But everything we’re hearing indicates the White Sox do not agree with me. I’d question myself more as a result of that if this regime had come out ahead of me more often in my past criticisms, but let’s just take their plan for what it is. From what we know, they are dead set on trading away Sale.

However, even accepting that they seem to have adopted a plan I disagree with, they are also executing it badly. One of the “nice” things about shopping Sale had been that they didn’t have to trade him if they didn’t feel like it. This isn’t a situation where Sale is coming up on the very end of his deal and everyone knows they can’t re-sign him. Trade partners can hold sellers like that over a barrel because they know they’re going to have to sell to someone. Sale has three very affordable years left on his contract.  In that situation, the Sox can talk with other teams and say, “If you don’t meet our demands we’re perfectly happy keeping him.”

Unsurprisingly, though, the White Sox have somehow put themselves over a barrel instead. If the information we’re receiving is correct, the front office intends to do everything it can to trade Sale away before doing anything else. That means they’re committed to selling, and when someone has to sell something they lose power in negotiations. So, if they stick to what I perceive to be the plan and someone doesn’t meet their price, that means one of two things:

1) The White Sox have to lower their price, which is really bad; or

2) They realize nobody will meet their price, at which point all of the pieces that could have helped them are scooped up and they enter 2017 with the same roster they abandoned and declared dead in the middle of 2016 that everybody is so sick of that they want to trade away Chris Sale.

They still don’t absolutely have to trade him this offseason. Getting less than maximum value for a chip like this is a career-defining thing and not in a good way, but if the 2017 opens with the team once again not having sold or bought in any meaningful way for the umpteenth time…well, I wouldn’t envy the marketing team in that scenario.

We’ve seen from Zach Duke that the problem isn’t necessarily getting mid-tier free agents to solve problems.  The problem is when you do it badly. When you do it right, you get a player who is useful and if you fall out of contention you can trade them for future value, turning your fungible cash investment into talent that helps in the short term and can be converted into talent that helps in the long term as a fallback.

That’s why I think even if you decide to trade Sale you should probably be buying some things. Sure, if the first day of the winter meetings an opposing GM approaches Rick Hahn and offers him an absolute embarrassment of riches for Sale then this point is moot–and perhaps everything has just been on hold for mostly everyone while the CBA was resolved, although we’ve seen some pretty big moves already–but if that doesn’t look likely, you need to shore up your leverage.

Acquire a stopgap piece for center field and maybe a platoon DH that can be flipped at the deadline. Add a competent defensive catcher to help your young pitchers out. Sign a few relievers–especially a lefty–you think Don Cooper can fix up. We saw Cleveland succeed doing just that last year, and even if it doesn’t work, you’re no worse off. And, if the Sox wait too long, all those options will be gone and they will truly be left selling Sale for pennies on the dollar.

James is not wrong in his excellent analogy found at the end of this piece.  They are dangling an incredibly enticing piece to a whole lot of teams and they’re waiting for one to snap and bite hard. The problem is that even when they try to do something different, they do the same thing, because these are the same people making the same decisions. This has been the White Sox’ M.O. for almost a decade now: a highly questionable Plan A that is largely contingent on hope more than anything else, and no Plan B. We’ve seen how it’s worked out so far, so please forgive me if I don’t expect it to work out this time either.

Lead Image Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski // USA Today Sports Images

While the White Sox have been slammed from all directions for seeking free agents in the bargain bin, Duke represented the type of modest acquisition that is well worth pursuing. And although Duke was underwhelming in 2015, he was exactly what they’d hoped for in 2016 — a wipeout reliever against lefties who could be used against righties without it being lunacy. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, it was just announced that Duke will need Tommy John surgery, wiping out the final year of his contract, meaning they’ll just have to accept his 23.1 superb innings they got while coming up just short of the playoffs. Maybe one day they’ll catch a break.

