With all of these caveats in mind, it is a good thing that Carson Fulmer pitched two successful innings against what is basically the Dodgers’ A lineup minus the injured Adrian Gonzalez.  It is a positive that Miguel Gonzalez is able to come out of the gates healthy, and that Zack Burdi pitched a 1-2-3 inning in his first appearance of the year.  But really, the biggest positive of all is that the days are getting longer again, and we are that much closer to real baseball.

Odds & Ends:

• The front office unequivocally named Charlie Tilson as first in line for the center field job.  Not long after, Tilson experienced a setback in his recovery from his massive hamstring injury, and although the timetable doesn’t impact his Opening Day readiness on its face, it casts doubt on how much playing time can be expected from him.  Now center field is as chaotic a spot on the roster as ever.  Peter Bourjos got the start in game one, but came off the bench in favor of Jacob May against Colorado.  If you’re looking for something to follow from day-to-day, this could be of some interest should Tilson’s recovery further stall.
• Brett Lawrie is still making sure he is 100% before returning to full duty.  Lawrie has an extensive injury history, and what sounded like a minor issue last year wound up cascading and wiping out the bulk of his season.  Unlike the outfield, however, unless and until some more trades happen, the infield picture is quite clear, as the White Sox actually have credible fallback options on the dirt in case of injury.  The biggest hope here is that Lawrie gets himself healthy and mashes out of the gates in order to boost his trade value.
• David Robertson has also already thrown an inning without issue.  Even more than Lawrie, the White Sox stand to benefit significantly if he can demonstrate to potential trade partners that he has recovered from his knee injury and is still the quality reliever he has been for years.
• After months of talking about the inevitability of a Jose Quintana trade, it was somehow jarring to tune in on Sunday and see Quintana take the mound in a White Sox uniform.  While the organization’s strategy is now clear, there are myriad ways that 2017 could play out.  Not a lot of scorched earth rebuilding teams have a pitcher of Quintana’s caliber to run out there every fifth day.  Given the rest of the roster, he may have a lot more hard luck losses and no decisions in his future until he gets dealt to a contender.

Despite the risk of building a future on pitching prospects being widely known, it often falls to the back of our minds. The flashy stuff, high velocity, and success seen in the minors distract us from the harsh possibilities that come with pitching prospects. This is of special interest to the White Sox, who recently saw an influx of pitching talent into the farm system.

Lucas Giolito has already undergone Tommy John surgery once before. Michael Kopech and Reynaldo Lopez both have electric arms but somewhat erratic deliveries that could potentially lead to injury. Carson Fulmer‘s similarly unorthodox delivery puts him at risk, while Alec Hansen and Zack Burdi aren’t immune, either.

This is not to say that the White Sox are doomed for failure because all of their pitchers will suddenly fall apart at some point. However, the injury to Reyes, before he even made a significant impact on the Cardinals, reminds us of one of the worst possible scenarios in the White Sox rebuild. Each of the pitchers at the top of the White Sox farm system carries a level of risk in terms of starting or relieving. In a similar, but much more frightening way, each of the top pitching prospects in the White Sox system carries a significant injury risk.

What this means is that the White Sox rebuild could quickly and easily be derailed by one or more of the top prospects going down to injury for a year or more at a time. Not only could it leave the White Sox without an important pitcher for more than a year, but there is no guarantee that a pitcher returning from Tommy John surgery or a similar injury will be the same pitcher he was before the injury.

The Mets, coming off a World Series appearance, appeared to be primed to have a similarly great season in 2016. Instead, they saw every single one of their pitchers (minus Bartolo Colon) fall to injury at some point during the season. The injury to Harvey was the most severe, but the injuries to Steven Matz and Noah Syndergaard hurt the team’s record and brought about concerns for the future. The Mets staff was built for success and filled with incredible arms. And yet, they quickly saw it fall to pieces.

Indeed, the Mets currently boast the best example of how Tommy John surgery is not a guarantee once the requisite recovery time is completed.  Zack Wheeler has now missed two full seasons and what he will look like when–or if–he ever returns is very much in question.

A glimmer of hope does remain, however. The White Sox greatest success in the past five seasons has been drafting and developing pitchers while also keeping them relatively healthy. Through the 2016 season, the White Sox two best pitchers were Jose Quintana and Chris Sale. Neither has experienced a serious, arm-related injury since moving into the White Sox’ rotation.

