Luis Robert Jr. or Garrett Crochet? You can only keep one

The Major League Baseball trade deadline is July 30. For the second straight season, the White Sox will be active sellers. As many as seven or eight players could be somewhere other than Chicago by this time next week.

Of course, the two biggest potential trade chips are left-handed All-Star pitcher Garrett Crochet and center fielder Luis Robert Jr.

We don't have a crystal ball here at The Baseball Kid, so we won't pretend to know what comes next. Both Robert and Crochet could be dealt, or both of them could still be here for the final two months of the season.

But, as a hypothetical exercise, if you could only keep one of Robert and Crochet, and you had to trade the other, who would you keep? 

Conventional wisdom would probably say keep the position player, not the starting pitcher. After all, your center fielder plays every day, and theoretically, he can lift you to victory at any given time. Your ace starter plays only once every five days. Therefore, there's only so much impact he can make.

So, keep Robert, right? After all, he's the only player on the Sox who is competent both offensively and defensively.

I understand that point, but I'm going to go against the grain here. I'd keep Crochet.

Power lefties such as Crochet are hard to come by. He just turned 25 years old. He's already gotten his inevitable Tommy John surgery out of the way, and he looks like a guy who is going to be in Cy Young contention over the next few years.

He's really surprised me in his first full year as a starting pitcher. Despite all the talk of innings limits, he hasn't shown any signs of slowing down, 21 outings into his season. He leads the American League in strikeouts with 157, and he's second in baseball behind some guy named Dylan Cease (159 Ks). Remember him?

But I digress. The other thing I like about Crochet is he has a WHIP of 0.970 in 111.1 innings. For a starting pitcher to have a WHIP under 1.00, that's really impressive. And he has only 25 walks against those 157 strikeouts. That's a 6.28 strikeout-to-walk ratio. I like pitchers who throw strikes, strike people out and don't put many people on base.

Pitchers like that are cornerstones, not trade chips.

I can hear you know, "Oh, but Jerry Reinsdorf will never sign him."

Let me say this as gently as possible: Screw Jerry. Too many fans are OK with the Sox making bad baseball decisions because Jerry is a cheap old miser who is too evil to die.

Crochet still has two more years of team control. You don't have to sign him or trade him now. So don't force the issue.

What about Robert, you say? Well, he's still a prodigious talent, but the combination of injuries and poor decision-making on the field -- especially his swing decisions at the plate -- has given me pause about whether he's really a player you build around.

Robert finally played a full season -- 145 games -- in 2023, and he had a breakout year, delivering 38 home runs. But that's the only season of his career in which he's topped 100 games.

A strained hip flexor caused him to miss two months here in 2024. He was playing in just his 49th game of the season Wednesday night against the Texas Rangers. In his first 48 games, he put up a pedestrian slash line of .227/.300/.464. 

Sure, he's got 12 homers, and he'll wow you with that power. And when he's focused in the field, he's a Gold Glove center fielder. But with the team out of the pennant race, we've seen some terrible defensive lapses from him, and he's still swinging at a lot of pitches out of the zone. When is he going to fix that weakness? Maybe never.

Robert has struck out a remarkable 67 times through his first 48 games. When he's right at the plate, he's something to watch, but when he's off, he's prone to long slumps, and he's basically an automatic out.

On a good team, Robert is somebody who bats sixth and maybe finishes off a rally with an extra-base hit. He can certainly help a team, but for me, he's not THE GUY.

Crochet is trending toward being THE GUY in a starting rotation, and that's why I'd keep him over Robert if I had to choose one.

White Sox trade Robbie Grossman to Texas for pitching prospect

The White Sox sell-off of veterans players has begun, perhaps a little earlier than anticipated.

Outfielder Robbie Grossman was traded to the Texas Rangers on Wednesday, in exchange for Double-A pitching prospect Anthony Hoopii-Tuionetoa.

Grossman, 34, batted .211/.329/.268 in 25 games with the Sox. He stood out in the free-swinging Sox lineup as one of the few guys who was willing to take a walk. He drew 13 walks in 85 plate appearances, and he saw 4.45 pitches per plate appearance.

That being said, Grossman was without a home run and had only four doubles, a far cry from his 23-homer peak with the Detroit Tigers in 2021.

Hoopii-Tuionetoa, 23, is a right-handed reliever from Hawaii. He was pitching at Double-A Frisco, where he made 10 appearances this season. He was 1-0 with 0.73 ERA. He had 16 strikeouts and four walks across 12.1 innings pitched. Reports say he's a fastball-slider pitcher, with his fastball velocity averaging about 96 mph.

He will report to Double-A Birmingham.

Texas rookie Wyatt Langford just hit the injured list, so that created a need for another outfielder on the Rangers roster. Grossman was with the Rangers last season when they won the World Series, so they know him, and they know he still has one above-average skill -- his ability to work counts and get on base.

This makes sense for the Sox, too, as Grossman's usefulness was likely to run out once Luis Robert Jr. comes off the injured list. Robert will eventually return to his usual spot in center field, with Tommy Pham shifting over to right field. That would leave Grossman without a role, so perhaps it's best to move him now. The Sox now have turned him into a relief prospect that they can try to develop. Nothing wrong with that.

White Sox 4, Rays 1

Chris Flexen pitched six innings of one-run ball, and Paul DeJong hit a 2-run homer as the Sox salvaged the final game of a three-game series Wednesday night, defeating the Tampa Bay Rays, 4-1.

The Sox trailed 1-0 after four innings, before DeJong put them ahead to stay with his team-leading fifth home run of the season in the top of the fifth.