Assuming Tilson is able to return from injury substantially in the state he was in before — not a given — he projects to be the type of player the White Sox have struggled to generate on their own.  He’d have to max out his development to be a solid or plus starting center fielder, but he doesn’t need to do much to be a plus fourth outfielder. That’s hardly something that changes the long-term fate of the team, but it also describes Austin Jackson, who was the team’s biggest free agent acquisition last winter. If you can have good bench pieces for the league minimum it frees up resources to spend elsewhere. For example, how nice is it to have Tyler Saladino instead of Gordon Beckham or Emilio Bonifacio for $2-4 million a pop?

With an organization like the White Sox, there is always the risk that Tilson becomes Plan A in centerfield with zero backup plan. That would be foolhardy. However, if used properly, Tilson is a safe bet to be a burner on the bench who can come in as a defensive replacement or be used to help the flexibility of the lineup — or soak up an extra couple hundred plate appearances in case of injury instead of someone like J.B. Shuck, who just posted a sub-.600 OPS while pressed into full time duty. Beyond the tragedy of Tilson potentially degrading his key tool as a result of his hamstring injury, it also meant that the White Sox didn’t get to use the final few months of the season playing out the string giving him exposure to major league pitching and getting to evaluate how well he will do moving forward.

Tilson may need more time in Triple-A or he may be nothing at all.  And there’s also the aforementioned possibility that he hits his ceiling and he’s a perfectly usable center fielder. Or, if the White Sox retain Brett Lawrie — and there is no legitimate reason that they should not — they could run out a bench of Tilson, Saladino, Omar Narvaez, and perhaps the other half of a DH platoon like, say, a Pedro Alvarez or Mike Napoli. And you don’t have be a wild optimist to believe that would have a good chance at being one of the better benches they’ve had in recent memory.

Tilson is a Chicago-area kid who was drafted out of New Trier High School in Winnetka by the Cardinals in the second round of the 2011 draft.  Tilson is of the “super fast 4th outfielder” phylum of player.  He can legitimately play good defense in center field, although evidently his throwing arm is underwhelming, and he steals plenty of bases.  But, he’s also posting a .750 OPS in the hitter-paradise PCL.

To put it lightly, the White Sox have struggled to produce solid depth options internally for a long time now.  To that end, Tilson does offer useful, legitimate major league skills–defense at a premium position and speed–which is more than I can say for a lot of players the White Sox have employed in recent memory.

Some public evaluators praise Tilson’s ability to make contact and draw walks, which are certainly the most important things you can do with his skill set.  So there is also a non-zero chance that his bat plays enough where he can replicate the contributions that, say, Austin Jackson was making.

While it has been clear that the White Sox would not be buyers to compete for 2016 for weeks now, this move still doesn’t necessarily shed any light on the grand direction of the team.  Duke is one of the players I suggested could be flipped without compromising the ability to compete in 2017.  But, trading away veteran relievers is also consistent with a total teardown.  Thus this trade doesn’t really move the needle in revealing the organization’s larger plans.

Rather, it was a sensible decision to trade Duke away under either framework.  A modest piece was traded for a modest return, who may be a bench contributor as soon as next year.  It also frees up $5.5 million for 2017, which would normally be an amount that isn’t worth taking into consideration, but then again, that’s more than the White Sox spent on any free agents last offseason.

Buying, at least in the win-now sense, has been off the table for a few weeks now, but selling has been a subject of debate yet again, with many wondering if the White Sox will receive offers significant enough to convince them to part ways with centerpiece pitchers Chris Sale and/or Jose Quintana. Deals involving those two would signal that the franchise is ready for a long-term rebuild.

Likewise, smart people like our own Nick Schaefer make convincing arguments for why the White Sox shouldn’t be sellers, and should instead keep all their important pieces around with an eye toward contending in 2017.

I’m not here to argue which direction is more logical, but regardless of whether or not the White Sox intend to contend in 2017 or go with a long-term rebuild, the one thing the White Sox should absolutely cash-in on this weekend is their bullpen.

Since a hot start that had the unit ranking among the best in all of baseball through the first month-plus, the bullpen has been an unmitigated disaster. Injuries to Zach Putnam and Jake Petricka haven’t helped, but David Robertson is having the worst statistical season of his career, Matt Albers turned into a pumpkin and the hodgepodge of characters used to fill in the holes haven’t done the trick.

