5-for-1 trade now just a 2-for-1

Did you know that newly acquired White Sox pitcher Tyler Gilbert tossed a no-hitter in his first career start as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2021? Sure, he's a journeyman, but he had his 15 minutes of fame.

The 31-year-old left-hander spent most of 2024 with Lehigh Valley, the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. The Sox acquired Gilbert from Philadelphia last week in exchange for minor league relief pitcher Aaron Combs.

To make room for Gilbert on the 40-man roster, the Sox designated infielder Braden Shewmake for assignment. This Sox offseason has been -- and will continue to be -- characterized by minor moves such as this. Most of them aren't worth an in-depth breakdown, but Shewmake's departure got me thinking about a trade Sox GM Chris Getz made last offseason.

Remember when Getz traded left-handed reliever Aaron Bummer to the Atlanta Braves for five players? As fans, many of us thought, "Wow, how did he manage to get that type of quantity for an underachiever like Bummer?" 

Well, it turns out there wasn't a lot of quality in that quantity. More than a year later, let's take a look at the guys the Sox acquired in that deal:

1. Shewmake. We'll start with the aforementioned Shewmake, who made the Opening Day roster in 2024. Unfortunately, he was one of the culprits in the team's miserable start. He batted .125/.134/.203 with one homer and four RBIs in 29 games with the Sox. He got sent to Triple-A Charlotte, where he got injured. He appeared in only 10 games at that level and batted .152/.152/.182. You may never see him in the majors again.

2. Nicky Lopez. Have you heard that Lopez is from Naperville? OK, enough with that joke. The infielder played 124 games with the Sox in 2024 and batted .241/.312/.294 with one homer and 21 RBIs. He made $4.3 million last season, and as an arbitration-eligible player, he was in line to get about $5 million in 2025. Thus, the Sox wisely non-tendered him. It would be dumb to give that kind of money to a utility infielder.

3. Michael Soroka. The right-hander went 0-10 with a 4.74 ERA in 25 games, including nine starts, with the 2024 Sox. The nine starts were terrible. Soroka lost five of them and posted a 6.39 ERA. After an injury, he found new life in the bullpen late in the season. He was 0-5 as a reliever, too, but his ERA was a much more respectable 2.75 in those 16 appearances. The Washington Nationals apparently think he can still be a starter. They gave him a one-year contract this offseason.

4. Jared Shuster. The Sox converted this left-hander to mostly relief work. He made 39 appearances in 2024, 35 of which were out of the bullpen. He provided 73.1 innings, going 2-5 with a 4.30 ERA. And hey, the 25-year-old is still on the 40-man roster! If he pitches well in spring, he might actually stick with the Sox for a second season.

5. Riley Gowens. The former University of Illinois pitcher and Libertyville native split his time between High-A Winston Salem and Double-A Birmingham last season. He made 25 starts between the two levels, going 7-6 with a 3.84 ERA. Not bad, but Gowens is now 25 years old, and you won't find  him near the top of any of the prospect lists. Most likely, he's an organizational pitcher. But hey, at least he's still in the organization!

So, basically, that 5-for-1 trade is now a 2-for-1. The Sox still have Shuster and Gowens, but ultimately, this trade did not make a meaningful impact.

Sources: Paul DeJong to sign one-year deal with White Sox

Paul DeJong

Give White Sox general manager Chris Getz credit for this: He said he would improve the middle infield defense this offseason, and he has acquired two plus defensive players before Thanksgiving.

According to sources, the Sox are signing 30-year-old veteran shortstop Paul DeJong to a one-year deal. The contract is pending a physical, which reportedly will occur Monday.

Much like second baseman Nicky Lopez, who was acquired from the Atlanta Braves last week in the Aaron Bummer deal, DeJong is going to make the plays. He totaled 9 outs above average in 2023, as did Lopez. But much like Lopez, he can't hit.

Here is DeJong's OPS+ over his seven-year career:

• 2017: 121
• 2018: 102
• 2019: 99
• 2020: 87
• 2021: 85
• 2022: 52
• 2023: 66

DeJong was an All-Star in 2019 when he hit 30 home runs, but that was the year of the juiced baseball. The decline is clear in the years since. 

Over the past three years, DeJong is batting .192/.265/.353 in 302 games. In 2023, he bounced from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Toronto Blue Jays to the San Francisco Giants. He batted .207/.258/.355 with 14 homers and 38 RBIs.

Not promising, right? But here's the funny thing. Actually, it's not that funny, but DeJong was a better player than Tim Anderson last year. He out-homered him 14-1. He had a higher OPS than Anderson, .612 to .582. As mentioned, DeJong's OPS+ was 66. Anderson's was 60. DeJong's WAR was a terrible -0.5, but Anderson's was a disgusting -2.0.

None of this is an endorsement of the DeJong signing. The guy isn't very good, but these numbers show just how bad it got with Anderson last year.

The best you can hope for here is that DeJong holds shortstop down for long enough that top prospect Colson Montgomery is able to complete his development in the minor leagues.

Reynaldo Lopez, Lance Lynn headed to new teams

Lance Lynn is going back where he started.

Two former White Sox pitchers agreed to terms on new contracts with new teams Monday.

Reynaldo Lopez is headed to the Atlanta Braves on a three-year, $30 million contract. Meanwhile, Lance Lynn is going to the St. Louis Cardinals. He's got a one-year deal worth $11 million, with incentives that could earn him as much as $14 million. The contract also includes an option for 2025 that could increase the value to $25 million.

Lopez, who turns 30 in January, bounced from the White Sox to the Los Angeles Angels to the Cleveland Guardians last season. After a rough start with the Sox, his final season numbers don't look too bad -- 3-7 with a 3.27 ERA in 68 games, with six saves. Lopez fanned 83 batters in 66 innings.

Feel free to insert the joke here about the Braves wishing to re-create the Sox bullpen. Lopez rejoins his former teammate Aaron Bummer, whom the Sox traded to Atlanta late last week.