Rookie Bryan Ramos and Pham added RBI singles in the top of the sixth inning, as the Sox lengthened their lead to 4-1.

Flexen (2-3) allowed only three hits during his season-best outing. He struck out eight and walked one. Three Sox relievers combined for three scoreless innings, with Michael Kopech getting three outs in the ninth for his third save of the season. 

The Sox are 9-28 after completing a 3-3 road trip to St. Louis and Tampa Bay. They will host Cleveland in a four-game set starting Thursday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Kendall Graveman trade: Nobody wins

Former White Sox reliever Kendall Graveman will miss the 2024 season after undergoing right shoulder surgery, the Houston Astros announced Tuesday.

Graveman, you may recall, was traded to the Astros last July 28 in exchange for catcher Korey Lee. The right-hander made 23 appearances with Houston after the trade, going 2-2 with a 2.42 ERA in 22.1 innings.

Because of the shoulder injury, Graveman did not make the 2023 playoff roster for the Astros, as they advanced to the American League Championship Series before losing to the eventual World Series champion Texas Rangers.

Houston owes Graveman $8 million in 2024 for the last year of his contract. That obviously becomes dead money for the club.

You could say the Sox are fortunate they don't have to pay that money, and that they traded Graveman at the right time.

However, Lee has proven to be no prize. He received a 24-game audition behind the plate at the end of the 2023 season and did nothing with it. The 25-year-old batted .077/.143/.149, with just five hits in 70 plate appearances. 

That caused Sox GM Chris Getz to sign 37-year-old veteran catcher Martin Maldonado as a free agent and trade for 32-year-old veteran catcher Max Stassi. Those moves essentially wallpaper over Lee. Even though those two veterans are mediocre at best and on the downside of their respective careers, Lee will need a big spring training to earn a roster spot.

Don't bank on that. This trade looks to be one that did not help either side. Nobody wins.

Rangers beat Diamondbacks in 5-game World Series

Our congratulations go out to the Texas Rangers, who are the 2023 World Series champions after beating the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-0, in Game 5 on Wednesday night.

The Rangers took the series, 4 games to 1, and this is the first time in team history that they have won the World Series.

Sure, the ratings sucked, but so what? I don't work for Fox, and I'm happy to see a different team win for a change.

The Rangers won it with their stars. Shortstop Corey Seager was named World Series MVP after homering three times in the five-game series. He had 16 total bases and a 1.137 OPS during that span.

Marcus Semien had five RBIs in two swings in Game 4. He had a two-run-triple and a three-run homer in the first three innings as the Rangers raced out to a 10-0 lead in an eventual 11-7 win. Semien put the clinching Game 5 out of reach with a two-run homer that took the score from 3-0 to 5-0.

American League Championship Series MVP Adolis Garcia strained his oblique in Game 3 and did not play again. But he won the Rangers the first game of the series, 6-5, with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 11th inning. That blast came after Seager hit a two-run homer to tie the game in the ninth.

The Rangers also had some unsung heroes. How about relief pitcher Josh Sborz? During the regular season, Sborz was mediocre at best -- he went 6-7 with a 5.50 ERA in 44 appearances. But in the playoffs, Sborz tossed 12 innings across 10 appearances. He allowed only one run. He capped it off with a seven-out save in Game 5, striking out Ketel Marte looking for the final out of the season.

For Seager, it was his second World Series MVP. He also won it with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020. He becomes only the fourth player in baseball history to win multiple World Series MVP awards. The others are Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson. All three of those players are in the Hall of Fame.

Texas manager Bruce Bochy captured his fourth World Series championship. He won three of them with the San Francisco Giants -- 2010, 2012 and 2014. Bochy's clubs are now 17-4 in games where they have an opportunity to clinch. He's 6-0 lifetime as a manager in Game 7s, including the Rangers' win over the Houston Astros in the ALCS this season.

The Rangers finished the postseason an astonishing 11-0 on the road. They were only 2-4 at home in the playoffs. They'll be remembered as a team that capitalized on "road team advantage." The previous record for road victories in a single playoff run was eight. I'm thinking the new record of 11 will stand for a while.

2023 World Series schedule: Rangers vs. Diamondbacks

Here is the 2023 World Series schedule, featuring the American League champion Texas Rangers and the National League champion Arizona Diamondbacks. 

All games are on FOX. All games start at 7:03 p.m. Central:

• Friday, Oct. 27: Diamondbacks at Rangers
• Saturday, Oct. 28: Diamondbacks at Rangers
• Monday, Oct. 30: Rangers at Diamondbacks
• Tuesday, Oct. 31: Rangers at Diamondbacks
• Wednesday, Nov. 1: Rangers at Diamondbacks (if necessary)
• Friday, Nov. 3: Diamondbacks at Rangers (if necessary)
• Saturday, Nov. 4: Diamondbacks at Rangers (if necessary)

Wow, a potential Game 7 on Nov. 4. Good thing they aren't playing in a northern city, huh?

Diamondbacks prove that nobody knows anything with Game 7 win

So, the Arizona Diamondbacks are in the World Series after their 4-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series.

I'll admit it: I didn't think there was anyway in hell that Arizona was going to win two games in a row at Philadelphia to close that series, but that's exactly what happened. 

This once again proves that the only thing I know about baseball is that I know nothing about baseball.

But, good for the Diamondbacks. They are an improbable underdog story. They won only 84 games in the regular season, and they were the sixth and final team to qualify for the NL playoffs.

