Thus, the non-tendering of four players–Al Alburquerque, Jake Petricka, Zach Putnam, and Alen Hanson–weighs in as the update of the moment.  Taking each of these in turn, my thoughts are as follows:

• Alburquerque has been good in the past, but this caliber of pitcher is basically always floating around.  He was picked up for free and you don’t necessarily need to cling to those guys;
• Petricka threw 144 solid innings from 2013-2015 after the White Sox selected him in the second round of the 2010 draft.  2016 and 2017 were riddled with injuries and ineffectiveness. Even for someone with plus velocity, the Pitch To Contact profile can often leave you with a very thin margin for error, and Petricka may not be able to stay above that line anymore;
• Putnam is coming back from Tommy John surgery and may miss most of 2018, but unlike Petricka he has at least been extremely effective in between his stints on the disabled list; and
• In a universe where the White Sox aren’t protecting Jake Peter and have a crowded depth chart of utility players, Hanson got squeezed out.

Some, all, or none of these guys could return on minor league deals and even make the 25-man roster out of camp next year depending on what other moves the team makes over the course of the winter.  Hahn & Co. may have identified more than one target they like in the Rule V draft, which could suddenly make things quite crowded, and with these moves, the 40-man roster sits at 36. To my mind, Putnam was the only close call, and that depends on how his rehab is going, when he looks like he’d be able to pitch again, and whether or not they can work something else out such that he’s back in the organization at such time as he is healthy.  Or, it could be that Tommy John took enough out of him that he’s not the same pitcher anymore, which would be a shame, as he was a fairly unique guy.

And so the calm before the storm continues, but with Tyler Chatwood getting plucked up by the Cubs and the Winter Meetings rapidly approaching, some activity is due sooner or later.  And, even if you don’t see the move coming, as the Castillo acquisition shows, you never know when you might get surprised.

Jake Petricka earned a spot in the White Sox bullpen four seasons ago because of his keen ability to induce ground balls.

The 2010 second round pick hurled his mid-90s sinker down in the zone and batters helplessly pounded it into the dirt. In 2014 and 2015 his ground ball rate was 63.4 and 65.2 percent, respectively, and he looked the part of a valuable middle innings guy capable of carving out a lengthy major league career.

Since then, Petricka has thrown 33 2/3 innings total as he battled a myriad of injuries, the latest coming just last week as after a season in which he was disabled with elbow strains on two separate occasions, the White Sox announced the right-hander underwent a nerve transposition in his right elbow. The injury helps explain at least in part his 2017 struggles, but also casts doubt onto his future with the organization. Quite simply, Petricka has lost the command that once made him so effective.

After allowing just six home runs in the first 152 innings of his career, Petricka allowed six in 25 2/3 innings in 2017. His ground ball rate dropped to 47.2 percent and and his fly ball rate — still just 19.6 percent for his career — soared to 27 percent. While that as well as his career-high strikeout rate can be explained at least partially by today’s run-scoring environment, Petricka earned and has kept his roster spot based on his ability to keep the ball on the ground and in the ballpark. Lacking that, his effectiveness disappears. And it disappeared to the tune of a 7.01 ERA.

Petricka’s command has always been shaky, as his career 3.79 BB/9 indicates, and after a torn hip labrum wiped out basically all of 2016 and 2017 saw three separate DL trips, it’s possible we never see Good Petricka again. The White Sox surely must know that’s possible, and as an arbitration-eligible pitcher this winter, they might not be willing to pay to find out.

Petricka and Zach Putnam have always been lumped together in the eyes of White Sox fans. Surely I’m not the only one, right? After all, both surnames begin with the same letter and they’re fun to say together. Putnam and Petricka seem like the names of heavyset, mustachioed cop partners called on by the chief to work on a case that’s way above their abilities. You know those two old cops assigned to Daniels’ unit in Season 1 of The Wire? They could’ve been named Putnam and Petricka. OK, I’m getting off track. Sorry.