But in a different twist, it appears the Braves are interested in possibly making Lopez a starter. According to a tweet sent Monday by Ken Rosenthal, Lopez will prepare this offseason as if he will be a member of the rotation, and Atlanta will explore the option in spring training.

Lopez hasn't been a full-time starting pitcher since 2019. That didn't work out for him in Chicago, but if he makes it work in Atlanta, that would justify the investment the Braves have made here. If Lopez is just going to be a seventh-inning reliever or something similar, you can find guys to do that role for less than $10 million AAV.

Lynn, 36, made 32 starts last season -- 21 with the Sox and 11 with the Los Angeles Dodgers -- but that's one of the few positives he can take from his 2023 campaign. He went 13-11, but had an unsightly 5.73 ERA. He had a -0.8 WAR and gave up a league-high 44(!) homers over 183.2 innings. 

The Cardinals know Lynn well. He pitched in St. Louis from 2011-17 and won a World Series there in 2011. No doubt, the club is hoping the veteran has at least one decent year left in his arm.

In other starting pitching news, a major name agreed to a contract over the weekend. Aaron Nola is staying with the Philadelphia Phillies for seven years and $172 million.

What might this mean for White Sox right-hander Dylan Cease, whose name has been mentioned in trade rumors? 

There are still some good free agent pitchers out there, including NL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, World Series champion Jordan Montgomery and Japanese import Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Nola has set the market for those guys by agreeing on a contract worth $24.5 million AAV.

Meanwhile, Cease is not a free agent. He's arbitration eligible with a suggested salary of $8.8 million. He has two years of team control remaining.

If Lynn can pull in $11 million in free agency coming of a rough year, then Cease is a tremendous value in this marketplace. Sox general manager Chris Getz should keep that in mind, if he is indeed entertaining trade offers for Cease.

White Sox trade Aaron Bummer to Atlanta Braves for 5 players

It doesn't qualify as a "haul," but it was still surprising to see the White Sox acquire five players in exchange for Aaron Bummer.

The Sox on Thursday sent the left-hander reliever to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for pitchers Michael Soroka, Jared Shuster and Riley Gowens, and infielders Nicky Lopez and Braden Shewmake.

Why is it not a haul? Well, all five of these players the Sox acquired have some significant flaw in their games. That doesn't mean these guys couldn't help on the South Side. They might.

But let's just all understand that these players were excess on the Atlanta 40-man roster. Soroka and Lopez were non-tender candidates, in fact, so I don't think the Braves look at any of these guys as big losses.

That said, Bummer's usefulness had come to an end with the Sox. With 2024 projected as a retooling season, if not a rebuilding season, what's the wisdom in paying a relief pitcher a $5.5 million salary to protect leads that don't exist?

Here are a few more thoughts about each of the six players in the trade:

Bummer: Most Sox fans are happy to be done with the 30-year-old after he went 5-5 with an ugly 6.79 ERA in 61 appearances in 2023. Bummer issued an absurdly high 5.6 walks per nine innings, and his 1.526 WHIP isn't what you want from a late-inning reliever. 

Still, the statheads point to his 3.58 FIP as a sign that Bummer pitched in hard luck. In their tweet announcing the trade, the Braves said, "His barrel percentage of just 2.7% ranked in the 99th percentile among pitchers in baseball, while his ground ball rate of 60.1% was in the 97th."

Fair enough. It's not hard to envision Bummer performing better in 2024 with a better infield defense behind him. However, Atlanta fans should know that Bummer is a terrible fielding pitcher, so he does himself no favors when he's fumbling around some of that weak contact he induces. And his walks will drive you crazy. 

Soroka: Injuries, injuries and more injuries. Soroka finished second in the National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2019, when he went 13-4 with a 2.68 ERA in 29 starts with the Braves. However, he's only pitched 46 innings combined in the four years since. Soroka has torn his Achilles' tendon twice, which caused him to not throw a pitch at any level in both 2021 and 2022. He was 2-2 with a 6.40 ERA in seven games (6 starts) with the Braves in 2023. This is a talented pitcher, but who knows whether he'll be on the mound? 

Shuster: The 25-year-old began the 2023 season as the top prospect in the Atlanta system. But the left-hander fell on hard times last season. He went 5-6 with a 5.01 ERA at Triple-A Gwinnett, and 4-3 with a 5.81 ERA in 11 starts with the Braves. The strikeout-to-walk ratio in the majors was not good -- 30 strikeouts against 26 walks in 52.2 innings. At this point, Shuster is a reclamation project.

Lopez: Sox fans rolled their eyes at the acquisition of the former Kansas City infielder. As most everyone knows, Lopez is a local guy. He graduated from Naperville Central High School. He also played for manager Pedro Grifol with the Royals, and everyone is sick of more Kansas City people coming to Chicago. Lopez is a lousy hitter, as his career .249/.312/.319 slash line in five MLB seasons shows. However, he is a plus defender, especially at second base. He can also play shortstop or third base in a pinch, and do it competently. Unlike a lot of players on the Sox roster, Lopez has at least one high-end skill that can help a team: his glove. From that perspective, he's probably getting more crap than he deserves.

Shewmake: The left-handed-hitting shortstop was Atlanta's first-round pick in the 2019 draft. But other than a brief two-game stint in 2023, he hasn't cracked the majors. Much like Lopez, he can field his position. He's got sure hands at shortstop, but he just isn't a very good hitter. His slash line at Triple-A Gwinnett last season was .234/.299/.407. If you're a glass-half-full person, that .407 slugging percentage isn't half bad for a glove-first player. Shewmake totaled 16 homers and 69 RBIs last season. Most likely, he's a depth player. And if he helps prevent the Sox from prematurely rushing top prospect Colson Montgomery to the majors, then he'll have done his job.