Arizona had a minus-15 run differential during the regular season, which pencils out to an 80-82 Pythagorean record. The Diamondbacks become the first team to qualify for the World Series with a losing Pythagorean record since the 1987 world champion Minnesota Twins.

This has created quite a debate among baseball people. Is an 84-win league champion proof that too many teams get in the playoffs? Has the postseason become too watered down? Has the value of a good regular season been disregarded?

Honestly, these debates are as old as time. I've heard them in some form for my entire 47 years on the planet. The nature of baseball inevitably leads to upsets in a short playoff series. There's a tremendous amount of variance in small sample sizes.

The Diamondbacks are hardly the first team to advance this far in the playoffs with a rather pedestrian record. Remember the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals? Yeah, they were 83-78, the champions of a weak NL Central. They also won the World Series.

But let's go back a generation or two farther, to an era when only four teams were allowed in the playoffs. 

Remember the 1973 New York Mets? They were 82-79, the champions of a weak NL East. They beat the Cincinnatii Reds -- the Big Red Machine of the 1970s -- in a five-game NLCS. Then they took the Oakland A's to seven games in the World Series before losing. 

Mind you, that was a dynastic Oakland team. The A's won the World Series three years in a row from 1972-1974, but they needed a seventh game to swat away an 82-win team to take the title.

Were the playoffs watered down in 1973 too? You see, there's no perfect system. I see both positives and negatives in the Diamondbacks' story.

The Good: This shows that a smaller-market team has a chance. Why should fans in New York and Los Angeles have all the fun? Even teams that don't get a lot of media attention have an opportunity if they get into the playoffs and peak at the right time.

The Bad: This disincentives teams to strive for greatness. If you have a 92-win team, why bother adding to it to try to become a 100-win team? We've seen this year that regular-season success is just that. It guarantees nothing in the playoffs.

Like I said, no perfect system. But this excitement and intrigue is what we watch baseball for, right? Let's just enjoy the World Series. Neither the Diamondbacks nor the Texas Rangers have been on baseball's biggest stage in a while. Good for them. I'm looking forward to watching.

Rangers slay Astros; Diamondbacks for Game 7

So, is it time to start talking about road-field advantage?

The Texas Rangers lost all three of their home games in the American League Championship Series, but they went 4-0 on the road. They knocked out the Houston Astros and advanced to the 2023 World Series with a 11-4 victory Monday night.

I have to admit, I wasn't feeling too good about Texas' chances after they lost Game 5 in dramatic fashion. Jose Altuve's 3-run homer in the ninth inning of that game lifted the Astros to a 5-4 win  -- and a 3-2 series lead.

But the Rangers answered big time as the series shifted back to Houston. They used a five-run ninth inning to blow open a tight game in Game 6, tying the series with a 9-2 victory. Adolis Garcia was 0 for 4 with four strikeouts until that ninth inning, when he delivered a grand slam that put the game out of reach.

Garcia continued his heroics in Game 7, going 4 for 5 with two homers and five RBIs. So, in his last six plate appearances of the series, he had five hits -- including three homers -- and nine RBIs. That's clutch.

Corey Seager and Nathaniel Lowe also homered for the Rangers in the deciding game. Texas scored three runs in the first inning, added one in the third and four in the fourth. The Rangers had an 8-2 lead by that point and never relinquished control.

Diamondbacks force NLCS Game 7

After the Philadelphia Phillies won Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, 10-0, I thought the Arizona Diamondbacks were dead.

I was wrong.

Arizona has since taken three of four games. The Diamondbacks tied the series at 3-all with a 5-1 victory in Philadelphia on Monday.

Phillies starter Aaron Nola had been 3-0 with a 0.96 ERA in these playoffs, but the Diamondbacks got to him for three runs in the second inning, highlighted by back-to-back home runs by Tommy Pham and Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

Arizona's Merrill Kelly tossed five innings of one-run ball, and four Diamondback relievers limited Philadelphia's offense to three singles over the last four innings. For a change, the Phillies did not homer, and that's the key to beating them -- keep them in the ballpark.

Game 7 is Tuesday night. Brandon Pfaadt is pitching for the Diamondbacks. The Phillies will counter with Ranger Suarez.

Texas Rangers take 2-0 series lead in ALCS

Coming into the American League Championship Series, the Texas Rangers were 8-32 in their previous 40 games at Houston.

That doesn't matter much now, does it?

The Rangers won each of the first two games of the ALCS in Houston, beating the Astros, 2-0, on Sunday night and following it up with a 5-4 victory on Monday.

Texas left-hander Jordan Montgomery outpitched Houston ace Justin Verlander in Sunday's matchup. Montgomery tossed 6.1 shutout innings, while Verlander gave up two runs over 6.2 innings.

On Monday, the Rangers jumped on Houston starter Framber Valdez for four runs in the first inning, then held on for dear life in the late innings. 

Nathan Eovaldi improved to 3-0 in the playoffs. He gave up three runs over six innings, but his big achievement was pitching out of a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the bottom of the fifth. That was the moment you felt as though it was the Rangers' night.

Is it the Rangers' year? Well, they are 7-0 in the playoffs, including 6-0 on the road, and now they get to go home with a commanding lead in the ALCS. 

Texas beat the 101-win Baltimore Orioles in the Division Series as part of a remarkable group of upsets. The 90-win Philadelphia Phillies slayed the 104-win Atlanta Braves, while the 84-win Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the 100-win Los Angeles Dodgers.

It's been a crazy playoff year so far, and that's sparked some calls for changing the playoff format. Supposedly, the regular season has been "devalued" by these results.