Putnam and Petricka also joined the organization around the same time. Petricka as a draft pick and Putnam after stints in Cleveland and on the North Side of town. Putnam was the other bright spot in the 2014 White Sox bullpen, bursting onto the scene to throw 54 2/3 innings with a minuscule 1.98 ERA.

The next year he became Putnam: The K God, using his splitter upwards of 50-60 percent of the time to generate whiffs before all the cool kids started doing it. Maybe he wasn’t the fireballing reliever you’d expect to anchor the back-end of your bullpen for the next 5-7 years, but one could envision a future where Putnam was coming in and eviscerating three hitters with that splitter in the middle innings for the White Sox for a long time to come.

But it turned out Putnam and Petricka really are tied at the hip, and just as injuries have wiped away Petricka’s last two seasons and put his future as a major leaguer in doubt, the same can be said of Putnam. After a bone fragment in his elbow cost him the second half of 2016, he went down after just 8 2/3 innings in 2017, eventually having Tommy John surgery in June. His status for 2018 is perilous as he is also arbitration eligible again this winter.

Putnam was always a personal favorite after the White Sox picked him up off the scrap heap and turned him into an effective and fun-to-watch middle reliever. Tommy John surgery puts the future of any pitcher in doubt, but for someone whose peak was so fleeting and out-of-nowhere as Putnam’s, the odds seem stacked fairly high against him pitching for the White Sox again.

Lead Photo Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

Putnam emerged as as a legitimate late inning bullpen piece for the White Sox in 2014 when threw 54 2/3 innings with a 1.98 ERA, and became a sinkerballing strikeout machine a year later when he posted a 11.8 K/9 in 48 2/3 innings. He’s failed to stay healthy, however, as he reportedly tried to pitch with a weak ligament that was discovered last year when he underwent surgery to remove bone chips. He’s thrown just 36 innings the last two seasons because of injuries.

“When they removed the chips, the ligament was not in great shape but Zach and his doctors thought it was worthwhile for him to try to fight back and pitch through it, which obviously he was able to do for a short period of time but ultimately the ligament gave out,” Hahn said. “Zach deserves a world of credit for doing everything he could the last two years to fight his way back to contribute in the bullpen. Unfortunately it didn’t work out for him.”

Putnam’s injury is devastating for a pitcher who bounced around early in his career before finally seeming to latch on with the White Sox. Originally drafted by the Indians, he bounced around from Cleveland to Colorado to the Cubs before sticking with the White Sox. The fact that he’s unlikely to be healthy enough to contribute again until he’s 31, and even that being far from a given because of the injury, is a frustrating development.

From the standpoint of the present and future White Sox, the bullpen came into the season as an expected strength with Putnam joining David Robertson and Nate Jones to form a dynamic late-inning trio. Despite two-thirds of that trio being derailed by injury, the bullpen has obviously been as good if not better than expected. Putnam would’ve been a likely trade candidate if healthy, and while this injury rids the Sox of that potential chip, the uncertainty that surrounds any bullpen arm, whether injury related or not, means his injury does little to affect the rebuild.

2. We knew coming out of the weekend that Carlos Rodon was back in Chicago and expected to rejoin the White Sox rotation this week. On Monday, we got a date as the left-hander will make his season debut Wednesday against the Yankees.

As Ryan Schultz wrote Monday, what Rodon brings the White Sox in the immediacy is innings for a depleted pitching staff. The rotation’s inability to pitch deep into ballgames has taxed a bullpen that has performed far beyond any reasonable expectations given the circumstances, and cracks in their armor were finally seen in Sunday’s loss to the Athletics. Even if the White Sox bring Rodon along slowly — he threw around 90 pitches in his each of his final three rehab starts — his presence will be welcomed relief for the, uh … relief.

