospect development and returns on trades, injuries to other core players Homer Bailey and Devin Mesoraco, and the continued presence of a declining Brandon Phillips, so Votto enters his age-33 season having never won a playoff series.

With a middle of the pack farm system, and nothing but a solitary low-risk, low-reward signing to dream on in the majors, the Reds both lack a clear projection for when they will be able to win again, and the ability or willingness to do much of anything interesting to generate value on their big league roster (they have over $62 million tied up in Votto, Bailey, Phillips and Mesoraco for 2017). Rebuilding doesn’t guarantee anything but a lot of losses for a long time if it isn’t managed well, and the Reds are a reminder of that, and I want to remind you the reader of that, even if I can’t tie it to the White Sox as well as I thought I could when this post started.

Davis, on the other hand, is nothing more than a short-term salve for the major league roster. Even with a great year he’s unlikely to be flipped for more than a song. As Melissa Lockard of Scout wrote, Davis is an A+ clubhouse guy who enters into a murky 2017 outfield situation, and will provide a veneer of professionalism and competence where there otherwise might have been unprepared prospects getting overexposed.

The nightmare scenario is that Bob Melvin falls hopelessly in love with Davis in the way that managers fall in love with light-hitting speedsters who do all the little things, and hands him way too much playing time instead of letting younger talent develop. But there’s a balance that needs to be struck between that, and a purely nihilistic gaping maw of a major league roster that demoralizes everyone involved.

The A’s are another team the Sox do not want to be, but possibly resemble, in that uncertainty for how much money they will ever have free to spend on a contention cycle places extra pressure to fill out nearly all of their team needs internally and inexpensively. With that, any dollar not spent on the future feels like a potential waste, and the Sox will likely begin the season with some or all of the group of Jose Abreu, Melky Cabrera and Todd Frazier aboard, so they might not need to worry having enough veterans to maintain sanity just yet. But it should be a consideration for 2018 or 2019. Rebuilding teams cannot live on longshot reclamation projections alone.

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1. The first hitter Sale faced on the night, Marcus Semien, lifted a pitch to the left field warning track, requiring Melky Cabrera to make one of his patented catches where he snagged the fly ball, glided into the wall, and then acted like he was having an allergic reaction to the wall. Sale further needed a decently struck Khris Davis double play to escape that same inning, and made his own leaping stab to stop a hard Chad Pinder comebacker in the third.

Other than that, the generally punchless A’s lineup did not force Sale out of his easy breeze-through approach, or make any big hay of the three walks he issued in the first six innings.

2. Unlike during his mid-season struggles, when the opposing lineup pushed back, Sale responded. Jake Smolinski drilled a high fastball to the wall in right-center in the top of the sixth, sending Adam Eaton–filling in at center to give Jason Coats a start in right–racing back for the first of two nifty over-the-shoulder grabs on the night. After walking Davis, Sale suddenly burned a higher temperature, striking out the next five batters in a row, and dialing up to 97 mph to blow away Pinder in the top of the eighth. He cruised through the rest of the inning to cap a scoreless night, and only 120 pitches kept him from finishing everything by himself.

3. Against opposing starter Ross Detwiler, the Sox made everything quickly as low-leverage as possible for their ace. Jose Abreu started the scoring in the first by lining an outer-half fastball for a low drive that barely cleared the U.S. Cellular Field right field fence, putting the Sox up 1-0 early. It was certainly a cheapie, but by the end of the fourth, Abreu had scored two more times.

The bottom of the order burned Detwiler with four-straight weak two-out singles in the second from Jason Coats, Dioner Navarro, Carlos Sanchez and Tim Anderson, scoring two more runs. If Detwiler felt cheated, Abreu and Cabrera drilled back-to-back doubles to lead off the third to make things more legit, with Cabrera eventually coming home on a Coats groundout. After Eaton reached on an infield single and Abreu walked, both with two outs again in the fourth, Cabrera dropped down and scooped a low fastball into right for one more RBI knock. By the end of four, the Sox had a 6-0 commanding lead for Sale with only a handful of hard hit balls.

4. Finally afforded something other than a shoestring of a lead to protect, Nate Jones got a little messy in the ninth. He allowed Danny Valencia‘s 15th home run of the year, a booming blast to right-center that reminded all that Valencia has as many home runs as Abreu in 2016. He allowed a single to Ryon Healy, then watched as a possible game-ending double play ball from Stephen Vogt became a fielder’s choice, then became nothing when a review determined Anderson stepped off of second too soon while trying to make the turn.

Under that context, Jones allowing an RBI single to Brett Eibner seems more forgivable, but Robin Ventura still decided to turn to David Robertson to get the final two outs, the last of which was Eaton’s second running catch at the wall.