Thing is, none of this is all that surprising. Baseball is unlike other sports in the sense that in a short series, a weaker team can beat a stronger team. It happens every week during the regular season, and we don't say a thing about it. When it happens in the playoffs, it's the end of the world.

Honestly, if you want to "reward the regular season," you can't have an expanded playoff. If you have 12 postseason teams, then every one of those 12 teams has at least a puncher's chance.

Right now, the Rangers are playing their best baseball, and they've got the defending champion Astros on the ropes.

Wild card round lacks drama, produces 4 sweeps

When the Tampa Bay Rays started 20-3, who would have thought their season was destined to end in the American League wild card round?

The Texas Rangers swept Tampa Bay in the best-of-three series this week, winning 4-0 on Tuesday and 7-1 on Wednesday.

It was one of four sweeps during the wild card round, but the Rays were probably the most disappointing quick exit of the four teams that lost.

Tampa Bay didn't really blow the AL East -- it won 99 games. You have to give credit to the Baltimore Orioles, who won 101 games and came from behind to take the division. 

That left the Rays matched up with the Rangers in the No. 4-vs.-No. 5 series. Granted, this is a very different Tampa Bay team than the one we saw in April. Starting pitchers Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs are all out for the season. The Rays were also missing their starting middle infield -- Wander Franco (administrative leave) and Brandon Lowe (leg injury).

However, it's still has to be considered a face-plant when a 99-win team gets outscored 11-1 on its home field during a playoff series. 

I'm envious of the Texas lineup -- Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, Adolis Garcia -- these are star-level players, and I think you win with stars in the playoffs. I'm not sure the Rangers have enough pitching depth, starters or relievers, to beat the Orioles in the next round. However, that lineup gives them a chance.

The Rays weren't the only AL East wild card to exit early, as the Minnesota Twins defeated the Toronto Blue Jays by scores of 3-1 and 2-0.

Minnesota has two good starting pitchers in Pablo Lopez and Sonny Gray, but the Toronto lineup was absolutely terrible with runners in scoring position in this series. The Blue Jays stranded 18 runners in the series, nine in each game.

For the Twins, this is their first playoff series win since 2002. They had lost 18 consecutive postseason games before they won Tuesday. Now, they've won two in a row. I guess they were due. Minnesota faces AL West champ Houston in the next round.

National League

No National League Central Division team has won a postseason series since 2019. In fact, Central Division clubs have lost 20 of their last 22 playoff games.

The 92-win Milwaukee Brewers added to that misery by getting swept in two games by the 84-win Arizona Diamondbacks. The Brewers had an early 3-0 lead Tuesday. They lost 6-3. The Brewers had an early 2-0 lead Wednesday. They lost 5-2. 

The Diamondbacks are an athletic team, good defensively, and they showed some power in this series. Corbin Carroll, Ketel Marte and Gabriel Moreno all homered off Milwaukee ace Corbin Burnes in Game 1. Alek Thomas started the Arizona comeback with a homer in Game 2.

Now the Diamondbacks will try their luck against the NL West champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

On the other side of the bracket, defending NL champion Philadelphia overwhelmed the Miami Marlins, defeating them 4-1 on Tuesday and 7-1 on Wednesday.

That sets up a rematch between the Phillies and the NL East champion Atlanta Braves. Atlanta won a MLB-best 104 wins in the regular season, but Philadelphia upset the Braves in this same round last season.

Without a doubt, Braves-Phillies is the series to watch in the days ahead. The general wisdom says the NL champion will be either the Braves or Dodgers, but the Phillies are the team best positioned to upset that line of thinking.

As I mentioned before, you win with stars in the playoffs, and Philadelphia has some great players -- Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, heck, you gotta throw Kyle Schwarber in there given the way he raises his level of play in the postseason. The Phillies have the stars to match the Braves' guys -- Ronald Acuna Jr., Matt Olson, Austin Riley, etc.

That series is going to come down to which stars on which team step forward. It should be better theater than this anticlimatic wild card round.

Trea Turner to Phillies; Justin Verlander signs with Mets

Trea Turner

“I really philosophically believe that you win with star players."

It's hard to argue with Dave Dombrowski, president of baseball operations with the Philadelphia Phillies, because he's built a lot of winning teams throughout his years in baseball.

The Phillies came up just short in 2022, losing to the Houston Astros in the World Series. On Monday, the first day of the Winter Meetings in San Diego, Philadelphia moved to address one of its holes by agreeing to terms with superstar shortstop Trea Turner on a 11-year, $300 million deal.

Turner is 29 years old, and I'm sure by the end of that contract, he probably won't be worth his salary. But that's a problem for another day. The Phillies are looking to win in 2023, and that's commendable. Opportunity only presents itself so often, and it's important to push chips into the middle of the table when the time comes.

Philadelphia has a lot of big contracts on its books. Bryce Harper ($26 million), Zack Wheeler ($24.5 million), J.T. Realmuto ($23.9 million), Nick Castellanos ($20 million), Kyle Schwarber ($20 million) and Aaron Nola ($16 million) are raking in the money with the Phillies. Add Turner's $27.3 million AAV to that list. 

But you know what? Harper, Turner, Realmuto, Wheeler and Nola are all blue-chip players, and you win with those types of guys. And while I'm not a fan of "three true outcome" batters as a rule, credit Schwarber for leading the National League with 46 home runs last season.

I wish my favorite team had All-Star talent like the Phillies do. They are giving themselves a chance in the rugged NL East.

