An underrated mid-season acquisition, Touki Toussiant has performed well for the Sox this year. He has done exactly what has been asked of him and he has eaten plenty of innings, which has been needed because of the White Sox depleted rotation.
Toussaint was a former first-round pick and a consensus top prospect in all of baseball, but the start to his career was not the greatest, as he bounced around a few teams, before being picked up by the White Sox this summer, right after being designated for assignment by the Cleveland Guardians. His DFA was a bit surprising, as he was not bad for Cleveland by any means.
Since joining the White Sox, Toussiant has by no means been lights out, but he gives the White Sox a chance to win the game every time he is on the mound. He currently has a 4.97 ERA, which isn’t great, but it is heavily inflated by two starts where he gave up a lot of runs in just a few innings. Besides those starts, he’s been extremely solid.
He has only had 3 starts in which he has given up more than four runs. In his last three starts, he hasn’t given up more than one run. This is a very good way for him to end the season. While he does have a bit of problems with walks and control, that is something that he can work on in the offseason, and hopefully pitching coach Ethan Katz has some things he needs to fix to correct that.
His devastating curveball, which is one of the better in the game, is a nice pitch to pair with his mid-90s fastball. He truly has a lot of potential and he is still only 27, so he has plenty of baseball ahead of him. With only Dylan Cease penciled in the rotation for sure, he will at least have a very good chance to fight for a spot and should have a good chance to win one of those back-of-the-rotation spots.
What should definitely keep him on the team is the fact he is under team control for the next three years. He will have his three years of arbitration and should not be too expensive, which could be big if he stays in the rotation. If you have someone in your starting rotation only making a few million, it opens up money to be spent (hopefully) elsewhere. If the White Sox either sign or promote guys to be in the rotation, he could still be a very valuable long relief arm, which the Sox have lacked over the last few years.
Regardless of what offseason plans the White Sox have in store, he should be a part of the pitching staff in some capacity in 2024. He would make a nice back-of-the-rotation arm or a long reliever. Plus, an offseason of working with the same coaches could be beneficial and he could fully unlock the potential he had as a top prospect and a first-round pick.