Still, teams need bullpen help, and in a market where Lucas Harrell can net a return worth mentioning, surely there would have to be takers on Robertson, Nate Jones and Zach Duke. Maybe even Albers!

Investing a significant amount of money or other assets to build a solid bullpen is always a risky proposition, but it’s one good teams can justify. From a baseball perspective, it made sense for the Cubs to trade for Aroldis Chapman as he could prove vital in their quest to win the World Series.

To teams not in contention, a good and/or expensive bullpen is about as useful as (insert pun about useless things here). [Ed. suggestion: “Hope! Hope is useless”]

The White Sox are paying Robertson $11 million this year, and he’s due $25 million more over the next two seasons. Duke is making $5 million this year and another $5.5 million next season.

In baseball terms, these are not egregious sums of money, but given the fungible nature of relievers and the penny-pinching tendencies of White Sox management, they are sums of money best spent elsewhere. Offloading Robertson and Duke would, conceivably, allow the White Sox to go in the offseason with additional money they can use to improve the club elsewhere while also acquiring young players to help revitalize the farm system.

OR, given the fact that teams may be hesitant to acquire Robertson and the $25 million-plus owed to him, they could eat some of that contract in exchange for an even more highly-regarded prospect or two, something the Sox were not willing to do in 2013 when they ate only $1 million of the ~$25 million owed to Alex Rios in shipping him to Texas for Leury Garcia.

But, you might argue, if they White Sox trade their few good bullpen arms in only a semi-sell off while eyes remain on contention in 2017, how on earth will they be able to contend without anyone worth a damn in the bullpen?

This is a legitimate concern, but, again, relievers are fungible, and the White Sox have a reputation for their keen ability to identify and develop talent in the bullpen. And given their financial limitations, the reward of giving the farm system a jolt and increasing spending flexibility is worth the risk of having to rebuild the bullpen from scratch.

This is not a perfect solution to all the White Sox problems. Maybe a fire sale is worth it, maybe they should stand pat. But, regardless of which direction they go, cashing in on their expensive bullpen arms seems as worthy a venture as any.

Lead photo credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

I definitely get the appeal of selling. It would at least offer some clarity as to what the team’s plan was, and it’s harder to be disappointed when the Sox miss the playoffs if there was never any hope to make it in the first place. There seems to be some added attraction to it given the organization’s reputation for refusing to rebuild when it seemed quite prudent to do so in recent years.

The thing is, I’m not sure it’s strategically correct to sell at this time; not in any significant way. The only expiring contracts they have for the end of this season are Austin Jackson, Justin Morneau, and the two catchers.  I suppose if Alex Avila or Jackson were healthy, some team that was in the hunt might want to add them as bench pieces, but they’re not. Perhaps with Morneau looking pretty solid in his first few games back, maybe some other team would be willing to send something over for him (although personally it’s so nice not watching Avisail Garcia play baseball every day that I might prefer just keeping Morneau around for the rest of this now-pointless season).

So, most of the assets of any consequence to sell are under control for 2017–Todd Frazier, Brett Lawrie, Melky Cabrera, David Robertson, Zach Duke and so on. As it stands, even though 2016 has been a huge disappointment, they still look to finish somewhere between 78-83 wins; pretty much what they were projected to do coming into the season. And, if the Sox are trading one third of their starting lineup for 2017, they would be basically punting yet another prime season of Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, and Adam Eaton.

There are no replacements in-house for those three bats (Frazier, Lawrie, Cabrera). The only position players left in the organization who could contribute to 2017 profile as bench pieces at best. That means if the Sox are selling those guys, they are conceding that they cannot build a winner around a core that features two of the best pitchers in baseball on absurdly cheap contracts. If the Sox can’t win with that kind of core, they’ll do what, exactly, with the next one, should they ever actually acquire another one?  If White Sox management has decided this core isn’t good enough–or at least, good enough for this front office and scouting department to win with–then shouldn’t the first step be cleaning house in the front office and scouting department and let those guys make the call for whether/what how to buy or sell?