5. Cabrera has been in a bit of recent swoon, but was one of two Sox hitters to collect multi-hit nights. The other was Abreu, who now is up to .283/.338/.443 and is head of him in slugging.

Team Record: 58-64

Next game is Sunday at 1:10pm CT vs. Oakland on CSN

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1. Shields struck out two in a perfect first inning, which is pretty amazing considering how far things still managed to go south before the end of the fifth inning. By the time he was walking ninth hitter Max Muncy with the bases loaded in the second, it was clear Shields had not suddenly happened upon newfound command. For emphasis, Khris Davis bombed a flat changeup four miles out to left in the third to put the A’s up 3-0, and Shields made up for the lost time of a scoreless fourth by giving up two homerss in the fifth. One came on a hanging curveball to Stephen Vogt, and a two-run shot on another bad change to Yonder Alonso, a formerly lauded first baseman prospect whose career prospects on dimmed due to his failure to…produce power. So at the least it was 375-feet of irony, or just a particularly bad changeup.

2. Tim Anderson lazily hucking a low throw that Jose Abreu couldn’t pick, nor find, after it kicked 20 feet behind him, was finally what wound up chasing Shields as the Sox fell behind 7-0 in the fifth. It was not actually his fault that this play allowed Marcus Semien to advance two bases and score, but then, why should he really be allowed to escape this?

3. An undersold element of this whole affair is that the White Sox had no chance Friday night even if 1999 Pedro Martinez and Keith Foulke were pitching in a tandem, because they got two-hit by Kendall Graveman in 98 pitches. There wasn’t even anything notable that happened–it’s Kendall Graveman! He had a 5.82 ERA for the month with nine strikeouts in 17 innings coming in, because he’s mid-tier strike-thrower with mediocre stuff. Even on the night of his life, Graveman struck out just five, and the Sox just made a bunch of weak outs.

4. Abreu lined a solid single to center in the second inning, Adam Eaton singled to center himself in the seventh. Both were immediately wiped off the bases by double plays. Justin Morneau, who reached on an error in the eighth inning, was stranded on first, making him the Sox most successful baserunner, and also the only reason Graveman didn’t face the minimum

That was it, unless we want to get into more granular analysis of individual groundouts.

5. There are 41 more games left, which doesn’t seem like it will be very useful.

Team Record: 57-64

Next game is Saturday at 6:10pm CT vs. Oakland on WGN

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The White Sox start their season in Oakland, a traditional house of horrors, but they literally swept the A’s in their own place last May. It’s really hard to launch an ‘Oakland is traditionally unfriendly’ argument immediately after a sweep. It’s almost as if the A’s being a bad baseball team are a larger factor in this equation than anything else, and that will likely still be the dominant factor (PECOTA pegs them for 86 losses and they need what would be surprisingly big years from Rich Hill and Chris Bassitt in the heart of their rotation).

Traveling to the West coast is typically a bear, but the Sox have been in California since last week and will be coming from an off day. They likely won’t feel the burn until their home opener Friday, which comes barely over 24 hours after they start their final game in Oakland.

Jerry Sands making the roster doesn’t promise to provide a ton of use, given that he’s a lefty-masher in a division where Tommy Milone is the only left-handed opposing starter. But at least the Sox project to face Milone in their series against the Twins next week, should he stick at the No. 4 slot. That comes after Rich Hill in the second game of the year, a bizarrely temporarily four-man Rays rotation with Drew Smyly and Matt Moore, an Angels rotation with Andrew Heaney and Hector Santiago, and a chance of running into J.A. Happ at the end of the month. More division-heavy months are going to make the Sox need for a left-handed upgrade quite clear, but point being, if the Sox have any sincere interest in using Sands, that will reveal itself in the first month.

Finally, much has been made–well, relative to this tiny corner of humanity–about the 19 games in 19 days stretch the Sox face starting on the 13th, and whether the White Sox pitching depth can sustain the workload without needing an extra reliever. The worrisome Spring put together by Mat Latos, which has in turn prompted the signing of Miguel Gonzalez, has offered the distinct possibility of some four and five inning efforts at the end of the rotation.

I shade old school on the rising trend of expanding bullpens, and the Sox have some old school tendencies of their own, such as letting their starters throw more than any other team in baseball. The Sox are the only franchise in baseball that lets its starters throw over a hundred pitches per night, and while it’s not a perfect relationship, that usually transitions into more innings and less work for relievers. Combined with the Sox record for pitching health, and this stretch coming early in the year before rest for Sale and Carlos Rodon becomes a major consideration, I see the Sox navigating their early-year gauntlet with a standard roster setup intact.

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