Gowens: Another local product here. Gowens is a Libertyville native who pitched at the University of Illinois. The right-hander worked exclusively as a starter in college, going 9-12 with a 5.69 ERA in 37 starts over three seasons. The Braves selected him in the ninth round of the 2023 draft. He appeared in five games, three of them starts, in the Atlanta system last year. He threw the ball well -- a 1.15 ERA over 15.2 innings. Gowens is likely destined for A ball in 2024. He'll be old for the level at age 24.

What's the best-case outcome for the Sox here? It would be nice if they can get at least one back-end starter out of this deal -- either Soroka gets healthy or Shuster improves. And it would be nice if at least one of Lopez or Shewmake helps solidify the Sox's leaky middle infield defense. 

Really, if two of the five players help the Sox, call the trade a win.

2023 Dylan Cease doesn't look like 2022 Dylan Cease

The White Sox had a 3-1 lead after three innings with their Opening Day starter on the mound Monday night against the last-place Kansas City Royals.

The Sox also got blown to bits Monday night by the last-place Royals, as Kansas City rallied for an easy 12-5 victory.

The Royals (10-26) are now 4-16 at home. I'm guessing their home record is that bad because they haven't had an opportunity to host the equally sad Sox (12-24) until now.

Dylan Cease had another poor outing in this game. He lasted five-plus innings, allowing seven earned runs on nine hits. He struck out six and walked one.

Gavin Sheets hit a home run to tie the score at 4-4 in the top of the sixth, but Cease failed to retire a batter in the bottom of the inning. He left with the bases loaded and no outs. 

By the time the sixth inning was over, the Royals led 12-4. I'll spare you the details of the eight-run inning, which featured horrendous pitching from relievers Aaron Bummer and Jimmy Lambert. 

Bummer, a lefty who is allegedly good at retiring left-handed batters, gave up three hits -- all to lefties. Absolutely ridiculous.

Bigger picture, one of the tragedies of the 2022 season is that Cease's career year went to waste. He had a 2.20 ERA and finished second in the Cy Young voting last year, going 14-8 for a team that finished 81-81.

He's not the same guy through eight starts this season, not even close. He's 2-2 with a 5.58 ERA. Only two of his outings have been quality starts. His last four outings have been four innings, four innings, five innings and five innings, respectively.

It's just not good enough, for Cease or the team as a whole. There's 126 games left. I'm not sure that's a good thing right now. 

That's all I got tonight.

White Sox bullpen remains a disaster

Andrew Vaughn hit a 3-run homer to cap a seven-run rally in the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday at Guaranteed Rate Field, lifting the White Sox to a 12-9 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

With the win, the Sox (8-21) snapped a potentially season-killing 10-game losing streak and overcame yet another spectacular bullpen meltdown.

Don't let the final score fool you, folks. This game was not a slugfest. In fact, the Sox led 4-2 after seven innings, before the whole thing went off the rails in the eighth and ninth.

The Rays scored five runs in the top of the eighth inning to take a 7-4 lead. The Sox answered with one in the bottom of the inning to make it 7-5. The Rays increased their lead to 9-5 with two runs in the ninth.

Fortunately for the Sox, the Rays (23-6) chose to use two of their weaker relievers -- Jalen Beeks and Garrett Cleavinger -- in the bottom of the ninth. Closer Pete Fairbanks was evidently unavailable, and the Sox pounded the lesser Tampa Bay bullpen arms for an exciting and improbable victory.

Is this the type of win that can turn a sagging season around? Sadly, no, that seems unlikely. Outslugging your terrible bullpen is something you can do every now and then, but trying to do that regularly is not a recipe for long-term success.

I would have been happier if the Sox had won 4-2 on Sunday, as opposed to this wild finish. Why? Because having relief pitchers who can record big outs and post shutdown innings IS a sustainable way to win games over a 162-games season.

Unfortunately, the Sox have nothing of the sort. Their bullpen, coming into Monday, ranks last in MLB with a 6.86 ERA. Almost everyone has been bad, but let's look at the current members of the bullpen -- starting with those who have struggled the most:

Aaron Bummer. The man who is supposed to be the primary left-handed reliever in the bullpen has a 9.64 ERA through 13 appearances. He can't retire lefties, who have a .417 OBP against him. He can't retire the first batter he faces either. So far this season, the first batter Bummer faces has posted a .500/.615/.700 slash line. At Guaranteed Rate Field, he has a 16.62 ERA and a 3.231 WHIP over seven appearances. That's ridiculously bad.

Reynaldo Lopez. The man who would be closer has a 8.76 ERA in 14 appearances and a home run problem. Lopez did an incredible job of keeping the ball in the park in 2022, when he allowed only one homer in 65.1 innings. So far in 2023, he's allowed five home runs in only 12.1 innings. He might not be healthy either. After surrendering three runs in the eighth inning (including a go-ahead home run) Sunday, he was removed from the game with biceps discomfort.

Jake Diekman. Here's another left-handed reliever who can't get out left-handed batters. As a matter of fact, lefties have an OBP of .500 against Diekman. Is he aware that he's supposed to have the advantage in those situations? It sure doesn't look like it. Diekman has a 7.94 ERA, and he's lucky it's not worse -- given that he's walking 10.3 batters per nine innings, and has a 2.118 WHIP.

Joe Kelly. Hey, he struck out the side in the seventh inning Sunday! That represents Kelly's first positive contribution to the 2023 Sox. As usual, he's been injured. He's made only five appearances, with a 7.71 ERA. The two-year, $17 million contract he signed with the Sox before the 2022 season remains some of the worst money on the team's books.

Jimmy Lambert. After not giving up an earned run over his first seven outings of the season, the roof has caved in on the right-hander. He's allowed 10 earned runs over his last seven appearances. In fact, he's allowed six runs earned runs over his past two innings of work, causing his ERA to balloon from a respectable 3.27 to an ugly 6.92. Lambert appears to be suffering from overuse, having appeared in 14 of the team's 29 games. 