Besides, I don’t think it makes sense to give up on Sale and Quintana, because once again the problem in 2016 was not the core. As has been written dozens of times here, the problem with 2016 was failing to make even a credible effort at rounding out the supporting cast. After Adam LaRoche retired, the primary DH job was given to Garcia with zero backup plan even though everybody but the White Sox has known for a long time that he is unplayable. Center field was given to a glove-only fourth outfielder. The plan at shortstop was “hope that a utility player and a minor league free agent on his absolute last legs could hold down the fort until Tim Anderson showed up,” and it was very likely that Anderson would not be ready at all this year.  Catcher has been a mess that seems to have particularly agitated White Sox Twitter this year.

But, especially given how well Anderson played out of the gate, this team was legitimately one free agent outfielder and one bat to play at DH that was better than Garcia away from being a real competitor.  The solution to “Wow, roster spots 15-25 were horrible this year” isn’t “nuke roster spots 1-10.”

Frankly, they look to be in even better shape for 2017. Miguel Gonzalez is under control for 2017 as well, and is posting the best peripherals of his career in his age-32 season. He seems to be enjoying the switch from the Orioles Pitching Hellscape to Don Cooper Land. Anderson is here and looks to at a minimum be a league average shortstop, which is better than the team had coming into 2016. James Shields is terrifying and too expensive and was definitely A Mistake, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be better than John Danks profiled to be as the fourth or fifth starter for next year.

This is a core that can and should be successful. The Sox just need to figure out what to put around it and how they are going to get there.

Who can the White Sox trade without destroying 2017 if they aren’t dumping Sale, Quintana, Abreu, and Eaton?

If the Sox are confident about being able to generate bullpen arms from within, that is certainly an area where they can sell at the deadline and increase the overall talent in the organization, and maybe even free up some money.

• Robertson still has two years and $25 million left on his deal. Although this has hardly been his best season, we are still only talking about forty innings or so of a very strong career. Given what we’ve seen given up for Aroldis Chapman and Mike Montgomery so far–and I think it’s fair to say Robertson is somewhere between those two guys in terms of quality–the Sox could expect a good return here. If they are confident in Zack Burdi, Carson Fulmer, and in the healthy returns of Zach Putnam and Jake Petricka, it could be argued this is an area where they can afford to sell from to help out elsewhere and still run out a good relief corps in 2017.
• Zach Duke is the diet version of Robertson in this regard. Although the organization has had an oddly difficult time adding lefty relievers, Duke shouldn’t be deemed irreplaceable. Again, given how much teams seem to covet relievers these days, he could bring back something neat.
• Maybe Don Cooper & Co. decide Fulmer is ready to be a starter in 2017.  It’s a topic worth debating, but if that’s the case, perhaps somebody would be interested in Gonzalez. It feels risky to trade him; 2016 has been ruthless in showing how much starting pitching depth a team realistically needs. If he is traded and Shields reverts to his Worst Pitcher of All Time act, it is probably putting way too pressure on Fulmer to pitch 180 good innings.

And other than the aforementioned Avila and Jackson who appear to be injured for the bulk of the time a team would want to add them…that’s kind of it.

Make no mistake–if the Sox decide to trade Sale and Quintana and Eaton, then sure, they should blow everything up and trade everybody and go scorched earth. If they do that, they need a whole new front office to do it, but that is a not crazy option. It’s just a hideously unpleasant road to start going down when the Sox already look to be adding to a massive playoff drought.  But, if they aren’t trading those guys, it doesn’t make any sense to abandon 2017 either. Because if they trade Melky, Lawrie, and Frazier, the Sox are in fact giving up on 2017 unless they spend a ton to replace them…but if they are willing to do that, the Sox would be better served to just spend a ton to supplement them instead.

It has been a bleak couple of months in the midst of a bleak decade for the White Sox, but that doesn’t mean the situation is as bad as it feels. If they play their cards right–not a given, certainly–they can position themselves really, really well for next year.