Have the White Sox found the magical solution to pitcher injuries? Absolutely not. They’ve still seen Nate Jones and Zach Putnam, among others, go down to severe arm injuries. What it does mean is that the White Sox have either gotten extremely lucky or found a way to, at the very least, combat and slow down the process and possibility of pitcher injuries. If the former is true, they might be due for some bad luck. If the latter is true, the White Sox have slightly less to worry about. Regardless, the Reyes injury was a bleak reminder of the reality of building a future around young arms. As a White Sox fan, that’s a troubling wrinkle in the process of the rebuild.

Lead Photo Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports Images

RHP Spencer Adams - I wonder if Adams is a bit miffed that right when he was about to be the top White Sox pitching prospect they went out and added almost half a dozen better guys. Probably not! But I’m a petty man. Adams struggled a bit with Double-A last season but maintains the advantage of only being 20 years old. He will repeat the year at the level.

RHP Zack Burdi - Burdi is the second-hardest throwing pitcher in the Sox system and seemed on the fast track to the majors by season’s end only to not get the call. He shouldn’t start the season in the majors (game that service time clock), but it will be fun watching his heat against big leaguers this Spring.

RHP Michael Kopech - Kopech stole Burdi’s velocity crown and is running away with it. He hit 110 MPH (on an outfield throw) this winter and the Sox will give him a long leash towards becoming a starter.

LHP Aaron Bummer - Aaron Bummer has a horribly unfortunate last name for a professional athlete and will have my eternal pity for it. Bummer is 23 and has appeared in four games above Rookie Ball.

LHP Brian Clark - Clark was shifted completely into a relief role for Birmingham and Charlotte last season. He did very well for the Barons and somewhat less so for the Knights. If he improves this season, he’ll likely ride the reliever rotisserie up to the bigs at some point.

LHP Jace Fry - A former 2014 third-round pick, Fry pitched 52 acceptable innings as a 21-year-old in Winston-Salem in 2015 before undergoing the second Tommy John surgery his young life. Major league Spring Training seems a little heavy for his first action since the injury, but the Sox must still have a lot of interest in him.

LHP Matt Purke - If you watched the 2016 White Sox, you may know who Matt Purke is. If not, he is a bespectacled man from Nagodoches, TX who has the golden trait of being left-handed. If he wasn’t, you wouldn’t know his name. Five years ago, he cracked the back end of BP’s top-100 prospect list, but it is not five years ago.

C Zack Collins - The Sox first round draft pick last year, who they are praying will beat the odds and stick at catcher. His bat has been fairly legit thus far, so there’s a chance he could still have some value even if he is inevitably moved down the defensive spectrum.

INF Nicky Delmonico - Delmonico was once traded for Francisco Rodriguez and no one can ever take that fact away from him. He’s a left-handed corner man without too much power.

INF Danny Hayes - Not to be confused with CSN’s own Dan Hayes, Danny Hayes is a left-handed DH with decent gap power and a good eye at the plate. He probably won’t hit enough in the majors to be a regular DH, but could maybe stick as a bench bat.

OF Courtney Hawkins - The former top-100 prospect and first round draft pick repeated Double-A last season to increasingly poor results (.604 OPS, 137:28 K:BB). He’s still only 22-years-old, but he’s running out of chances to impress.

INF Cody Asche - A 3B/LF in that he can sort of play both positions; although rather poorly. A left-handed hitter who for most of his career had dwelt just below league-average, the Phillies cut him loose after he only managed a .635 OPS last season. A definite bench possibility on this roster.

INF Everth Cabrera - It was somehow only four years ago that Cabrera was an All-Star shortstop for the San Diego Padres, stealing 81 bases in 97 attempts from 2012-13. A PED suspension and a wealth of off the field incidents resulted in a precipitous decline and him being completely out of affiliated baseball last season. This may be his last chance.

LHP David Holmberg - There was a time that Holmberg looked like he could wind up being someone the Sox would regret including in the Edwin Jackson trade. That time was 2013. Holmberg got hit very hard over parts of three seasons in the majors and wound up back in Charlotte last season to rather ho-hum results. Somehow he’s still only 25-years-old.