Verlander signs with Mets 

Speaking of the NL East, Justin Verlander is signing with the New York Mets, agreeing to a two-year, $86.7 million contract.

Verlander, the Cy Young Award winner in the American League in 2022, leaves the Astros and basically takes the place of Jacob deGrom at the top of the New York rotation.

The Texas Rangers signed deGrom to a five-year, $185 million contract over the weekend, and you figured the deep-pocketed Mets would respond quickly.

Indeed they did, as Verlander will join former Detroit Tigers teammate Max Scherzer to form a 1-2 punch with the Mets.

I think this is a win for New York because even though Verlander is 40 years old, I trust him to stay healthy more than I would deGrom. Verlander gave the Astros 28 starts and 175 innings last season, going 18-4 with a 1.75 ERA.

Meanwhile, deGrom has totaled only 26 starts and and 156.1 innings over the past two seasons combined. He's still one of the best in the league when he takes the mound, but at age 34, you have to wonder what the Rangers are getting there. I'm not a huge proponent of signing pitchers with long injury histories.

Granted, you never really know with pitchers, but I think the Mets are getting a little more certainty with Verlander.

White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson out six weeks with hand injury

Tim Anderson

Has anyone heard of a sagittal band before? 

Before today, that term was foreign to me. But White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson has a sagittal band tear on the middle finger of his left hand. He will undergo surgery Thursday, and the Sox placed him on the 10-day disabled list Tuesday. He will be out for six weeks.

This could be the death blow for whatever hopes the Sox have of winning the American League Central Division, but then again, Anderson has been poor lately.

In the 39 games since he returned from his last injury -- a groin strain suffered Memorial Day weekend against the Cubs -- Anderson has hit .249/.287/.290 with just one home run. That's pretty much replacement-level performance.

By way of comparison, Leury Garcia has the exact same slugging percentage over his past 39 games (coming into Tuesday's doubleheader against the Kansas City Royals). Garcia's slash line over that time period: .237/.273/.290.

Yeah, it's pretty bleak.

The best we can hope for is that, somehow, Sox manager Tony La Russa decides to give rookie Lenyn Sosa a shot to play shortstop on a regular basis during Anderson's absence, and that Sosa makes a quick adjustment to a new level.

To be honest, the bar isn't hard to clear. All he has to do is slug .300, right?

Sosa hit his first career home run Tuesday night, giving the Sox an early lead in an eventual 3-2 victory over the Royals in Game 2 of the doubleheader. Kansas City won Game 1, 4-2, so in true Sox fashion, the South Siders played .500 baseball for the day.

For the season, the Sox are 56-54. Through the first 14 games of this 19-game stretch against losing teams, the Sox are 8-6. That's decent, but not the big run the optimists were hoping for. The Sox are still 2.0 games back of the Minnesota Twins, pending Minnesota's late result against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

I was thinking the Sox really needed to go 12-7 or 13-6 during this stretch. That is still mathematically possible, but not likely. The Sox have two games remaining in Kansas City, before a three-game weekend series at home against the Detroit Tigers.

On the current road trip through Texas and Kansas City, the Sox are 3-3. (.500 again!) And in those six games, they've scored only 17 runs. 

Yes, offense is still the problem. The Sox needed GM Rick Hahn to acquire two bats at the trade deadline. Instead, he got none, and with Anderson out, it's fair to say the Sox are playing three bats short.

Even in a weak division, good luck with that.

The next 19-game stretch for the White Sox ... it's full of losing teams

We talked yesterday about how the White Sox had a mediocre 10-9 showing during a recently completed 19-game stretch against nothing but American League Central Division opponents.

Can they do better than 10-9 in this next stretch of 19 games? Here is the competition:

• 2 games at Colorado (43-53)
  
• 3 games vs. Oakland (35-63)
  
• 3 games vs. Kansas City (38-57)
  
• 4 games at Texas (43-51)
  
• 4 games at Kansas City (38-57)
  
• 3 games vs. Detroit (39-58)

Records in parentheses are entering Monday's play. As you can see, all the upcoming opponents are losing teams that are well back in the pennant race. The combined winning percentage of these teams is .410. This is the softest part of the Sox's schedule for the entire season.

So, you've probably heard what the optimists in the fan base have been saying: The Sox have one of the weakest remaining schedules in baseball, and that should set them up for a second-half run, so on, and so forth.

Well, this is the time to make up ground, right? I won't be shocked if the Sox just go 10-9 again, and even if that's all they can muster, they probably will still be in the division race. But, if they are serious about going to the playoffs, it might behoove the Sox to come up with 12 or 13 wins during this stretch.

We'll see how it stands on Aug. 14.

My first trip to Guaranteed Rate Field in 575 days

For the first time since Sept. 27, 2019, I was at Guaranteed Rate Field on Saturday night. It was nice to unite with friends. It was great to see live baseball, and much to my pleasant surprise, the White Sox aren't making a big stink out of the COVID-19 protocols.

I had visions of ushers crapping on fans all night about masking and social distancing and whatnot, but fortunately, ballpark security is leaving people alone to enjoy a ballgame. And enjoy it we did, as the Sox beat the Texas Rangers, 2-1, as part of a three-game weekend sweep.

The Sox are finally over .500 now at 12-9, and they'll take a four-game winning streak into Monday's off day. The Detroit Tigers come to town Tuesday to start a three-game series.