More importantly, Rodon’s season debut offers another glimpse at what is hopefully another piece of the White Sox future. Given the patience the White Sox have shown with their plethora of prized prospects — not to mention those prospects’ respective struggles — there has been nary a sign of players expected to make up the core of the White Sox next contender thus far in 2017, save for Tim Anderson. Rodon’s injury was a setback as 2017 was supposed to be the year he turned the corner from potential front end starter to bonafide front end starter, but a solid and pain free final three months of the season will go a long way in offering more hope for the future.

3. As to whose place Rodon will take in the rotation, that is still unknown. The obvious candidate would be Monday’s starter, David Holmberg, who has filled in admirably during the last month despite playing a role in which he’s likely under-qualified.

Holmberg made six starts and never allowed more than three earned runs in any of them. The problem, of course, is that he couldn’t pitch deep into ballgames. Monday’s 5 1/3 inning outing against the Yankees was, in fact, his longest outing of the season and only the second in which he was able to complete five innings.

Still, he did about as well as one could ask given the circumstances. Whether he’s shipped back to Triple-A on Wednesday or kept around as a bullpen piece, he should be given credit for hanging around in a tough situation.

4. Ozzie Guillen was present Saturday for Mark Buehrle’s jersey retirement, and is usually the case at Ozzie Guillen-attended events, he was among the most quote-worthy people in the house.

One of the more interesting subjects he touched on, however, was Avisail Garcia. Guillen mentioned running into Garcia during the Venezuelan Winter League and speaking his mind to him, as Guillen is wont to do.

“I saw him batting seventh and I was all over him,” Guillen said. “I said ‘You should be embarrassed you’re batting seventh in winter league, you have to be third, or fourth. This is winter league.’ When you go to there and you play in the big leagues, it makes it easier. Now he’s picked it up. Hopefully he will keep it up. Hopefully he’ll keep it up and make some money. That’s what we want. Some cash. Take it home.”

Speaking of Garcia, he’s up to fifth in American League All-Star voting for outfielders, ahead of the likes of Mookie Betts and Jose Bautista and a little more than 300,000 votes behind third place George Springer.

I’m hesitant to get too “fanned up” for the White Sox in this space too often, but while the prospect of Garcia representing the White Sox at the All-Star Game is an insane reality I have already come to grips with, the idea of him winning the fan vote and being a starter is within reach. This is the world in which we’re living. Screw it. #VoteAvi.

5. James Fegan interviewed every White Sox pitcher about their first career strikeout for a piece over at The Athletic. It’s worth your time for callbacks to former Braves catcher Javy Lopez and a few guys not remembering all the details of their first strikeout as well as one would think. It’s worth your time.

That piece coupled with Mark Buehrle’s jersey retirement got me wondering who Buehrle’s first career strikeout was. The answer is Jose Hernandez of the Milwaukee Brewers, pitching in relief in the ninth inning of a game the White Sox won 11-5 on July 16, 2000.

Lead Photo Credit: Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports

Robertson isn’t alone in his hot start, although he has more of a track record to suggest it’s meaningful than some other players I’m about to discuss. Behind him, Anthony Swarzak, Tommy Kahnle, and Zach Putnam have combined for 34 Ks against 2 ERs and 3 BBs in 24.67 innings.

Putnam’s start shouldn’t be a surprise at this point. Over the past two seasons he has posted DRAs below 3 mixed between DL stints.  The first 8.67 innings of 2017, in that sense, are the quintessential Putnam experience, as he has a DRA of 0.98 and was just placed on the disabled list with inflammation of the elbow.

Kahnle and Swarzak represent new developments. Swarzak was fringy as a long reliever/spot starter, but is able to dial it up into the mid-to-high 90s in short outings.  While being used in such a capacity he surrendered 10 homers in only 31 innings with the Yankees in 2016, and those issues could still resurface, but a K/BB ratio of 12 does not suggest that his performance to date has been luck driven. And frankly, he has bullied hitters with his fastball in recent outings, with his streak of 18 straight batters retired broken by a weak single on Tuesday night.