LHP Cory Luebke - Another former Padre, Luebke had a decent run from 2010-12 when he threw 188.1 innings with an ERA+ of 111 and a K:BB of 3.36. He then had more Tommy John surgeries than he has UCLs in his pitching arm (one in 2012 and another in 2014) and has been working his way back since. If healthy, he could be a useful enough piece.

C Geovany Soto - Soto took his impossibly manicured eyebrows and inability to throw the ball back to the pitcher without falling down to Los Angeles last season, and did pretty well over 26 games before a knee injury effectively ended his season. Soto won’t be anything more than a backup, but he at least knows some of the pitching staff.

C Roberto Pena - Pena last played for the Houston Astros Double-A and Triple-A affiliates in 2016 as a punchless catcher. A .245 slugging percentage in the PCL is not going to get you into the majors no matter how good you are defensively.

RHP Anthony Swarzak - You’d be forgiven for not remembering Swarzak from his three years with the Twins when they were winning less than 70 games a season. He had a good season as a long man in 2013 before slipping back into mediocrity.

RHP Blake Smith - Smith pulled a reverse-Rick Ankiel and went from a failed-power hitting outfielder to power-throwing pitcher. So far the results have been interesting. He’s got a lot less mileage on his arm than most pitchers in their late 20’s and could amount to a bottom of the bullpen guy if he develops some control.

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

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.

Lead Image Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki // USA Today Sports Images

Hawk is outspoken on the value of the bullpen, which can make him seem somewhat sage now near the crest of the run on elite relievers. During Sunday’s rout at the hands of the Royals, Hawk opined that the White Sox might need to offer Chris Sale or Jose Quintana in order to shake loose elite relief help from the trade market.

Hawk very clearly did not say the Sox should offer Sale or Quintana, and his statement opened him up to the criticism that often befalls someone whose credibility is already under fire: purposeful hyperbole is quoted as genuine lunacy.

The message is thus: seeking high relief help could be distressingly costly, and for a team that lacks surplus prospect depth, major league talent, cash reserves, force of will, etc., it could be downright exclusionary. In a rare and unprecedented BP South Side move, let’s accept the Sox apparently severe payroll restrictions as a necessary limitation to doing business rather than a cynical protection of a minimum profit line.

If we didn’t already know, the last few years have hit home that bullpen supremacy is important, elite relievers have huge value, and constructing a relief corps is more demanding than assembling a pack of live arms, throwing them at the wall and rostering the seven that stick. However, the Sox are in a position where it doesn’t behoove them to commit what slim resources they have to bolstering their pen, and they might need to resort to traditional saber-style dumpster diving. Which could be fine, because they’re not starting too poor to begin with.

The Sox bullpen is sixth in the AL in ERA and 10th in FIP, which is not helped by them issuing 20 intentional walks. They have allowed a second-worst in the league 34 percent of inherited runners to score. They have been below-average, perhaps even just outright bad, but not hopelessly awful. They’ve also been little-used, throwing 433.2 innings, and are probably the disaster of James Shields away from throwing the fewest innings in the American League, since no one pushes their starters longer year after year than the White Sox.

So while keeping the bullpen half-stocked with rookies is currently not the greatest of looks, we need to start thinking about the core.

Said core starts with Nate Jones, a legit top-30 reliever in the game. It would be the mark of a better bullpen to have him as a No. 2 guy, and the Sox treat him as a No. 2 guy, but the raw outcome of that arrangement is he’s the one guy Robin has floated around based on leverage, and as a result has been hugely valuable. We might be discussing where Zach Putnam ranks–since he stabilized his walk rate and kept striking out over 26 percent of hitters this season with his heavy splitter–if he had not gone down with ulnar neuritis. Instead it’s relevant to mention that he hasn’t made it through 60 innings since arriving in Chicago, and weighing whether it’s any less risky to count him among the Sox core than David Robertson.