A few thoughts on each game this weekend:

Friday, April 23

White Sox 9, Rangers 7: Yermin Mercedes went 4 for 4 with three RBIs to lead a 16-hit attack. The Sox led 5-0 after three innings, and 6-2 after four, only to see the Rangers rally to tie. Mercedes delivered a go-ahead RBI double in the seventh that put the South Siders ahead to stay.

That said, my biggest takeaway from this game is that the Sox need more from starting pitcher Dylan Cease, who lasted only 3.1 innings. He was fortunate to escape a bases-loaded jam in the first inning, and he needed 80 pitches to get the 10 outs he recorded.

The Sox ended up using five relief pitchers, and Liam Hendriks was needed to record a five-out save. This game was a little more dicey than you might like after having a big lead in the early innings.

Saturday, April 24

White Sox 2, Rangers 1: This was a tight pitching battle between Sox left-hander Dallas Keuchel and Texas right-hander Kyle Gibson. The Sox got on the board first when Yoan Moncada scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the sixth inning.

That 1-0 lead held up until the top of the ninth when Hendriks gave up a solo home run to Willie Calhoun. Again, Hendriks was leaned on heavily Friday night, but there is a legitimate concern that the highly paid closer has given up four homers in 8.2 innings this season. 

But let's give some credit to Calhoun on this one. He got on top of a fastball that was up and out of the zone and hit it deep to right-center field. You don't see left-handed batters hit pitches that high too often. Calhoun must have been looking there, and it was good hitting on his part.

As for Hendriks, he doesn't have the feel for his slider than I remember him having when he was dominating in Oakland. His fastball is still good, and he can get by with just that some of the time, but not all of the time. If major-league hitters can just sit on the fastball, eventually they'll catch up to it. I look for Hendriks to be more effective once he can start throwing his breaking ball for strikes.

Despite the blown save, the Sox won on a two-out, RBI double by Nick Madrigal in the bottom of the ninth. The hit scored Luis Robert, who had singled and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Yasmani Grandal. After an intentional walk to Mercedes and a strikeout of Billy Hamilton, Madrigal delivered.

Sunday, April 25

White Sox 8, Rangers 4: So, are we excited about Michael Kopech yet? Yeah, I think it's fair to be happy about what we're seeing from the rookie right-hander.

Lucas Giolito has a cut on the middle finger of his throwing hand, so Kopech made a spot start Sunday in his place. He was dazzling, striking out 10 with no walks over five innings of one-run ball. Those 10 strikeouts occurred over his first four innings, too. Kopech might have tired a bit in the fifth, but he got through the inning to earn a well-deserved win.

Crazy thing is, Kopech really didn't need his secondary pitches. His fastball command was impeccable, and even when he did miss with the fastball, it was a "good" miss, in a place where the Texas batters couldn't hurt him. The only run he allowed was on a hanging slider, which David Dahl hit out of the park in the second inning.

Kopech threw 87 pitches, 60 of them for strikes. Fifty-five of the 87 pitches were fastballs, 11 swings and misses, 14 called strikes and 13 foul balls. The Texas batters could not square him up at all.

The Sox scored eight runs in the first three innings, highlighted by Jose Abreu's fifth home run of the season, a two-run triple by Madrigal and an RBI triple by Adam Eaton.

Jonathan Stiever made his season debut for the Sox in the sixth, and it was a bad one. He gave up four straight hits and did not retire a batter. He ended up being charged with three runs. Garrett Crochet had two inherited runners score on his watch, but he settled down to provide three scoreless innings of relief. Jose Ruiz worked a scoreless ninth, giving the back of the Sox bullpen a needed rest.

 

Lucas Giolito, Jose Abreu make spring debuts for White Sox

Lucas Giolito

Some notes from the White Sox-Rangers game Tuesday, which ended in a 5-5 tie after six innings:

1. Giolito pitched. After seeing the Sox use nothing but likely minor-league pitchers their first two games, staff ace Lucas Giolito got the start. He went two innings, facing seven hitters, retiring six and striking out four. He gave up a solo home run. Giolito used three pitches -- fastball, change and slider. He threw a fair number of sliders, in fact, but we did not see the 12-to-6 breaking ball he's allegedly been working on. Maybe next time.

2. Abreu played first base. Reigning American League MVP Jose Abreu is out of COVID-19 protocols, and he went 2 for 3 in his first spring appearance. He lined a two-strike single to left field in the first inning, and he also hit an RBI double to left field as part of a two-run rally in the fifth inning. 

3. Vaughn homers. Designated hitter candidate Andrew Vaughn pulled his hands in on an inside pitch and hit a three-run homer to left field in the bottom of the first inning off Texas starter Kohei Arihara. Good piece of hitting by the kid.

4. What's with all this ending innings with two outs crap? I guess you don't have to get three outs in an inning anymore. Three times in this game, the Rangers pulled their team off the field with two outs. In the second inning, the Sox had the bases loaded for Abreu, but I guess Arihara had thrown too many pitches, so the inning was declared over. The Sox also pulled their team off the field with less than three outs twice. So, out of 12 half-innings, five were not played to their completion. No wonder fans were booing. They paid money for that? I know it's spring training, but c'mon, let's play baseball.

5. La Russa hears the boos. For his part, Sox manager Tony La Russa said he took note of the fans' displeasure. “MLB is concerned about the health of the arms, and that’s why they shortened the games, and you can only have so many pitchers and players in camp,” La Russa told MLB.com's Scott Merkin. “There’s all kinds of professional reasons why it makes sense. But fans are paying to come to games. I know they were disappointed, they voiced it several times, so from the White Sox side, we’re going to do everything we can to avoid doing it.” Good. Hope so.