Kendall Graveman. The veteran's ERA has shot up to 5.56, largely because he's given up three home runs in his last three appearances. He pitched in three of the four games against Tampa Bay, and got taken deep in all of them. A home run allowed Friday night cost the Sox a game in the ninth inning.

Keynan Middleton. The journeyman didn't make the roster out of spring training, but he showed enough to get a call-up early in the season. He's struck out 13 in seven innings pitched over nine appearances. He has a 3.86 ERA in middle-leverage work. In other words, he's been fine. It's a sad commentary that he's the second-best pitcher in the Sox bullpen.

Gregory Santos. The guy who made the club as the 13th pitcher on the staff out of camp is actually the Sox best reliever. Santos has been performing a lot of low-leverage work and middle inning relief, but he has a 1.88 ERA over 13 outings. He's struck out 16 batters in 14.1 innings. This is an inexperienced pitcher -- he has only 18 MLB games under his belt. It's unclear whether he's ready for a higher leverage role. He might get an opportunity, just because everyone else stinks.

After Sunday's game, I saw people on social media criticizing Sox manager Pedro Grifol for bringing Lopez into the game. I guess that's understandable, since Lopez lost the lead, but who exactly should he have brought in? (Santos had already been used.)

There just aren't a lot of good options here. The Sox find themselves nine games out of the AL Central lead on May 1 for a lot of different reasons. Chief among them is the fact that this bullpen is terrible.

White Sox bullpen locks up 4-3 win in Minnesota

Dylan Cease

There is no such thing as a "big game" in April, but it felt as though the White Sox needed a win Monday against the Minnesota Twins.

They were coming off a lackluster series in Pittsburgh, during which they lost two of three games. Ace Dylan Cease was Monday's starting pitcher, and he was facing a short-handed Twins lineup. Byron Buxton took a scheduled day off, while Carlos Correa and Joey Gallo were out of the lineup with minor ailments.

Well, it wasn't pretty, but the Sox won, 4-3, behind four scoreless innings from a combination of four relief pitchers.

Cease (2-0) earned the win, but his outing was limited to five innings because poor infield defense cost him three runs and about 15 to 20 extra pitches. Hanser Alberto made two miscues -- one an error and one not (because you can't assume a double play) -- that cost the Sox a run in each of the third and fourth innings.

Elvis Andrus and Gavin Sheets both made errors in the bottom of the fifth that cost Cease a third run. 

Cease's final line: 5 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 6 Ks, 2 BBs.

But for all his shortcomings on defense, Alberto delivered the decision blow of the game -- a 3-run homer off Minnesota starter Kenta Maeda (0-2) that capped a four-run fourth inning. Andrew Benintendi and Sheets singled. Yasmani Grandal singled, scoring Benintendi, and setting up Alberto's blast on a hanging slider.

Cease exited the game after 99 pitches. Jimmy Lambert worked a scoreless sixth, and Kendall Graveman worked around a single to deliver a scoreless seventh.

Aaron Bummer got two outs in the eighth, and left with the tying run on third base. Reynaldo Lopez struck out Michael A. Taylor to end that threat, then worked a 1-2-3 ninth with two strikeouts for his second save of the season.

The Sox are 5-6.

White Sox place Reynaldo Lopez on 15-day injured list

The White Sox on Thursday placed relief pitcher Reynaldo Lopez on the 15-day injured list with a lower back strain, retroactive to July 25.

It's getting thin in the bullpen for the Sox, who are already without Aaron Bummer (lat strain) and Garrett Crochet (torn elbow ligament). It's also possible Joe Kelly is going to hit the injured list, as he left Wednesday's game in Colorado with a right biceps injury.

The Sox said they would announce who would take Lopez's place on the roster before Friday's series opener against the Oakland Athletics at Guaranteed Rate Field.

It would come as no surprise if the Sox actually had to add two pitchers -- one to replace Lopez and one to replace Kelly.

The lack of an immediate roster addition makes one wonder whether the Sox are trying to swing a trade. General manager Rick Hahn has already identified the bullpen as his "biggest need" at Tuesday's trade deadline.

While I disagree with Hahn that the bullpen is the biggest need, there is no question that it is among the needs.

Personally, I would prefer to see Hahn shop at the Ryan Tepera level of relievers, not the Craig Kimbrel level.

As you might recall, Hahn made two deadline deals with the crosstown Cubs last season to acquire relief help. He sent A-ball pitcher Bailey Horn to the Cubs in exchange for Tepera, and that was a move that worked out just fine for the Sox. Tepera worked effectively as a middle-inning reliever the last two months plus of the 2021 season.

Hahn also traded off his major league roster, sending Codi Heuer and Nick Madrigal to the North Side for Kimbrel. That move proved to be a disaster for all, as Heuer and Madrigal have been nothing but injured since joining the Cubs, and Kimbrel was worthless to the Sox in 2021 before being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers prior to the start of this season.

The lesson here: Don't swing big to get relief help. Smaller moves can help. There are guys out there who can pitch the sixth and seventh innings effectively who can be acquired without giving up high-end prospects and players on the major league roster. 

Even with all the injuries, the Sox have the eighth (Kendall Graveman) and ninth innings (Liam Hendriks) covered. They do need a little help building the bridge from the starting pitchers to their high-leverage relievers.

But what the Sox really need are legitimate solutions at corner outfield and second base. They still need that left-handed power bat that we've been coveting but not getting for years. 

If the Sox are going to trade high-end prospects at this deadline, they should trade them for a position player who solves a need both this season and in years to come. 

With a record of 49-49 on July 28, it's kind of silly to think a couple of relievers is all this team needs to get over the hump. Sure, relief help is needed -- no one who is paying attention would deny that. 

But the Sox are also operating two bats short, and I'd like to see an acquisition that can make an impact on a daily basis -- and that means a position player. After all, even the best relievers only pitch three or four times a week.