Beyond the big contract and all the blown saves, Robertson looks pretty clearly like someone who would be handed high-leverage innings in 2017, even if it’s not from the top job. His strikeout rate remains exceptional (26.7 percent), even if down from his peak, his home run rate is non-insane despite famously giving up three solo shots in an inning, and he hasn’t lost velocity. Any decline from a reliever at age 31 like Robertson’s walk spike is worrisome, but as Cat Garcia pointed out, he’s had this exact type of down year in the past and recovered, and his decline matched with his contract means the Sox are under water with him anyway and might as well let him pitch his way out.

One of the reasons the Sox are motivated to do something now to compete, is they mortgaged their 2015 draft for the sake of Robertson and Melky Cabrera, and spent much of their early selection on plus stuff, volatile college arms that have left them as flush with immediate relief options such as Zack Burdi, or Carson Fulmer (though he’ll likely spend 2017 dedicated to trying to be a starter) as actual future core pieces. They can at least lean on that strength if Burdi is immediately productive. He’ll be 22 next Spring and has miles to come with his command, but throws extremely hard with electric stuff, and is a lot less worrisome if he’s the fourth-best guy, or fifth-best if Dan Jennings‘ striking out nearly a batter per inning in the second half is reflective of some stabilization.

Jennings will stop looking like someone to carve a spot for if his home run rate ever falls back to the pack, but at this point has given up just 10 in 215.1 major league innings. What he doesn’t offer is any noticeable platoon split, so without any great setup man potential, he doesn’t serve any specific purpose even though he’s pitched well enough down the stretch to deserve a spot. Zach Duke finally solved the Sox LOOGY needs in his second year, and they traded him, and now have to likely find a solution on the free agent market all over again. A Boone Logan reunion would be a nice fit, but trying to patch up Marc Rzepczynski would be less expensive.

The last spot in the pen obviously has a lower bar to clear, even if I remain partial to a healthy Jake Petricka, who at his best throws low-to-mid 90s with heavy sink and boasts a 60+ percent groundball rate. Making him, Chris Beck, Michael Ynoa and Juan Minaya compete for one spot is less troubling than watching them all at once.

The end result is:

Closer: Robertson

Set up: Jones, Putnam

Middle: Burdi, Jennings

LOOGY: Find someone because the prospect depth is not there

Final spot: Mediocre reliever jambalaya

That’s probably not great, or even above-average, but there’s some upside for it at least, and it’s not nearly as sodden with holes as the current look of the Sox bullpen would have many believe. The primary differences here are Burdi and the return of Putnam, which may not seem world-changing, but represent a lot more that the Sox can draw from within to fix this unit than they can with their offense. As is always the case, almost all the Sox resources need to go to scoring more runs.

Lead Image Credit: David Banks // USA Today Sports Images

But the reasons to hold them back are also pretty clear. Burdi has already had a full season (68 innings between the pros and college) of work, and without any reason beyond aesthetics to upgrade the bullpen at this point, the value of testing the 2016 first-round pick has been outweighed by concern about an unnecessarily high workload. It would have been nice to have him up, but Burdi’s command development didn’t really enable that anyway. Maybe just start using Michael Ynoa as if he were Burdi down the stretch and see where it leads.

Fulmer is a more peculiar case, since the Sox sent him down on the explicit premise of stretching him out for September starts just three weeks ago. Getting torched in his Triple-A debut might have crippled enthusiasm for such a move, and even though his last two outings were scoreless, he had yet to show a dominance of the level, nor did he look close to being ready for multiple trips through major league batting orders when he was last in the majors.

A more conspiratorial view is that Fulmer is being maintained as a trade asset and an informative but brutal test drive as a major league starter would dampen his value, or that a rough final month would be damaging for those in the organization that want to keep Fulmer out of the bullpen long-term. Either way, the accelerated timeline push for Fulmer lost a coherent direction in 2016 once he began to struggle.

Holding back Fulmer certainly does not become more inspiring given what is going to go down instead. Despite an unimaginably awful stretch with the White Sox that has made him by far the worst qualified starter in the majors, James Shields is reportedly going to make his next start after an MRI on his ailing back came back clean. Shields has beating his head against the wall to no positive effect since arriving in Chicago, seen his velocity dip and strikeout rate plummet, and looks like the type of guy for whom any reason to shut him down for 2016 would be worth it, even as the Sox try to work him back to usability for the remaining two years on his deal.