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White Sox trade for pitcher Lance Lynn (OK), sign outfielder Adam Eaton (huh?)

Lance Lynn

We asked for some offseason moves, and now we have two. The White Sox on Tuesday acquired veteran right-handed pitcher Lance Lynn from the Texas Rangers in exchange for right-hander Dane Dunning. 

They also agreed to terms with right fielder Adam Eaton on a one-year, $7 million contract.

Let's start with the Lynn move. The 33-year-old had two good seasons in Texas back-to-back. In 2019, he went 16-11 with a 3.67 ERA and finished fifth in the American League Cy Young Award voting. 

He followed that up in the shortened season of 2020 by going 6-3 with a 3.32 ERA, good enough to finish sixth in the Cy Young voting.

Over those two seasons, Lynn has missed plenty of bats with his fastball-cutter-heavy approach. He struck out 246 batters in 208.1 innings in 2019, and 89 batters in 84 innings this past season. 

Lynn joins Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel at the top of the Sox's starting rotation. In 2020, Keuchel finished fifth in the Cy Young voting, while Giolito was seventh. This means the Sox have three of the top seven American League pitchers in 2020 on their roster for 2021.

And even with the departure of Dunning, there is some depth. Dylan Cease, Michael Kopech and Reynaldo Lopez will be expected to vie for the remaining two rotation spots. Don't be surprised if the Sox add another veteran starter to provide additional competition. (Jose Quintana? Adam Wainwright? James Paxton?)

I like Dunning and thought he showed promised during his seven starts with the Sox in 2020, during which he went 2-0 with a 3.97 ERA. However, he projects as a back-of-the-rotation pitcher over the long haul. Your farm system should be able to churn out pitchers like Dunning regularly, so there shouldn't be a lot of harm in using him as a trade piece for a more established pitcher.

One drawback to this deal: Lynn only has one year left on his contract. He'll make $8 million in 2021, a bargain if he continues to produce in the same manner we saw in Texas. That adds urgency for the Sox next season. If Lynn is your "finishing piece" for the rotation, then you have to do everything possible to win right now.

And since Lynn doesn't make a ton of money, you figured there would be room left in the payroll to sign a high-end right fielder, right?

Well, too bad, we'll get Eaton whether we like it or not. The 32-year-old is coming off a rough, injury-plagued season with the Washington Nationals, in which he batted .226/.285/.384 with four home runs and 17 RBIs in 41 games.

His career slash line is .282/.360/.416, so I'm sure the Sox are hoping he'll bounce back to something resembling that. However, "hope for the best" is not a great strategy in a win-now season. And I'm not really convinced the Sox needed to pony up $7 million to sign this player.

For me, Eaton isn't a guy you sign on Dec. 8. He's the guy you sign when you've whiffed on all your other targets. In short, he's a fallback option. 

Even if the Sox aren't in the bidding for George Springer, I'd still have Michael Brantley, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Eddie Rosario ahead of Eaton on my board -- and maybe the Sox will still sign one of those guys. 

It's just a weird business strategy to make a secondary free agent signing your first offseason move. It's early in the offseason at this point, so maybe as time goes along, we'll see how Eaton fits into the big picture.

I'm OK with the Lynn move, but not overly impressed with settling for Eaton right now.

When a 9-2 loss is actually a win ...

Michael Kopech

It was disappointing that the White Sox were rained out Wednesday. The Sox were supposed to play the Colorado Rockies in Cactus League action, and Lucas Giolito, Gio Gonzalez and Jace Fry were all scheduled to pitch.

Each of those three pitchers is coming back from an injury that sidelined them during the early part of camp, and I was eager to see how close they would look to being ready to start the season.

Alas, Mother Nature had other plans.

But, speaking of returns from injury, how about Michael Kopech on Tuesday? Sure, the Sox lost, 9-2, to the Texas Rangers, but it was actually an encouraging day for the South Siders and their fans.

That's because Kopech looked like he did before his elbow injury. He needed only 11 pitches to work a 1-2-3 first inning. His fastball consistently hit 98 mph-plus on the radar gun, and his heater topped out at 101 mph -- his final pitch striking out Greg Bird looking.

After missing the zone on each of his first two pitches, Kopech fired seven of his final nine over the plate and ended the inning quickly.

Kopech admitted that "adrenaline was a factor" with the high velocity, but hey, at least we know it's still there after surgery. It will be an exciting time when Kopech returns to the mound at Guaranteed Rate Field for the first time since 2018.

Today's fun fact about White Sox history (Mark Buehrle edition)

Mark Buehrle

If you don't follow the White Sox History page on Facebook, you should. Every now and then, I learn something I didn't know about the team's history, or baseball history.

Take this fun fact that was mentioned last week: Mark Buehrle is the only pitcher in Major League history to face the minimum 27 batters three times.

All Sox fans are aware that Buehrle pitched a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays on July 23, 2009.

Buehrle also faced the minimum 27 batters in his other no-hitter, April 18, 2007, against the Texas Rangers. In that game, Buehrle issued one walk (to Sammy Sosa), but he picked Sosa off and faced only three batters in that inning. (Fun fact about me: This game against Texas remains the only time I've witnessed a no-hitter in person.)

But here's the thing I didn't know: Buehrle also faced the minimum 27 batters on July 21, 2004, when he tossed a two-hitter in a 14-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians. Both hits were singles, and both runners were erased on double plays.

Interesting and remarkable. You learn something new every day.