Matt Foster unlikely hero for White Sox

The White Sox completed a sweep of the crosstown Cubs on Wednesday with a 4-3 victory at Wrigley Field. And just like we all expected, the hero of the game was ... Matt Foster? 

Yep, that's right, Matt Foster, the 27-year-old reliever who spent most of the 2021 season bouncing back and forth between Chicago and Triple-A Charlotte. And when Foster was in Chicago last season, he posted a 6.00 ERA and a 1.436 WHIP in 37 appearances.

Coming into spring training, he wasn't really in the plans. However, extended rosters and injuries created opportunity, and Foster made the team out of camp. 

And he's pitched really well in his opportunities in 2022. Coming into Wednesday night, he had allowed only one earned run in 11 innings across 10 appearances.

The assignment Foster received Wednesday night was his toughest yet. He was asked to clean up Aaron Bummer's mess in the bottom of the eighth inning. The Cubs had runners at first and third with one out, and the Sox were clinging to a 4-3 lead. Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ, the No. 2 and No. 3 batters in the Cubs' lineup, were due up.

Foster got Suzuki to foul out to first baseman Gavin Sheets on a fastball up and out of the zone. The Cubs' runner on first, Nick Madrigal, was going with the pitch, so perhaps that enticed Suzuki to swing at a pitch that was not a strike. No matter. Either way, it was the second out.

Happ followed, and on a 2-2 pitch, Foster aced him with fastball at the bottom of the zone and struck him out looking. Jam escaped. Lead perserved. Foster's ERA is down to 0.77.

Liam Hendriks worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his seventh save in eight opportunities. That allowed Lucas Giolito (1-1) to pick up his first victory of the season. The right-hander allowed three runs across 5.2 innings, but he struck out 10 Cubs batters.

Jose Abreu (3rd of the season) and Leury Garcia (2nd of the season) homered for the Sox, who overcame an early 3-1 deficit. Sheets had a two-out RBI single in the fourth to tie the game. AJ Pollock had a two-out RBI single in the sixth that put the South Siders ahead for good.

The Sox are now 11-13. The Cubs drop to 9-15.

Stop the presses: White Sox finally win 2 in a row

Tim Anderson

The White Sox have won two games in a row for the first time since April 15-16, as they defeated the crosstown Cubs, 3-1, on a rainy Tuesday night at Wrigley Field.

This was not a good night to be a hitter. The game-time temperature was 45 degrees. The wind was blowing in from left field at 23 mph, and most of the game was played in a persistent rain.

You know that whole urban myth about how the Cubs sell out every game? Yeah, no, not tonight. The announced attendance was 34,206, but I'd be willing to bet they didn't have even half that many people there. And who can blame fans from staying away from this one?

Both the Sox and the Cubs are off to poor starts this season, and you might say these March-like conditions during the first week of May are less than ideal for baseball.

Anyway, the Sox got all the runs they needed in the first three innings. They scored two in the second. Jake Burger's infield single scored Jose Abreu, who had reached on an error earlier in the inning. Reese McGuire's safety squeeze bunt scored Adam Engel, who had doubled.

In the third inning, Tim Anderson connected for his fourth home run of the season to put the Sox ahead 3-0. Anderson drive off Keegan Thompson landed in the right-field seats, which is the direction you needed to hit it to get one out of Wrigley on this night. Anything to left field wasn't going anywhere.

Sox pitching did the rest, with six players combining on a six-hitter. Michael Kopech worked four scoreless, but inefficient, innings. He was removed with a man at first base and no outs in the bottom of the fifth inning. He had thrown 83 pitches at that point.

Reynaldo Lopez (3-0) relieved and got a double play and a strikeout out of the two batters he faced. For that, he earned his third victory of the season.

Jose Ruiz allowed the lone Cubs run in the sixth. But Aaron Bummer, Matt Foster and Liam Hendriks each worked 1-2-3 innings with one strikeout each, as the Cubs surrendered relatively quietly in the late innings.

For Hendriks, it was his sixth save in seven opportunities. The Sox are 10-13. The Cubs are 9-14. The two teams play one more time in this brief two-game set Wednesday night.

Gavin Sheets hits 2 home runs in return to White Sox roster

It's not clear how many at-bats will be available for Gavin Sheets in September, but he made his case for more playing time Wednesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Hours after being called up from Triple-A Charlotte, Sheets was batting eighth as the DH in the White Sox's lineup against the Pittsburgh Pirates. 

He went 2 for 3 with two homers and four RBIs, and the Sox beat the Pirates, 6-3.

Sheets started the scoring with a 3-run homer off Pittsburgh starter Max Kranick (1-3) in the bottom of the fourth inning. Then he finished the scoring with a solo homer off reliever Duane Underwood Jr. in the bottom of the eighth inning. Sheets now has eight home runs this season.

The Sox got five decent innings from starter Carlos Rodon (11-5), who struck out five and walked one, while allowing only one run on five hits.

Rodon threw 77 pitches in his second start back from the injured list. He didn't have his peak velocity -- he was throwing 95 mph, which is not too shabby, but we often see Rodon sit at 97 with his fastball. He didn't have his best slider, either, but hey, these are the last-place Pirates, and he had enough to get his job done.

Once again, the Sox bullpen was a little suspect. Aaron Bummer gave up a solo home run in the seventh inning, and the Pirates also scratched across a run in the eighth against the combination of Ryan Tepera and Liam Hendriks.

But, Hendriks stranded two runners to close out the eighth, then worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 31st save of the season. Ultimately, Hendriks needed only 18 pitches to record five outs, but it's kind of annoying the Sox are having so much trouble getting the eighth inning covered.

That's still an issue that must be sorted out over the next month.

The Sox are a season-high 22 games over .500 at 78-56.

