White Sox fans have spent the last few weeks staring straight at a bullpen problem. The group leads Major League Baseball in innings, the team has admitted how worn down it is, and the strain showed up in the middle of a 16-game in 16-day stretch. That fatigue turned ugly against the Cubs, when the White Sox coughed up back-to-back late leads because their top high-leverage arms weren’t available and the relief work fell apart.
But if that’s the bad news, Detroit offers a little perspective.
The Tigers walked into Wednesday night with a 3-2 lead over the Pirates in the ninth inning and closer Kenley Jansen on the mound. It didn’t hold.
Rookie Rafael Flores tied the game with a homer after one out, then infielder Brandon Lowe ended it two batters later with a blast that sent Pittsburgh home happy. For Detroit, it was just the latest gut punch in a season full of them.
Wednesday marked the 17th time this year the Tigers have lost after leading in the seventh inning or later. Jansen’s blown save was the 28th for Detroit, which is second only to the Nationals in all of baseball. That inability to finish has helped drag a team with the best run differential in the central and the third-best in the American League to a 5.5-game deficit in the division and a spot outside the playoff picture.
And yet, the weird part is that Detroit’s bullpen hasn’t been a total disaster on the surface. The Tigers own a 3.78 bullpen ERA, which is tied with the White Sox for eighth-best in baseball.
The issue is timing. They’ve been fine often enough, just not when the game is on the line.
That’s the cautionary tale for Chicago.
Even after trading Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize, the Tigers still have a strong starting staff and an offense with talent throughout the lineup. None of it has mattered enough because no lead has felt safe.
The White Sox can’t afford to wander into that same trap, especially with options available in Grant Taylor, Sean Newcomb, Jordan Hicks, and Bryan Hudson. Huascar Brazoban was supposed to be part of that group, but he has struggled early in his White Sox run.
Rookie Hagen Smith has the stuff to become a late-inning weapon if he can find the strike zone consistently.
That leaves Will Venable with a simple assignment: move fast, trust the hot hand, and don’t let roles get too comfortable if they aren’t working.
A shaky bullpen can wreck a season in a hurry, and the White Sox are in no position to let that happen. With the final month ahead, they need the dependable arms to stay dependable and the struggling ones to step forward. If that happens, relief could become a real strength instead of a nightly worry.
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Jonathan Cannons White Sox Future Looks Bleaker Than Fans Expected
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By August, Cannon was back in Triple-A, and his big league chances have been scarce since then, with only a few appearances in Chicago and most of them coming out of the bullpen. He is still on the roster-building radar, but heading into 2026, his path back to a rotation spot looks far less straightforward than fans might have expected after his debut. [Read more 🡒]