Lead Image Credit: Patrick Gorski // USA Today Sports Images

These are minor blips in the minor leagues, but the Sox could use some major boosts, and this was not a good day.

I’m a borderline Sox optimist at this point. They are a home series victory against a horrible Braves team from entering the All-Star break four games over .500, and a sweep away from being the thick of the moshpit for the second Wild Card spot. Given the pre-season outlook and some of the holes they broke camp with, this is a good result. They are within striking distance at the trade deadline, which is what they sought to be.

For the most part, it seems like they would rather not go to such lengths.

They have been waiting out the worst slump of Avisail Garcia‘s career (he has two extra-base hits since June 1, and hasn’t homered over 120 plate appearances) to replace him with the ultra inexpensive 35-year-old Justin Morneau coming off of surgery.

They have already waited out nearly a month of Austin Jackson‘s projected six-week recovery timeline from knee surgery with J.B. Shuck–who has at least managed to randomly slug .480 since Jackson went down–even though both have offensive profiles a more aggressive team would probably look to upgrade.

And they will almost surely will wait out Alex Avila‘s second hamstring pull, since his mid-season offensive revival will give them something to point to as help on the way.

Their bullpen however, is currently David Robertson, Nate Jones, Zach Duke and then just hopes and prayers on any day where those three need rest. Given the state of Burdi, Zach Putnam playing catch with his wounded elbow, and a now thinned out crop from which to trade for help, the Sox appear set to turn to Fulmer for relief help, but with Dan Jennings, Michael Ynoa, Chris Beck and Matt Albers all floating around replacement-level performance or, in Albers’ case, worse, they’ll run out of internal options well before they run out of need, and their willingness to make another move, and in turn, take on more salary will be tested, or their lack of willingness will be exposed.

The White Sox cannot be straight-up accused of apathy, or inflexibility. James Shields is a bigger move than many contenders will swing all season, regardless of whether not their league scouts botched the assessment or not. Adam LaRoche was at least supposed to offer another half-viable option to toggle between beyond just watching Garcia’s career go in the tank, but the Sox still left their intriguing turnover and transformation of the roster so unfinished, with so many spots that had the potential to need mid-year adjustments, so that it was always going to necessitate a wealth of activity to patch things up, let alone land a major bat like Carlos Gonzalez, Ryan Braun, or even a resurgent Jay Bruce that would vault them above the pack competing for the second Wild Card.

One of the amusing elements of watching the Bulls stagger confusedly through free agency, is the constant conspiracy theorizing from their fans that money and resources are being siphoned off to lavish on the White Sox. It’s like they’re inmates in a prison whose only windows face that of another identical prison across the street, and can only rationalize their hardships by speculating how much better it must be on the other side. It helps that the average Bulls fan doesn’t watch the Sox.

In reality, both are stubbornly avoidant of utterly fan-murdering, but focused rebuilding efforts, while also being adverse to outspending the field. And for both, building a mid-tier contender for cheap and remaining flexible for upgrades at the peak of the win cycle seems promising until that flexibility is never used, the throttle is never really pushed all the way down, and we’re left wondering if the general manager was unable to recognize their needs and seize a major opportunity to improve, or wasn’t allowed to.