Bummer: White Sox waste good starting pitching in Toronto

Lucas Giolito

Through the first three games of their four-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays, the White Sox have received excellent starting pitching.

Lance Lynn, Dylan Cease and Lucas Giolito have combined to pitch 20 innings, allowing only three runs. That should lead to a 3-0 record, or 2-1 at the very least. Instead, the Sox are 1-2 because they can't hit, and their allegedly lights-out bullpen stinks.

Giolito tossed six innings of one-run ball Wednesday night, but it wasn't enough. Toronto scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and beat the Sox, 3-1.

The bullpen management by Tony La Russa was curious, to say the least. Ryan Tepera worked a scoreless seventh, and that part was fine. But it was baffling that lefty Aaron Bummer got the call in the eighth to pitch against the right-hand-dominant middle of the Toronto batting order.

It almost worked, in spite of the faulty logic. Bummer struck out Marcus Semien and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to start the inning. But the three right-handed hitters that followed -- Teoscar Hernandez, Breyvic Valera and Alejandro Kirk -- delivered three straight singles, the last of which produced a 2-1 Toronto lead.

Finally, La Russa gave Bummer the hook, and he goes to ... Jose Ruiz. To be fair to Ruiz, his defense failed him. Yoan Moncada kicked a grounder by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to load the bases. The inning should have been over. But Ruiz walked Randal Grichuk on four pitches to force in Toronto's third and final run of the night, and that's hard to accept.

Ruiz has proven time and again he doesn't belong in high-leverage spots. I guess if he was going to be the guy to come in, might as well have stuck with Bummer, huh?

Regardless, the Sox can't hit right now. They managed only six hits, all singles, and struck out 16 times in this loss. For this team, it doesn't end well when the home run power isn't there.

The Sox are 73-55. The AL Central lead is nine games, after Cleveland beat Texas on Wednesday.

If the White Sox only win the AL Central, does that qualify as a good season?

Tim Anderson

The White Sox's performance in Tampa Bay over the weekend didn't exactly convince me that this team is bound for October glory.

Admittedly, winning one out of three on the road against the team with the best record in the American League is hardly a disaster. In fact, it was probably an expected result.

However, watching these three games, I just didn't like *how* the results unfolded in this three-game series.

The Sox made it difficult on themselves in the one game they won -- a 7-5 victory in 11 innings Friday night. They got seven quality innings from Lucas Giolito and took a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the eighth.

That's when the super bullpen that is supposed to help carry the Sox in the playoffs is supposed to appear, right? 

Nope. Not this time. Craig Kimbrel and Aaron Bummer combined to give up three runs and send the Sox into the ninth inning facing a 5-4 deficit.

That's when Tim Anderson put on his Superman cape. He homered in the top of the ninth to tie it. Then he singled in the go-ahead run in the top of the 11th and scored an insurance run to make it 7-5.

Anderson went 3 for 6 with four runs scored and basically won the game for the Sox. Great for him, but I would have preferred to see the bullpen lock up a nice, clean 4-2 win.

On Saturday, Dallas Keuchel made a start in his personal house of horrors. Lifetime at Tropicana Field, he's 0-5 with a 6.44 ERA in six starts. In this game, he gave up six runs on nine hits over five innings. He dug the Sox a 6-1 hole in an eventual 8-4 loss that was only somewhat competitive.

Keuchel's approach of throwing sinkers to induce ground balls just doesn't work on the turf in Tampa Bay. Those grounders were shooting past the Sox infielders all afternoon.

But if you thought Saturday was noncompetitive, you should have seen Sunday, when the Sox lost 9-0. Tampa Bay starter Chris Archer left after two innings with a hip injury, but four Rays relievers covered the last seven innings with astonishingly little difficulty. It took the Sox until the sixth inning to get a runner to second base.

Sox starter Reynaldo Lopez was mediocre -- he allowed three runs over four innings -- but he would have had to give up negative runs to have any chance of winning this game. It was ugly in all facets.

So, where does this series loss leave the Sox? Well, they are 72-53, still 9.5 games ahead of the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central.

Barring a historic collapse in the final 37 games of the season, the Sox will win their division and go to the playoffs. And if they do, the achievement is not insignificant -- the Sox haven't won their division since 2008.

The question is, if the Sox win the AL Central, then make a quick exit in the AL Division Series, does that still qualify as a good season? 

It seems as though that's the most likely outcome. The Sox are certainly better than the Cleveland Indians or anyone else in their division, but they would be clear underdogs in a five-game playoff series against Tampa Bay, the Houston Astros or the New York Yankees.

I mean, two or three years ago, every Sox fan would have killed for the opportunity to win the division and go to the playoffs. So, if you're happy about the way the season is going, you have every right to that joy.

But is that enough for this team? I'm going to say no. I'm not going to be happy if this team fails to win a playoff round, and it's because of the comments we've heard coming from the White Sox themselves, and others affiliated with the team.

The players, the front office, the broadcasters, they have all basically indicated that anything less than the World Series would be a disappointment. Hell, the GM said as much on the first day of spring training.

The Sox didn't hire Tony La Russa as manager to bow out in the first round of the playoffs, nor did they make a major move to acquire Kimbrel at the trade deadline to make a quick October exit.

This team expects to compete for a championship, and you cannot blame fans who hold them to that standard.

Unfortunately, the Sox are 7-15 on the road against winning teams this season, and this latest series against Tampa Bay was a kick-to-the-groin reminder that we're still waiting for the Sox to make that step forward from being a nice little team to being a legitimate title contender.

Reminder: Liam Hendriks is still the White Sox closer

Liam Hendriks

A closer controversy on the South Side of Chicago? Give me a break.

The White Sox closer is Liam Hendriks. And he reminded everyone of that Wednesday, retiring all five men he faced to secure a 3-2 win over the Oakland A's.

Newly acquired Craig Kimbrel was not available for Wednesday's game, and Aaron Bummer got into a jam in the top of the eighth inning.