Kahnle was acquired for Yency Almonte — which is looking like it might still sting — and was always intriguing if for no other reason than that he throws really, really hard, averaging 97 miles per hour on his fastball last year.  The flaw was obvious, though, given that he walked 20 batters in 27.1 innings while y’know … throwing really hard!

He still hasn’t cracked seven innings this year, but dropping your BB percentage from 16.8 to 3.9 seems like progress.  I’m not going to call him the next Matt Thornton, but there’s no doubt that if he can keep the ball in the zone there’s the very real potential for dominance.

Ironically, with Michael Ynoa hanging in there, Nate Jones is arguably off to the worst start in the bullpen while probably being the best of the bunch. For a rebuilding team, it is weird that the White Sox may profile to have a bunch of really good relievers. But either way, it sure would be nice if they could polish up NRIs like Swarzak into desirable trade commodities to go along with their higher profile chips.

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The game was also Davidson’s first appearance in the lineup since April 18 against the Yankees, as he sat out last Wednesday’s series finale in New York and all three of the White Sox weekend games against the Indians. His lack of playing time, especially when you factor in his hot start at the plate, is puzzling on the surface. Davidson is the exact type of player who could use plate appearances on a rebuilding team. Unlike, say, Cody Asche, Davidson is a bit of an unknown quantity with at least a non-zero chance of being around the next time the White Sox have aspirations of contending.

So why, exactly, isn’t Davidson playing every day? According to manager Rick Renteria, it has nothing to do with matchups, despite his four-day hiatus coinciding with the White Sox facing tough right-handers Masahiro Tanaka, Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, and Danny Salazar.

“It’s not so much the matchup,” Renteria said. “I think we have other guys we want to go ahead and give them the opportunity to face who they are facing today. Matty has shown he can hit anybody. It has nothing to do with it. It has more to do with putting the guys we have right now in a particular situation to experience this particular club.”

I think, at its core, this is an honest assessment. While I don’t believe the White Sox are opting for Asche over Davidson against tougher righties because they believe they have a better chance of winning with Asche in the lineup, nor do I think they view it as “protecting” him, necessarily. But I do think that, while the common thinking with young hitters is: the more at-bats, the better, in terms of development, there is some logical benefit to knowing A) the limits of your players, and B) their mentality.

And while making assumptions about the mental state of others is never wise, Davidson has been pretty open about the fact that he is prone to putting extra pressure on himself.

“I think sometimes you can put a little more pressure on yourself,” Davidson told me during spring training. “But you just try to stay the same and focus on your routine and what you can do.”

There’s also this: Davidson has had a hot 40 plate appearances, but he’s still probably not very good. He is still striking out in nearly half of his plate appearances. So while it would make sense to ride the hot hand, it also makes sense to not completely abandon whatever strategy was designed before the season began. Particularly in a season where the end goal isn’t to maximize your wins.

I’d like to see Davidson in the lineup as much as possible, particularly when the other option is Asche. But maybe …just maybe, the White Sox actually have a plan in mind. Renteria, at the very least, should still be given the benefit of the doubt in that regard for now.

2. Miguel Gonzalez is now on a two-start run of absurdly solid results after going eight innings without an earned run, allowing just two hits and one walk while striking out five. Gonzalez has been pretty pinpoint of late, particularly with his cutter and has kept hitters off balance with his change-up.

Obviously two great starts are just two starts. You can look across the league — or just across the diamond at Jason Vargas’ 0.44 ERA entering Monday’s start — to find mediocre pitchers finding success in small samples. But Gonzalez represents someone who could see his trade value increase quite drastically as we get closer to July and teams find themselves starving for starting pitching depth.

3. As certain as I am that Davidson isn’t going to continue to OPS 1.164, I am equally certain Jose Abreu wasn’t going to continue to OPS below .500 and Monday, he had his second consecutive two-hit day and is 7-for-17 in his last five games. He still only has three extra-base hits on the season, and zero home runs, but he demonstrated last year, when his slugging percentage was in the low .300s around this time, that the power will come with time. He’s not worth worrying about.