Instead Shields will shake off back stiffness and keep pitching, and continue a start streak he still wants to maintain, even though it’s never been challenged with long-term terribleness in this way. In sum, the Sox treatment of Shields fit the colloquial definition of insanity a while ago, and now they are pushing past injury concerns so that he can make a last ditch effort at 50 home runs allowed in a single season. Obviously they have to keep him and try to recoup some value, but we’ve yet to see any sign that this is helping. This is not some normal decision sticking with a struggling starter in hopes of a turnaround, this is sticking with someone who has been clearly helpless for months.

Actually earning a September call-up was 28-year-old Blake Smith, a former outfielder and Dodgers second-round pick turned yeoman Triple-A reliever. He’s had a solid last year and a half with the Charlotte Knights, holding a 3.46 ERA with 117 strikeouts in 101.1 innings, and has certainly earned the happy ending that a call-up provides to his nice story of determination. As a prospect, he doesn’t provide much upper-end potential to dream on.

Leury Garcia‘s call-up probably gets few eyerolls given how raw his bat was in all of his entirely premature major league cameos of the past, but he’s a 25 year-old (four months younger than Micah Johnson) who can play center and the up the middle positions in the infield, and hit .313/.367/.426 this year in Charlotte with a 18.7 percent strikeout rate. What Leury’s career looks like if anyone cares about his development between 2013-2014 is at least a mild curiosity. The Sox did just go with an all-glove centerfielder as their Opening Day starter in 2016, wouldn’t they love to spend even less on one in 2017?

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

1. Jon Heyman’s report on the White Sox being unlikely and unwilling to kickstart a rebuild or reloading of their farm system by trading Chris Sale or Jose Quintana, has three very typical elements of any update on Sox operations.

–A refusal to do something radical or franchise re-shaping.

–Assurance that the owner whose tenure has been marked by mid-level teams exceptionally wary of both free agency and amateur spending, “really wants to win.”

–A really bizarre choice of an outside player to zero in on.

It’s unsurprising the Sox do not want to break up their core. As we have stated this week on our podcast and in our writing, they should not be seeking a rebuild at this time when they are so close to having a functional roster. Why on Earth the Sox are pondering moving trade pieces so valuable they are lacking in comparable cases from the last 15 years, and Jackie Bradley Jr.–the lowest-ceiling member of the Red Sox cluster of young outfield studs, who is currently going through a second half slide that is making everyone question just how trustworthy his bat is–that is the player they are staking their decision on whether or not to rebuild on, is simply beyond all of us.

Perhaps it doesn’t matter how you make your way to the right decision.

2. A Chicago Tribune report from contract documents of the naming rights deal reached to change U.S. Cellular Field to Guaranteed Rate Field next season, shows the White Sox will not receive any new revenue from the deal.

I just want to say that yours truly, the Chicago Sky, the Philadelphia 76ers, Al’s Italian Beef, character actress Margo Martindale, Richard M. Daley*, my downstairs neighbor, the estate of the dog that played Air Bud, and countless other entities who, like the White Sox, do not own U.S. Cellular Field nor pay for its upkeep, will also not be receiving any new revenue from the naming rights deal. We’re all very upset, and exploring our legal options.

*As far as I know.

3. Juan Minaya and Kevan Smith comprised the first crop of September call-ups for the Sox, with Minaya even making his major league debut Thursday night. These are about as logical selections as it gets: spare bullpen arm and a third catcher.

Save for Zack Burdi, of course, the 25-year-old Minaya was the last guy left in the Charlotte bullpen with stats that would suggest he’s projectable, with a 3.38 ERA and 28 strikeouts to 10 walks in 26.2 innings. Smith, who tweaked his back warming for his major league debut in late-April and didn’t return to regular action until July 15, has not been much for hitting since then, collecting a .199/.271/.371 line in 40 games.

Charlotte still has games scheduled through the weekend (Carson Fulmer is the scheduled starter Friday night) so there’s still time for more players to get the call, but Burdi has now appeared in 51 games and thrown 65 innings in 2016. He might not need to add to it, even if shutting him down precludes the Sox from fulfilling the fundamental role of September call-ups: providing someone exciting to break the monotony of watching a bad team wind into the abyss.