Bummer gave up back-to-back singles with one out. Hendriks entered and cleaned up the mess, retiring Mitch Moreland on a grounder to first base and Mark Canha on a routine fly to center field.

Hendriks then had a dominant ninth inning, striking out Starling Marte, Matt Olson and Jed Lowrie in succession. That's not an easy save -- those are the 2-3-4 hitters in the Oakland batting order, and the A's are a contending club.

I've seen a lot of chatter online about Kimbrel possibly supplanting Hendriks as the Sox closer, and Hendriks did not help himself with back-to-back poor outings against the New York Yankees last week.

However, Hendriks leads the American League with 28 saves, and a couple of bad games doesn't erase four months of effective relief work.

Not to mention, the Sox are committed to Hendriks for at least three years. He chose to sign with the Sox last offseason when he could have gone elsewhere. There's a long-term commitment made by both parties there, and I think that matters. Hendriks isn't going to lose his job that easily.

There's also this: Kimbrel hasn't pitched that well since joining the Sox. He has a 4.70 ERA in 7.2 innings and eight appearances since coming over from the Cubs. I wouldn't say he's forcing the Sox's hand here.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if Kimbrel is used in a closing opportunity if one arises Thursday. Hendriks probably isn't going to work back-to-back days after recording five outs Wednesday. But make no mistake, he's the closer.

The Sox are 71-50. They have a 12-game lead in the AL Central.

When the White Sox hit home runs, they win

Yoan Moncada

When the White Sox hit at least one home run in a game, they typically win. When they do not homer, they typically lose.

I guess that makes them typical of baseball in 2021, right?

The Sox are now 30-6 when they hit a home run after they hit four solo shots Thursday in a 4-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers.

Yoan Moncada got the Sox on the board in the bottom of the first inning with his fifth home run of the season. It was a good piece of hitting from Moncada -- Detroit starter Casey Mize (3-4) threw a splitter at the knees on the outside corner, and the Sox third baseman went with the pitch and hit it into the left-field bullpen.

Jake Lamb made it 2-0 in the bottom of the second when he hit a Mize fastball to Goose Island in right field. For Lamb, it was his fourth home run of the season. Lamb is now batting .265 with a .931 OPS. He might be in line for some more playing time against right-handed pitchers.

The Sox took a 2-1 lead into the seventh inning, when Yasmani Grandal connected against Mize for a 457-foot homer to right-center field that left the ballpark traveling at 110 mph. It was Grandal's seventh home run of the season. The Sox catcher continues to have the most bizarre season of any player in baseball. His season slash line is .137/.384/.363. Obviously, Grandal has the lowest batting average of any Sox regular, but he also has the second-highest on-base percentage, behind only Moncada (.426).

Tim Anderson hadn't homered since May 13, but he broke that drought in the bottom of the eighth with a solo shot to dead center off Detroit reliever Daniel Norris. It was Anderson's sixth home run of the season, and that capped the scoring.

For the record, the Sox are 4-16 this season when they do not hit a home run.

The power barrage helped right-hander Lance Lynn improve to 7-1 on the season. Lynn worked six innings, allowing a run on four hits with six strikeouts and two walks.

Relievers Aaron Bummer, Evan Marshall and Liam Hendriks each worked a scoreless inning in relief. Hendriks earned his 14th save in 16 chances.

It was good to see Marshall collect two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 eighth inning. The Sox need either Marshall or Codi Heuer to step up in high-leverage relief in the seventh and eighth innings. In this game, Marshall got it done, as he made quick work of the top three hitters in the Detroit batting order.

Heading into Friday's action, the Sox are 34-22 and have a three-game lead over the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central. Thursday's game was the first of four against Detroit.

Tuesday was a demoralizing and angering day to be a White Sox fan

Yermin Mercedes

People often wonder why I'm not enthusiastic about the 2021 White Sox. Yes, they are in first place. And they probably should win their division, even with all the injuries they have.

But I have no confidence in the organization whatsoever. Days like Tuesday are why.

The day started with manager Tony La Russa calling Yermin Mercedes "clueless" and generally ripping the rookie designated hitter to shreds in public.

Why? Because Mercedes committed the "big mistake" of hitting a home run on a 3-0 pitch in the ninth inning of a 15-4 game Monday night -- off a 47-mph eephus pitch from Minnesota utilityman Willians Astudillo.

The only one clueless here is La Russa, who belongs in a retirement home. If you look around the baseball world, most people are supporting Mercedes, who provided a fun moment in a game that was out of hand and generally uninteresting otherwise.

In what alternate baseball universe are we living in where hitting a home run is a "big mistake"?

The only people offended seemed to be the biased observers in the Minnesota TV booth and, well, La Russa, who for some reason is worried about "respecting" the Twins.

I don't care about the Twins and their feelings. The Sox won Monday's game 16-4. My only regret is they didn't win 26-4.

Nobody associated with the Sox should care about the Twins or their feelings. Sadly, La Russa is putting his regard for the Twins ahead of his own team. He needs to knock that off immediately. You support your players in the media, even if you disagree with something they've done. 

If he wants to have a private conversation about this with Mercedes, fine, but you don't call someone who has been a key contributor to your team for the first quarter of the season "clueless" in a public setting.

To make matters worse, the Sox had a 4-0 lead after three innings Tuesday night with Lance Lynn on the mound. They blew the whole thing and lost, 5-4.

They gave up three home runs to Miguel Sano, who came into this game with a .141 batting average. Sano's third home run of the night, a two-run shot in the bottom of the eighth that tied the game at 4 off Aaron Bummer, didn't need to happen. First base was open. The situation called for an intentional walk, or at least a pitch-around. 

"Clueless" La Russa apparently didn't think of that.

Bummer gave up a leadoff hit to Andrelton Simmons in the bottom of the ninth. As the inning progressed, Liam Hendriks lost the game by grooving a fastball right down the middle to Jorge Polanco, who doubled off the wall to score Simmons with the winning run.