Tim Anderson, on the other hand, was at least a little bit worth worrying about after his slow start, and has now hit in six of his last seven games and is 9-for-29 over that span. Maybe I’m being overly cautious because of failed White Sox prospects of yesteryear — Anderson appears to be a different breed — but he’d do a lot to calm my nerves by just continuing to hit for about the next 10-15 years.

4. In the really important injury news department, the White Sox had an update on the status of Carlos Rodon Monday that, well, wasn’t much of an update.

Efforts to get Hahn to weigh in on the matter were declined and met with the same general sentiment: there is no statement on Rodon to give because there is no new information to provide. The Sox are almost avoiding offering a date because they don’t want to give a benchmark that they don’t have full confidence in and spark an unnecessary panic when Rodon doesn’t reach it.

A lack of updates is frustrating, but as James notes, giving updates just for that sake doesn’t serve any purpose. As badly as we all want to know when Rodon is going to get back on the mound, the White Sox history suggests he’ll be out there when he’s ready, whether that’s in a month or two or *sad face emoji* 2018.

5. In more conspicuous but still kinda uncertain injury news, Zach Putnam is still considered day-to-day with a tender elbow, but they still don’t seem to exactly know what is wrong with it.

“We don’t have a lot of concrete information right now,” said Putnam prior to Monday’s series opener with the Royals. “I’m going to do everything in my power to help [White Sox head athletic trainer] Herm [Schneider] and the medical staff avoid any sort of DL stint and any significant time missed, but we’re really day to day right now.

“I’m going to try to give it a day to cool down a little bit, but that doesn’t mean I’m necessarily unavailable. I’m just going to try to save some bullets as best I can.”

Given Putnam’s injury in 2016, as well as the fact that he’s awesome, a fully back-to-form recovery sooner than later would be greatly appreciated.

Lead Photo Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

1. Derek Holland had another strong outing, taking a no hitter into the 6th inning.  Given that his best 3-year run of success was from 2011-2013 and he has lost multiple seasons to injury, it is easy to forget that he’s only 30 and was once quite good.  The outing was an emotional one for the Ohio native, who lost his grandmother this spring and had family in attendance to watch his victory.

Comeback stories are always good, but from a selfish, organizational perspective it would a huge win if Holland can stay healthy and effective. It would mean he had covered much needed innings for the first half of the season and could potentially yield something meaningful at the deadline.  For a rebuilding team that’s pretty much a best case scenario for a 1-year signing.

2. Center field may be a problem.  Batting average isn’t everything, but it’s hard to ignore it when it’s zero.  Jacob May got the day off last night in favor of Leury Garcia.  One imagines that the plan was for these two to cover center until Charlie Tilson came back, but it’s still unclear how long that is going to take.  And even though wins and losses are a secondary concern this year, there are limits to what a team can tolerate in good faith for the sake of its fans and the other players on the roster.

It’s still early, but even before his 0-for-17 start there was reason to doubt that May was ready for the majors.  And as much as I’d like to see Garcia get regular at bats now that he’s conquered AAA, being a full-time center fielder might be too much to ask.  Unfortunately, short of going outside the organization, their options are rather limited.  Charlotte offers Adam Engel–who, outside of one great Arizona Fall League appearance–has never really hit at all, despite being old for every level, and Jason Bourgeois, a 35-year-old who has not played in the majors since 2015.

Here’s hoping it doesn’t come to that.

3. Geovany Soto was scratched yesterday with a sore right elbow and is headed to the 10-day DL, with Kevan Smith getting a shot at a few more big league games. This illustrates some of the potential logic behind Soto getting more starts than one might have anticipated to this point.  Sure, Omar Narvaez is the player who will be with the organization after this year, but you don’t want him catching 140+ games, and Soto is so injury prone you might as well use him while he’s healthy.  Narvaez will still get plenty of reps.

