The White Sox are running out of room to explain away their pitching mess, and Will Venable made that plain after Tuesday night’s second straight walk-off loss to the Cubs.
Speaking about his staff, Venable said: “it’s all hands on deck right now. We’re thin back there right now.”
He added that Taylor was supposed to work multiple innings before the rain delay, and that Newcomb was only available in a save situation. #WhiteSox
That quote landed at exactly the wrong moment for Chicago’s front office, because the move that followed only sharpened the problem. Right after Venable acknowledged how stretched the bullpen is, the White Sox announced that left-hander Sean Newcomb will open yet another likely bullpen game on Wednesday.
The setup is hard to ignore. Chicago has two open spots in its rotation, with Davis Martin on the IL and Noah Schultz sent down to Triple-A.
That made Wednesday look like a natural spot to turn to one of the arms already working in the minors, especially Drew Thorpe, who got near the 80-pitch mark in a strong start in Charlotte last week. At that workload, Thorpe could probably give the White Sox close to five innings, and it’s fair to wonder how much longer he needs to keep facing minor league hitters.
Shane Smith was another obvious option. The Opening Day starter threw well in Charlotte last week and could have taken Tuesday’s start against the Cubs.
Instead, Chicago went with Erick Fedde. Fedde was effective, but he still didn’t finish five innings, which only pushed more work onto a bullpen that has already been asked to carry too much.
There’s a place for Erick Fedde and Jose Urquidy as bulk relievers. There just isn’t much reason to keep asking them to function as full-time rotation answers every five days for a team trying to win now.
Filling a gap here and there is one thing. Doing it over and over again is how the same issue keeps showing up.
And it’s not going away anytime soon. Anthony Kay is expected to start Thursday’s make-up game against Atlanta, with Sean Burke and Luis Castillo lined up for the Mets series. That still leaves Chicago short for Sunday and Monday.
That’s what makes the whole thing look so strange. The White Sox are talking openly about fatigue while continuing to make decisions that pile more innings onto the same arms. The bullpen is already heavily taxed, and the team still chose not to bring in another starting pitcher at the trade deadline, even though this was the exact kind of stretch that called for one.
Chris Getz went halfway at the deadline, and the consequences are showing up now. The White Sox are heading into one of the most important stretches of their season with three starting pitchers and a bullpen that keeps leading baseball in innings.
If the goal was to give this team the best possible chance to succeed this year, the chance to do that was there. Chicago passed on it.
For now, the problem is only getting louder. The White Sox have no off day for another week, the bullpen is expected to cover most of the work again Wednesday, and Venable’s “all hands on deck” line feels less like a plan than a warning. Until the front office does something to fix it, the tired-legs excuse rings hollow.
In Other News...
Huascar Brazobn Is Already Giving The White Sox A Bullpen Problem
The White Soxs latest roster shuffle brought in four fresh names, but not every addition came with the same sense of clarity. Luis Castillo, Brenton Doyle and Joey Bart each seem to fit a role or at least a path to one, while Huascar Brazobn has already complicated things in the bullpen. Chicago was intrigued enough to bring him aboard, but the early returns have not matched the relief profile he built with the Mets.
Brazobns results in Chicago have looked a lot shakier than the version the White Sox were hoping to get, with the kind of inconsistency that can turn a low-key bullpen move into a real roster question. The larger concern is whether this is just a rough stretch or the start of a familiar seasonal slide, because if the struggle keeps going, Chicago has the flexibility to make a move and reset the situation before it becomes a bigger problem. [Read more 🡒]
Cubs Starter's Early Exit Changed Everything Against The White Sox
Kevin Gausmans afternoon against the White Sox took a strange turn once his command started to wobble, and the Cubs were suddenly forced to navigate the rest of the game without the starter they had planned around. What had been a routine division matchup shifted when Gausman began dealing with discomfort, and the ripple effect was immediate for both the Cubs and the White Sox on a day that had already been moving at a tense pace.
The injury was traced to a cramp that affected his glove hand, something the Cubs and Gausman later explained after he was unable to keep going at full capacity. The issue surfaced during the middle innings and lingered long enough to alter the shape of the outing, leaving Chicago to piece together the rest of the game while wondering how much the early departure changed the outcome. [Read more 🡒]
Two White Sox Players Just Added Fuel To A Cubs MVP Debate
Pete Crow-Armstrong has become one of the louder names in the National League MVP conversation, and the debate only got a little more interesting when ESPNs Jesse Rogers checked in with players around the game. In Rogers sample, 15 of 21 players backed the Cubs outfielder over Shohei Ohtani, a sign of how much traction Crow-Armstrongs season has gained even with a superstar like Ohtani sitting on the other side of the argument.
Among the voices Rogers gathered were two from across town, White Sox pitcher Sean Burke and catcher Drew Romo, who both landed on Ohtani. Their reasoning pointed back to the two-way impact Ohtani brought earlier in the season, a reminder that the MVP race is not being judged only by what has happened lately at the plate. Crow-Armstrongs recent offensive push has kept the Cubs firmly in the conversation, but the split among players shows just how much weight Ohtanis unique season still carries. [Read more 🡒]