With the All-Star break a week away, the White Sox are sitting in first place in the American League Central after a weekend that had its share of messiness and enough late-game drama to keep their bullpen picture murky. They rallied for wins on Saturday and Sunday to split a four-game set with the Guardians, but the bigger storyline may have come out of how Will Venable handled the ninth inning.
That’s been the White Sox’s headache for a while now. Seranthony Dominguez was signed in the offseason to be the club’s primary closer, but the ninth inning hasn’t gone according to plan, and the team has been left searching for answers.
Grant Taylor looked like the next option after Dominguez’s struggles, but Thursday’s opener in Cleveland ended with Taylor giving up a walk-off home run to Guardians infielder Bryan Rocchio while trying to work a two-inning save. Taylor got another chance on Saturday and converted it, but when the White Sox had another save situation on Sunday, Venable went a different direction.
He handed the ball to Sean Newcomb, and Newcomb made it look easy.
The left-hander, 33, signed a one-year deal with the White Sox in the offseason and entered spring training as a rotation candidate before settling into a relief role. Since then, he’s quietly become one of the most dependable arms in the bullpen, putting up a 2.58 ERA across 52.1 innings. He’s also now converted three of his four save chances, which is enough to make him a real option when the game is on the line.
Newcomb’s outing on Sunday only strengthened that case. He’s been part of a late-inning group that also includes Bryan Hudson and Grant Taylor, and in a bullpen that has been inconsistent all season, that trio has stood out more than most. The White Sox even highlighted Newcomb’s glove flip on social media after the save, a small flash of confidence in a bullpen that has needed some.
There’s still a bigger roster reality hanging over all of this. The White Sox are expected to be active for bullpen help at the trade deadline, and they could especially use another right-hander.
Newcomb and Hudson are both lefties, while Taylor is the only right-hander they’ve been able to trust consistently. That makes the late-inning setup tricky, because Taylor may be needed earlier in games to cover the right-handed matchups the White Sox lack elsewhere.
Hudson has been effective, but his soft-tossing style doesn’t really fit the usual closer mold.
That leaves Newcomb as the most natural fit for the job for now.
He came into this season with only four career saves, so this isn’t a pitcher with a long closing résumé. But the White Sox don’t need a résumé right now nearly as much as they need someone who can get outs, and Newcomb has done that. He’s also handled right-handed hitters well this season, holding them to a .546 OPS.
For a team that has had to improvise late in games all year, Sunday may have offered a useful answer. Will Venable’s bullpen juggling has been forced by necessity, but in the process, Sean Newcomb may have emerged as the White Sox’s best short-term solution at closer.
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White Sox Suddenly Face A Franchise Defining Choice At No. 1
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The early conversation has centered on a handful of elite prospects, with Roch Cholowsky long viewed as the presumed front-runner before Grady Emerson surged ahead of him in MLB.coms rankings. The White Sox have stressed patience in player development, but this is the kind of choice that can define an era, especially with last years top pick Billy Carlson still sidelined since late May by a thumb fracture and the organization once again preparing to make a selection that will be scrutinized from the moment it is announced. [Read more 🡒]