UPDATE: Immediately after this piece ran, it was announced that Soto’s right elbow inflammation was sufficient to place him on the disabled list, and Kevan Smith has been called up to take his place.  Smith, as you’ll recall, was one of the many rookies last year who was injured immediately, indeed, injuring his back before he could even make his debut.  Smith is listed at 6’4″ and he was a two-sport athlete in college. There’s still a chance there’s a backup catcher in here.

So far this year he has mashed at AAA to the tune of .438/.500/.562 in very limited action.

4. Avisail Garcia and Matt Davidson can both still boast an OPS over 1.000.  Their track records and identical 1:7 BB:K ratios throw cold water on any undue enthusiasm, but a good start is a good start.  Davidson has languished for so long in AAA after his Top 100 Prospect ascent to the majors in 2013 with the Diamondbacks.  He has alluded to putting too much pressure on himself before, so one hopes that hitting the ground running (and ideally not breaking his foot) can allow him to recover some of his old prospect shine.  After all, the criticism on him coming up was that it didn’t look like he could handle third defensively, meaning his bat would have to move to 1B/DH where it was much less impressive.  Davidson then improved his defense to the point where it could play at third and his bat promptly imploded.  Perhaps it isn’t too late to get his bat on track to pair with a serviceable glove at the hot corner.

5. Anthony Swarzak made his White Sox debut last night and posted two strikeouts in one perfect inning.  Swarzak, Zach Putnam, and David Robertson have combined for 10.33 scoreless innings this year, striking out 16 and walking none.  Yet another area to monitor for potential trade assets at the deadline, and another way in which the White Sox still do not wholly resemble a “tanking” roster.

Lead Photo Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

While last Thursday’s win in his season debut saw Shields generate 13 swinging strikes, and all five of his strikeouts were of the swinging variety, Tuesday was a different story, as three of his six strikeouts were looking.

As Shields’ stuff diminishes, the key to him finding success will be in deception, something he did on Tuesday and talked about after the game.

“I’m trying to mix up speeds a little bit,” Shields said, “Create some new stuff. I’ve done this a long time, and every year I have to reinvent myself, change speeds and change locations, so we’ll see how it goes.”

There’s a fine line between scooting by and being unusable — the latter is what we saw a year ago — but through two starts there are signs that Shields’ approach should do well enough for him to eat innings and hopefully repair his value that diminished so rapidly in 2016.

2. Todd Frazier got off to a worrisome start to the season, but while his swing was generating an absurd number of pop-ups and weak contact early on, he had been seeing the ball well at the plate, as evidence by the four walks and two strikeouts through the first five games.

Tuesday, hopefully, provided a payoff for him at the plate, as he cracked his first two extra-base hits of the season, including a long solo home run that provided the White Sox their only run on the afternoon.

Frazier’s 2016 as well as the White Sox own history with aging sluggers provides some level of worry that this would be the season he plummeted to an unplayable, or at least un-tradable level. But if he continues to see the ball well and the solid contact we saw on Tuesday becomes more of the norm, those worries would hopefully be put to rest.

3. The White Sox bullpen is and will continue to be one of the few bright spots in a rebuilding season, but Tuesday was not its finest day, as Dan Jennings, Nate Jones, and Tommy Kahnle combined to walk five with Kahnle eventually taking the loss on Michael Brantley’s walk-off double.

The performance was hardly one to signal any sort of long-term worry, and for their parts, Zach Putnam and David Robertson looked downright un-hittable in their 2.2 combined innings of work. On a day when the White Sox stranded eight Indians, and induced two bases loaded double plays off the bat of Edwin Encarnacion, taking a loss because their injury-replacement reliever got beat by a good hitter on a good pitch isn’t the worst result in the world.

4. Geovany Soto got the start behind the plate on Tuesday, and has now started four of the White Sox’ six games this season. Similarly, Cody Asche has started four times to just two by Matt Davidson.

