ATLANTA — It’s been an up-and-down road trip for the White Sox pitching staff.
A powerhouse start gone to waste in Kansas City. The team’s Opening Day starter getting sent down to Triple-A Charlotte. An offensive onslaught in Atlanta that should’ve been a cakewalk, until a suddenly leaky bullpen got involved.
They’re the latest on the list of growing pains for an organization that has seen some of its top prospects hit bumps in the minors. But it’s all part of the long rebuilding process, general manager Chris Getz said.
“I would still say we are in a pretty good spot. You look at some of the starters we’ve had up here and the innings they have taken as young players — that’s a real positive,” Getz said. “Our bullpen has really settled in. It has improved the last six to eight weeks, which is a strong indication of both depth being able to identify which guys are better in certain areas of the game.”
It didn’t look like it Monday night as the Sox watched their nine-run lead shrink until the Braves were able to bring the potential game-tying run to the plate in the eighth inning of the Sox’ 13-9 win.
Reliever Mike Vasil, who has made a strong impression in his first season, served up a homer, while four of those runs were given up by freshly called-up Owen White, who started feeling hip tightness during his outing. He was placed on the injured list Tuesday.
Rookie flame-thrower Grant Taylor put out that fire, but he had one of the worst outings of his young career Sunday in K.C. He and pen mates Steven Wilson and Jordan Leasure combined to surrender six runs blowing the six innings of one-hit ball that starter Davis Martin had thrown.
Then there’s Sean Burke, the Opening Day starter, who joined another potential cog of the Sox’ pitching future, Jonathan Cannon, at Triple-A Charlotte after a string of short outings that have taxed that bullpen — which still ranked eighth in MLB in ERA since the All-Star break entering Tuesday (3.28).
The Sox’ developmental wins are easy to point out, if difficult to pin down. Rule 5 rookie Shane Smith represented the Sox at the All-Star game thanks to a spectacular string of starts to open his career, until watching his ERA almost double by July.
Smith has put together a few solid performances in August — and now he and Martin are likely the only potential long-term contributors in the current big-league rotation.
“We are continuing to add depth on the starter front. We have a lot of different options going into a year where you will need upwards of 10 to 12 starters,” Getz said. He might’ve found an inning-eating arm in rookie waiver claim Yoendrys Gomez, who has given the Sox two serviceable starts in the last week.
But it’ll take a lot more than that to fill out a staff with any hopes of contending in the next few years.
“Are there areas that need to improve? Of course, our first pitch strikes, our walk percentage — you look at where we are in the league [last and second-to-last, respectively], that needs to improve,” Getz said. “Those aren’t the end all, be all. You can still have success when you are perhaps not top of the league, but you can’t be at the bottom of the league.”
Getz said he’s confident in the long-term abilities of Noah Schultz, their No. 2-ranked prospect who struggled in his first three Triple-A starts, and other arms of the future, including 2024 first-round pick Hagen Smith, who was shut down for several weeks in the spring and hasn’t overwhelmed at Double-A Birmingham.
“We believe in them. You look at some of the arms we have in the organization the last couple of years and the jumps they have made, industry value, and their performance as a whole has been really positive,” Getz said. “We need to continue to stay at it and make some tweaks along the way but we do feel like we are headed in the right direction.”