Lead Image Credit: Mike Dinovo // USA Today Sports Images

1. After getting Aroldis Chapman back from suspension for domestic violence earlier this week, the Yankees have been able to deploy their three-headed monster of Andrew Miller, Dellin Bentances, and Chapman for the first time in this series. After striking out eight times in 11 PAs yesterday against the trio, the Sox jumped on Bentances immediately in the seventh, resulting in three-straight hits and a run before the tall right-hander recorded an out. Bentances settled down, however, and the Yankees took the lead in the bottom half of the inning on a Chase Headley RBI double to the wall and never relinquished it again.
2. Miguel Gonzalez showed off both why the Orioles cut him and why the White Sox took a flyer on him Sunday, flashing a good splitter and a newfound cutter early on but losing his command after a trip through the lineup, resulting in a 4.2 IP performance of three earned runs and a ghastly five walks. As soon as Gonzalez’s command dropped a smidge, he was either missing the plate or right down the middle, and actually was lucky that long fly balls with home run distance from Mark Teixeira and Didi Gregorius hooked foul.
3. The White Sox also ended a club-record 12 game errorless streak with gaffes by Brett Lawrie and Alex Avila in late-game situations. Lawrie’s error hurt particularly, as it extended the Yankee half of the sixth to Carlos Beltran, who deposited his 400^th career home run in the left field bleachers against Zach Duke to take a 5-4 lead.
4. The struggles of the White Sox bullpen continued, as they coughed up four runs (three earned) in 3.1 IP. Three of those came on monstrous home runs- the aforementioned Beltran blast allowed by Duke, and a solo home run by Brian McCann in the eighth to give Chapman more runs than he needed.
5. The White Sox return home to face the Houston Astros on Tuesday after tomorrow’s day off. They send Carlos Rodon, Mat Latos, and Chris Sale against a scuffling Astros team. Despite their poor road trip, their division lead sits at 5 over the second-place Indians and 5.5 over the third-place Royals. The White Sox will play 11 straight games against Cleveland and Kansas City after wrapping up their series against Houston.

Team Record: 24-14

Next game is Tuesday vs. Houston at 7:10pm CT on WPWR

Lead Image Credit: Anthony Gruppuso // USA Today Sports Images

Getting pulled before the sixth inning is usually a mark of shame for a White Sox starter, but Jose Quintana did yeoman’s work delivering a 4-2 lead to the bullpen. After spending the first two innings dotting the strike zone with his typically pinpoint fastball, Quintana smoothly transitioned to snapping off some of the best curveballs in his career on his way to seven strikeouts on the night. Only Jed Lowrie‘s continued assault on the Sox pitching staff added two runs to his ledger.

Todd Frazier spent most of his first two games in a White Sox uniform looking foolish against curveballs, but figured them out in a hurry to launch a massive go-ahead three-run shot in the fifth inning off A’s starter Chris Bassitt. He actually still got fooled by the pace of the pitch and had to halt his swing mid-path before one-handing the ball out to left. That kind of power used to be confined to Abreu-only on this roster.

Jimmy Rollins joined Frazier in hitting his first home run in a White Sox uniform, this one sending the Sox to victory. With two outs in the ninth, Rollins let loose his best rip on a Sean Doolittle fastball and came up with nothing. Doolittle felt comfortable enough with the result to go to the well again, and Rollins took it over the left field wall. Robin Ventura may deserve some bit of “the best moves are the ones you don’t make” credit in not removing Rollins an inning earlier in favor of a defensive replacement when up two runs late. The power-fueled victory follows up a win just a night before in which they were almost entirely reliant on opportunity provided by faulty defense, already laying the groundwork for an offensive attack less susceptible to critics of a power based offense.

The bullpen was unable to replicate its scoreless effort from the night prior. After Matt Albers successfully completed his one and a third with flair, the eighth inning was given to Zach Duke, but quickly handed to Nate Jones once Duke yielded an infield single to Josh Reddick. Two hit batsmen by Jones spelled the end of a potential decision for Quintana. A single by Yonder Alonso scored both Reddick and Khris Davis, the first HBP victim, to tie the game. Thankfully after the lead was rightfully restored, David Robertson recorded a 1-2-3 inning to notch his second save in as many nights.

Chris Bassitt danced around some minor scoring threats early and as the fifth inning began it looked as though the White Sox could lose a game behind an offense-stifling performance from a pitcher they sent packing and a run supplied in part by the two position players they sent out along with him. The mental damage this would have caused the fan base, as well as the tangible and irreversible damage to the 162-0 dream may have been too much to handle if it had become reality. Instead, another day, and another attempt at a Sonny Gray start awaits.

Record: 2-0

Up next: 9 p.m. CT Wednesday against the Athletics on CSN & ESPN2. Carlos Rodon vs. Sonny Gray

Lead photo credit: Kelley L Cox/USA Today Sports Images

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.