4. The White Sox, clearly lacking the budget of other would-be competitors, had to find ways to be aggressive. One of the ways they chose early on, was to cut bait on unproductive veterans when it was clear they were unlikely to help. Jimmy Rollins got involuntarily retired, Mat Latos got put on the waiver wire, and beloved clubhouse veteran John Danks was sent packing even though he was owed over $10 million. It seemed brutally efficient at the time, but since then the Sox efforts to compete have been revealed to be farcical, and James Shields has been such a disaster that his metrics go blow-for-blow with the lefty the Sox.

Shields has a 7.19 FIP while Danks had a 6.06, he has a 122 cFIP for the season, including his decent beginning in San Diego, while Danks was only at 124, and both have been better than Anthony Ranaudo, who the Sox have been reduced  to using until Miguel Gonzalez returns. Remember that Danks made just four starts in 2016. In a rare move, the Sox pushed aside sentiment for a clear-eyed assessment that his stuff had deteriorated beyond what was acceptable, and then their scouting botched the Shields trade and they wound up even worse off. And we wonder where they get their bad habits from.

5. Quintana, a fringe Cy Young case without name brand recognition, who has a bad Win-Loss record and needed something dramatic like a wide ERA lead to make any kind of case, raised his ERA by .28 in one night and now is behind much more likely cases such as Cole Hamels.

The White Sox haven’t won an MVP or Cy Young award since BP South Side’s favorite 21-year-old Ethan Spalding was born, and this is pretty standard for how things go.

While the Sox pitching development has earned much benefit of the doubt, and rushed many an arm to the majors that surprised everyone with its precociousness, Cassidy was skeptical. Burdi has had a fastball ready for high-leverage major league innings for years now, and solid secondaries, but Cassidy felt the command was not developed enough yet.

Enough to help, that is.

In the wonderful world of a month ago, the Sox were still ostensibly trying to win in 2016, and the arrival of a rookie to the bullpen had to be weighed on the merits of their ability to improve the team, and how it compared to the impact and cost of looking to acquire a more veteran arm.

Now, those complicated times are gone. The Sox’ playoff hopes have met their maker, and what little ambiguity the front office left about that in their words has been completely borne out in their actions. Now, the standards for judging Burdi’s arrival have changed, as has our level of mystery about its imminence.

Was just told Zach Burdi is getting called up this week after one more appearance in Charlotte #whitesox

— whitesoxdave (@barstoolWSD) August 14, 2016

Hearing rumor that #WhiteSox prospect Zack Burdi will get the call to the majors after one more appearance at Triple-A Charlotte.

— Jesse Burkhart (@jesseburkhart) August 16, 2016

Obviously this is not an official announcement, but Dave Williams and FanRag have both been accurate this year.

Burdi’s work since becoming a professional has not been without flaws nor lapses of control, but he’s remained overpowering despite being aggressively challenged.  He struck out 24 of the 64 hitters he faced (37.5 percent) in Double-A as a 21-year-old, and despite being promoted to Triple-A near the end of the stretch, Burdi has not allowed a hit to any of the last 39 hitters he’s faced (though he’s walked five).

Like Carlos Rodon last year, there’s only so much development that can take place at the lower levels of competition when a pitcher has stuff that is simply overwhelming to his competition. Whatever command Burdi is able to add is not going be any easier to achieve at a level where no one can touch his fastball, even when he splits the plate with it.

Unlike Rodon, Burdi will be joining the majors to pitch in relief, will very likely be auditioning for a relief role in 2017, and is less encumbered by trying to serve to dual roles of developing his third pitch while also fighting for survival against elite competition, and the prospect of him working with directly with Don Cooper should only cause so much concern about his development in the first place.

The initial results will likely be rough, and the young right-hander will probably get the most intense taste of baseball failure of his life, but the Sox are positioned to endure it without consequence. There are plenty of rookies already in the Sox bullpen, and even a fair share of DFA candidates in a group that doesn’t have anything beyond David Robertson, Nate Jones and Carson Fulmer that is indispensable.  Making room should not be an issue.

It’s certainly fast, it’s certainly another White Sox rush job of a vaunted prospect, but there are enough issues coming to the South side in the next few months that will merit concern and scrutiny, and we needn’t waste any of it on Zack Burdi.

Lead Image Credit: Jamie Rhodes // USA Today Sports Images

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