The White Sox have been disastrous. They are a bottom-three team, and the bullpen is the worst in the league. This is not ideal for a team who has invested the most into the bullpen leaguewide. Mainly everyone in the ‘pen has been bad. One bright spot has been the emergence of hard-throwing right-hander Gregory Santos.
A Silver Lining To The Bullpen
A relatively unknown name before this year, the White Sox acquired Santos in a trade with the San Fransico Giants this offseason. The hope was that they could squeeze any talent out of him, as pitching coach Ethan Katz has worked with him in the past, and it seems to have worked.
So far it has worked out well. He has the lowest ERA in the White Sox bullpen with a 2.08 ERA in 12 games. In those 12 games, he has pitched 13.1 innings, striking out 16. Those are excellent strikeout numbers, as the ability to strikeout players is crucial for a reliever.
His ability to locate his high velocity has been a weapon for the White Sox. He averages around 99 MPH on his fastball and he has thrown the fastest pitch in White Sox history, coming in at 103.1 MPH. These are elite numbers from a very under-the-radar off-season bullpen acquisition.
For someone who throws that hard to have that kind of movement on his pitches is truly special. He is still only 23 and has less than a year of service time in the MLB. If he can keep this momentum going, he could be a key piece for years to come.
To back up his great early-season stats, he currently ranks in the 94th percentile in opponent barrel percentage, which shows that the hitters are not squaring up the ball off Santos. This is good news, as it is a more sustainable stat compared to ERA. His velocity, fastball spin, and xSLG are very good as well, showing that he has the advanced stats to maintain this early-season success.
Breaking Rick Hahn
The emergence of Santos has been the antithesis of how Rick Hahn has built his team. Instead of consistently developing bullpen arms, he overpays for the ones that hit the market. This has not worked well for him to this point. His highest-paid ‘pen arms are some of the worst on the team.
Guys like Santos and Keynan Middleton have been some of the most consistent arms in the bullpen, they were low-cost acquisitions in the offseason, and so far they are performing better than the multi-million dollar arms. Perhaps Hahn will look at this method, as it seems to have more success than overpaying guys like Joe Kelly, Jake Diekman, and Aaron Bummer.
The bullpen is the most volatile part of the team, so investing so heavily in the wrong guys can really hurt a team. The White Sox have exemplified that this year. Getting a true closer is a necessity, and the signing of Liam Hendriks has worked well, but many of the other acquisitions haven’t.
Kendall Graveman has pitched well for the Sox but has been off to a slow start. He can turn it around, but signing middle relievers for big money over multi years rarely works out. Former arms like Matt Albers and Ryan Tepera should be what the Sox should target. Tepera has been very bad in Los Angeles since he got paid, proving it is essential to get to arms before they are overpaid and bad. It just goes to show you that investing a lot of money in the bullpen isn’t always going to work out.
Regardless of who the White Sox sign, it just shows that there is a lack of pitching development within the system, as there are few homegrown arms on the team. When given a budget like Hahn has, spending all this money on bad arms is a recipe for disaster. The White Sox should be focusing on the development on cheap bullpen arms like Santos, Middelton, and even Jimmy Lambert so they can spend the money in other areas of need.
