Nearly at the final month of another rebuilding year, how close are the White Sox to figuring out their starting rotation of the future?
Their plans are far from scuttled, but it’s been a rocky ride for the team’s young arms, perhaps the rebuild’s most exciting feature before a core of position players arrived in the majors this season.
Jonathan Cannon and Opening Day chucker Sean Burke were demoted to the minors in an effort to solve their inconsistencies, moves that raised questions about the righties’ place in the team’s long-term plans.
With the Sox on pace for another 100-loss season, why not have those two iron things out in the big leagues?
“When you go down to the minor leagues,” pitching coach Ethan Katz said Sunday, “it gives you and opportunity to try some things that you maybe talk about up here that in the moment it’s harder to accomplish, because you’re trying to get through an inning and you’re going to stick to what you feel is best, [as opposed to] trying to open up some other avenues.
“To be able to pitch deeper and navigate through a lineup and get through innings the right way, you’re going to have to use all four pitches, the life of a starter. We’re trying to get them to maximize their full arsenals.”
They’re not the only pitchers trying to restore expectations in the minors.
First-round lefties Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith started the year as two of the highest rated prospects in baseball, seeming slam-dunk members of that rotation of the future, if not expected to top it.
But they have disappointed this season, with Smith only just past 60 innings at Double-A Birmingham and Schultz struggling mightily since a promotion to Triple-A Charlotte, with a 10.13 ERA in four outings there, including the two innings he tossed Sunday in his return from the injured list.
Expectations change, and certainly Shane Smith has forced the Sox to clear room in their plans, making the All-Star team as a rookie Rule 5 pick. But he’s had his struggles, too, with a 7.22 ERA in his last nine starts.
Coming off injury, rookie righty Grant Taylor started the year in the same breath as Schultz and Smith, an exciting prospect moving toward a future starting spot. But the Sox surprised with a call-up to the bullpen.
“Right now, I’m just focused on him as a reliever,” Katz said of the 2023 second-rounder. “We haven’t had further conversations about [him starting]. Could he do it? Sure.
“Having him as a reliever or trying to go down [the road to being] a starter, [keeping him healthy is] something we’ll just have to be very mindful of. To this point, he’s been able to take the ball whenever we’ve needed him, within reason with his workload.”
Rookie righty Mike Vasil has been used in various relief roles, be it mid-game innings-eater or high-leverage arm, and has thrived after the Sox picked him up in the spring.
Vasil, like Taylor, has started in the past.
“When you see someone like that, you see five, six pitches, there’s the ability to be a starter,” Katz said. “But what he’s meant to the bullpen down there and what he’s been able to do down there? You need to have longer guys, and he’s been able to go long, go short. He’s [worn] a bunch of different hats for us, closed games out. … That role has been very important.
“You don’t know how things shake out, but there could be a starter there, as well. He has the arsenal to do it.”
At the moment, the future on the pitching front might not seem as blindingly bright as it did in the preseason.
But with plenty of season left, plenty of offseason left after that and plenty of rebuild left after that, there’s a lot of evolution guaranteed to take place as the Sox try to build their next contending staff.