CLEVELAND – The White Sox have long promised that rookie left-hander Noah Schultz would play a role on the major league team down the stretch, even as the remaining days left on the regular season calendar continued to thin.
Putting him on the roster is a pretty crucial first step, and the Sox recalled the 23-year-old Schultz on Tuesday, designating Jose Urquidy for assignment as the corresponding move. Neither Urquidy nor Schultz have pitched in the past week, so the latter should be fresh and ready to contribute, albeit in a role that has yet to be defined.
Schultz’s last appearance in the majors was on Aug. 7 against the Cleveland Guardians, in an outing where manager Will Venable accidentally had to pull him with one out in the first, because he didn’t realize he was making the second mound visit of the inning. The two runs Schultz allowed that night spiked his major league ERA to 6.06 on the year, but he’s run a 1.66 ERA in his five Triple-A outings since. The rub is that none of those appearances were longer than five innings, nor 70 pitches, and Schultz–whose stuff was diminished near the end of last stint in Chicago–struck out just 10 batters in those 21 ⅔ innings of work.
At this point of the year, the Sox might not be asking Schultz, or anyone for outings much longer than two turns through the opposing lineup.
“It’d be great if they go out there and are able to navigate the fifth or sixth inning or more, that’d be fantastic,” general manager Chris Getz said of his starting pitchers on Monday. “But if they don’t, we’ve got other pathways to get to the finish line.”
With seven pitchers on the Sox active roster who have worked predominantly in starter or bulk innings roles this year, and the coaching staff preaching flexibility across the pitching staff, Schultz could be used in non-traditional fashion. But now he’s once more part of the mix, as will fellow rookie David Sandlin down the stretch. After working to use his sweeper to change eye levels against left-handed hitters, and mixing in his cutter to get opponents off his fastball, Sandlin retired the first 16 batters he faced on Sunday.
The Sox are sketching out their rotation on a series-to-series basis, but Venable was willing to commit to Sandlin getting another significant opportunity over the season’s final 12 games.
“He was as effective as anyone we’ve seen here in a little while,” Venable said. “I think it’s very much in our best interest to keep him around.”