It would be foolish to draw any sweeping conclusions about lineups just six games into the season, but one does have to at least wonder what Rick Renteria’s long-term plan is for playing time at those two positions. Neither Davidson nor Omar Narvaez have much more than a fleeting chance to be solid, regular contributors in the majors in the long run, but in Soto, even with his early-season power surge, and Asche, who has one hit to his credit, the White Sox know what they have.

I guess what I’m saying is, let the kids play!

5. Our own Nick Schaefer hosted a chat over on the main site on Tuesday and if you missed out, you’re a failure of a human being. However, the good news is that you can read the entire transcript here.

Lead Photo Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

Sardonicism aside, there is plenty to analyze after a 2-3 opening week that saw a split of an abbreviated series with Detroit followed by losing two of three to Minnesota.

1. Garcia’s hot opening week was highlighted by Saturday’s offensive performance, when we went 3-for-4 with an RBI triple and two-run homer, finishing a double shy of the cycle.

Suffice it to say it’s going to take a streak considerably longer before we start to believe Garcia has “figured it out” at the plate. In searching back through five game samples in 2016 in which Garcia posted a batting average above .400, it took only to the end of April to find such an occasion. 1,500 career plate appearances say Garcia is what he is, still, any sign of life is welcomed for however long it lasts.

Soto has appeared in four of the first five games of the season and has three hits, it just so happens that all have left the park. It’s curious that he’s started three of those games over the still hitless Omar Narvaez, suggesting the catching position could be more of a time share than the presumption that Narvaez would start and Soto would back up.

Joining Garcia and Soto in the “good start” department is Jose Abreu, who is 6-for-20 but with just one extra-base hit. Likewise, Tyler Saladino, before getting Sunday off, has done about as well as one could have reasonably hoped as the newly installed leadoff hitter, going 4-for-13 with, more importantly, four walks against one strikeout.

2. On the flip side, Frazier is 1-for-17, although the four walks against two strikeouts signal he hasn’t completely lost his eye at the plate. His inability to take advantage of mistakes isn’t yet troubling, but is at least worth keeping an eye on.

Tim Anderson has seven strikeouts in his first 22 at-bats, although he’s looked more than fine defensively, and Jacob May is hitless in 12 at-bats, although he has drawn a walk and, strangely, already has two RBIs to his credit.

3. One week sample sizes mean we get to say things like “Jose Quintana has allowed eight of the 15 earned runs charged to White Sox pitchers this season,” which is both funny and sad, but Quintana put to rest concerns from his first outing with 6.1 solid innings in Sunday’s loss to Minnesota.

Quintana was able to blow hitters away with the high fastball — five of his seven strikeouts came swinging against it — and the only two mistakes he made were pitches where he missed in the strike zone, resulting in an RBI single by Joe Mauer and solo home run by Jorge Polanco.

While Quintana is a known quantity and Carlos Rodon’s debut has been delayed, the rest of the staff is filled with unknown commodities, and the trio of James Shields, Derek Holland, and Miguel Gonzalez showed promise in the first turn through the rotation.

We discussed Shields on Friday, and Gonzalez provided a lot of what we grew familiar with a year ago, but Holland was particularly impressive, saying after the game that “everything” was working. He did, in fact, find success with all five of his offerings (although he only threw his curveball seven times, per Brooks Baseball).

There’s a lot of uncertainty in the White Sox rotation, as well as the depth if and when injuries and trades happen. But so far, so good.

4. Lost in the talk of David Robertson and Nate Jones’ trade values is the fact that Zach Putnam is pretty awesome.

The fact that Putnam struck out six in 4.2 innings during his three appearances last week shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. He struck out 11.8 batters per nine in his last full season in 2015, and was on his way to similar numbers a year ago before injuries cut his season short.