And let's not forget the wonderful Sox lineup, which failed to score a single run the last five innings of the game against the reeling Minnesota bullpen.

Yes, the Sox are 25-16. Yes, the Twins are 14-26. But this was the archetypal White Sox choke job in Minnesota, and coming on the heels of the manager's asinine comments earlier in the day, it was just a demoralizing, infuriating day for me as a Sox fan.

The organization just cannot get out of its own way. Even when they have a good thing going, they invent ways to screw it up.

White Sox complete three-game sweep of Royals

Carlos Rodon

The White Sox kicked off a stretch of 13 straight games against AL Central opponents in strong fashion this weekend, sweeping three games against the Royals in Kansas City.

Coming into the series, it appeared the Sox had the edge in the pitching matchup in all three games, and they took advantage, just as you would hope they would do. They outscored the Royals 21-4 in the series, and at 19-13, the Sox now lead the Cleveland Indians by one game in the AL Central race.

Kansas City (16-17) has lost eight consecutive games and has fallen 3.5 games off the division lead.

Let's take a look back at the weekend that was:

Friday, May 7

White Sox 3, Royals 0: If anyone tells you they expected greatness from Carlos Rodon this season, they are lying. Rodon was considered the No. 5 pitcher in the rotation when the year started, but right now, he's the best the Sox have. He's started five games, and he's 5-0 with a 0.58 ERA.

Rodon has not allowed more than one run in any start yet this season. And he's allowed no more than five hits in any of those games. The left-hander did allow five hits in this game over six scoreless innings, but he struck out eight and didn't walk anybody. 

The three runs the Sox scored for him, highlighted by Zack Collins' second home run of the season, ended up being enough.

But getting back to Rodon, he is the first pitcher since Pedro Martinez in 2000 to allow five hits or less in each of his first five starts of the season. That was Martinez at his Hall of Fame peak, so that tells you what a good stretch Rodon has had.  

Saturday, May 8

White Sox 9, Royals 1: The Sox have made a habit of feasting on left-handed starters in recent times, and Royals rookie Daniel Lynch -- making his second MLB start -- got blown to bits in this game.

The Sox sent 13 men to the plate in the first inning and scored eight runs. Lynch recorded only two outs, while being charged with eight earned runs on seven hits. Highlighting in the rally: a two-run double by Yoan Moncada, a sacrifice fly by Yasmani Grandal, an RBI double by Andrew Vaughn, an RBI triple by Leury Garcia, a two-run homer by Danny Mendick and another RBI single by Moncada.

That was pretty much the game. Sox starter Lance Lynn walked four over five innings, so he wasn't overly sharp with his control. But he only allowed one hit, and he easily improved to 3-1 with the big lead.

Sunday, May 9

White Sox 9, Royals 3: Hey, a win with Lucas Giolito on the mound! Giolito (2-3) wasn't his sharpest -- he only went five innings and had just two strikeouts. But he only allowed a run in the first inning.

The Sox quickly bounced back with three in the second and two in the third to take an early 5-1 lead, and the Royals never came close to getting back in the game. 

The South Siders are 21-1 against lefty starters since the start of the 2020 season, and they avenged the only loss by tagging Kansas City starter Mike Minor for those five runs.

Jose Abreu and Yermin Mercedes each had two hits and three RBIs to lead a 10-hit attack for the Sox.

Also of note on the pitching side, lefty reliever Aaron Bummer retired all five batters he faced, three of them by strikeout.

Evan Marshall stabilizes White Sox bullpen by escaping sixth-inning jam

Evan Marshall

The White Sox scored a run in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3, on Monday night. The run was scored on a throwing error, and the Sox will take it, but the most importance sequence of the game came in the top of the sixth inning.

The Sox were leading, 3-2, when starter Dallas Keuchel fell apart. He walked the No. 9 hitter to start the inning, then gave up a single and a walk to load the bases with nobody out.

Worse, Cleveland's best player, Jose Ramirez, was the next batter up. If you're playing the Indians, you want to avoid putting yourself in a situation where Ramirez can hurt you. This was the opposite of that. Keuchel boxed the Sox into a corner where they had no choice but to pitch to Ramirez.

Manager Tony La Russa summoned Evan Marshall from the bullpen. Marshall had struggled in his previous outings this season, but he did a masterful job in this case against the 3-4-5 hitters in the Cleveland batting order.

After falling behind 2-0 on Ramirez, he rallied to strike him out on a fastball up and out of the zone. Franmil Reyes managed a sacrifice fly to tie the game, and then Eddie Rosario -- who had homered earlier off Keuchel -- flied out weakly to left field for the third out.

You could not have asked for better from Marshall in that sequence. Sure, the lead was lost, but given the hitters that were due up, only one inherited runner scoring out of bases-loaded, no-outs situation is excellent work.

Marshall, Aaron Bummer and Codi Heuer kept the Indians off the board the last three innings. Heuer worked 2.1 innings, retiring seven of the eight batters he faced with four strikeouts. He earned the win.

The Sox offense failed to score after loading the bases with no outs in the sixth, after Yermin Mercedes struck out and Yasmani Grandal hit into a 3-6-1 double play.

But, those two players redeemed themselves in the ninth. Mercedes reached on an infield single with one out. Grandal walked, advancing pinch runner Nick Madrigal to second base.

Nick Williams followed with a chopper to Cleveland first baseman Yu Chang, who tried to get Grandal at second for the force. But, his errant throw hit Grandal in the helmet and bounded away. Madrigal raced around third to score the winning run on the play.

The Sox broke a six-game losing streak against the Indians dating back to last season, and evened their season record at 5-5. The Indians are now 5-4.

Should be an interesting game Tuesday night, with Sox ace Lucas Giolito going up against the reigning Cy Young award winner in the American League, Cleveland's Shane Bieber.