Putnam is as good as or better than the third option in most bullpens, and combined with Jones and Robertson gives the White Sox a better 7-8-9 combination than most rebuilding teams. His name hasn’t been mentioned much as a potential trade option, but at 29 years old would have to be considered as someone who could fetch a reasonable return with a solid first half.

5. Prospect Watch 2017 is something not likely to go away anytime soon, and for those eagerly following the successes and failures of the folks littering the rosters in Charlotte, Birmingham, Winston-Salem, and beyond, the weekend openers provided a source of excitement.

Yoan Moncada has 11 hits in his first 20 at-bats in Charlotte, including a home run. He also has six strikeouts. Reynaldo Lopez only went three innings in his first start, walking three and allowing two earned runs, but also striking out five. Afterward, he commented on how damn cold it was. Lucas Giolito fared similarly, lasting 4.1 innings and giving up four earned runs, but striking out four and walking zero.

Michael Kopech’s debut with Birmingham was probably the most fascinating among the pitchers. He recorded just 13 outs, going 4.1 innings and allowing two earned runs, but 10 of the 13 outs he recorded were via the strikeout. Zach Collins, in Winston-Salem, has four hits in 11 at-bats, but has also already drawn six walks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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However, sometimes excuses really are pathetic.

Hawk’s asinine gripes about the schedule aside, when it became clear that the 2016 season was irretrievably tipping from surprise success to familiar and foreseeable failure, other excuses cropped up. “Well, Austin Jackson got hurt, and what were they supposed to do without Zach Putnam and Jake Petricka?” or something along those lines.

And sure, J.B. Shuck is a downgrade from Jackson, and the replacement-level guys who slotted in to middle relief in the wake of Putnam and Petricka were generally very bad. But even I–the biggest Zach Putnam fan in the world, who got in on the ground floor–would never argue that these losses are anywhere close to those of several playoff teams.

For example, the Indians can’t exactly paper over mistakes with money.  Cleveland is an interesting comparison for the White Sox in that sense, as well as the fact that they projected to have problems scoring runs, and that the main strength of the team was a cost-controlled stable of quality starting pitchers.

Cleveland has already won 90 games. They did this despite only getting 43 horrible PAs from Michael Brantley, instead of the .319/.382/.494 line over 635 PAs per year they did the two years before. What’s more, they won’t get more than 150 innings out of either Carlos Carrasco or Danny Salazar. Yan Gomes had an OPS of .529 for ~250 PAs in between injuries.

The Mets are another offensively-challenged squad with financial limitations and a roster built around potent starting pitching.  As of this drafting, they have a pretty good grip on the first Wild Card slot in the National League. Matt Harvey, Steven Matz, Jake deGrom, David Wright, Neil Walker…all of them lost for significant chunks of the season to injury.

These teams illustrate the failings of the White Sox more so than, say, the Dodgers, who can burn through hundreds of millions of dollars of brittle pitchers without blinking. And while the Mets are in the National League and get to play a lot more games against the worst teams in the majors, they and Cleveland lost a lot more really, really great players to injury than the White Sox did and succeeded anyway, despite being situated very similarly.

There are myriad reasons for that. The Mets spent in the offseason to retain an elite bat and brought in potential stopgaps like Kelly Johnson, James Loney, and (ugh) Jose Reyes when problems arose. They also opted for one of the best defensive catchers in the majors as the primary backup, especially with regard to framing, in the form of Rene Rivera.

Cleveland succeeded by actually hitting with the cheap free agents they signed, such as Mike Napoli, Rajai Davis, and even, to an extent, Marlon Byrd. They added Abraham Almonte for the modest price of an aging lefty specialist. And, they got Tyler Naquin with their 2012 first round pick instead of Courtney Hawkins.

There are a lot of reasons why the White Sox failed in 2016.  Looking at how other organizations solved the same problems with similar resources helps put in perspective that although these problems are significant, they are not insurmountable with competence and creativity.

And keep that in mind if the organization tries to deflect blame for their mistakes on the losses of some pretty fungible players.

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