Corey Kluber headed to Texas; Madison Bumgarner signs with Arizona

Corey Kluber

Two big-name pitchers changed teams Sunday. The Cleveland Indians traded two-time Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber to the Texas Rangers, while longtime San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner agreed to a five-year, $85 million deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Kluber was limited to seven starts in 2019 because of a broken right forearm and a strained oblique muscle, but despite those injuries, the return in this deal seems underwhelming for the Indians.

Texas gave up outfielder Delino DeShields Jr. and relief pitcher Emmanuel Clase. DeShields, 27, has played 106 or more games in four of the past five seasons with the Rangers, and he's a speedy player and solid defender in center field. However, he's never become much with the bat. Last season, he batted .249/.325/.347 with four home runs and 32 RBIs in 118 games. Not impactful.

Clase, 21, appeared in 21 games with Texas last season and went 2-3 with a 2.31 ERA in 23.1 innings pitched. I had never heard of him until Sunday.

I like the deal for the Rangers, even though Kluber is 33 and coming off an injury-plagued year. He joins a Texas rotation that includes Lance Lynn, Mike Minor, Kyle Gibson and Jordan Lyles. The latter two were signed as free agents this offseason.

Credit the Texas front office for moving to fill the holes in its pitching staff. I wish a certain team that plays on the South Side of Chicago would do something similar. The Rangers have five big league-caliber starters now, and that gives them a chance.

Meanwhile, Bumgarner is staying in the NL West and joining the Diamondbacks. The 30-year-old is a three-time World Series champion with a career record of 119-92 with a 3.13 ERA. He's known for his postseason excellence; he's 8-3 with a 2.11 ERA in the playoffs, including 4-0 with a 0.25 ERA in five career World Series games.

He joins Robbie Ray, Luke Weaver, Mike Leake and Zac Gallen in the projected Arizona rotation, although Ray is entering the last season of his contract and could be traded before the offseason is over.

The price for Bumgarner seems reasonable in this market, five years and $85 million. The top two remaining free agent pitchers are Hyun-Jin Ryu and Dallas Keuchel, neither of whom should command as good a contract as Bumgarner got.

Maybe the White Sox should sign one of these guys, no? It would be better than starting the season with Dylan Covey and Carson Fulmer in the rotation, you know?

White Sox acquire RF Nomar Mazara from Texas Rangers

Nomar Mazara

Unless there are more moves to come, your starting right fielder for the 2020 Chicago White Sox is Nomar Mazara.

Underwhelming, isn't it?

The Sox acquired the 24-year-old outfielder from the Texas Rangers on Tuesday in exchange for outfield prospect Steele Walker.

Before we talk about Mazara, let's be clear about one thing: While Walker had a good season at Class-A Winston-Salem in 2019, he was expendable. He's a 23-year-old who has never taken a single at-bat above A-ball. So, from that perspective, wouldn't you rather have a 24-year old with four years of MLB experience? That's Mazara.

Mazara batted .268/.318/.469 with 19 home runs and 66 RBIs in 116 games for the Rangers last season. I'm not impressed, but before we get to why, let's check off some of the good points for Mazara:

• He bats left. That's an area of need, and he did bat .288/.344/.500 with 13 home runs against right-handed pitching last season. You can do worse than an .844 OPS against righties.
• He's clearly better than Daniel Palka, Jon Jay or Ryan Cordell. Duh. As I indicated, you can do worse than an .844 OPS against righties, and the Sox did do worse last season when their right fielders posted a collective .565 OPS. Blech.
• Mazara has hit 20 home runs in three of his first four seasons, and he has a 101-RBI season under his belt (2017).
• He's only 24, so there's still a chance that he could improve, and he's under control for two more years.

Now, here's some of the reasons NOT to be excited about this trade:

• In his four seasons, Mazara has posted a career OPS+ of 93. In each individual season, his OPS+ has been 93, 90, 96 and 96. A league-average right fielder has an OPS+ of 100, so Mazara has been 7% below league average for his career. His career OPS is a pedestrian .754.
• Mazara has never posted a WAR of more than 1.1 in any season, according to baseballreference.com. In part, this is because he is a subpar defender with limited range, who takes poor routes in right field.
• He can't hit lefties and needs a platoon partner. He batted .220/.252/.394 against left-handed pitching in 2019.
• He strikes out a lot, just like everyone else who plays for the Sox. Mazara struck out 108 times last season, and that represents a career low.
• He doesn't walk. Mazara also walked a career-low 28 times in 2019, and his career on-base percentage is .318. That fits right in with an endemic problem the Sox have: They don't get on base nearly enough.
   

It seems to me this move is only good if Mazara is placed in a platoon role. There are better outfielders out there in free agency -- Nicholas Castellanos, Marcell Ozuna, Yasiel Puig -- and most of them swing from the right side of plate. Maybe the Sox need to bring one of these guys in to play right field against left-handed pitching and serve as the designated hitter against right-handed pitching. (For the record, Puig is my choice.)

Mazara just doesn't strike me as a good "Plan A" in right field for a team that claims to be taking steps forward toward contention over the next couple of years.

Of course, Mazara is 24, so he could get better, but given the Sox's track record, do you trust that they can unlock whatever untapped potential may be lurking inside this player? 

White Sox trade Welington Castillo; Josh Osich also moving on

Welington Castillo

Even when the White Sox trade a hated and despised player, they do it in a strange way that invites criticism.

Take for this example this week's deal with Texas. The Sox sent catcher Welington Castillo and $250,000 in international bonus pool money to the Rangers in exchange for minor leaguer Jonah McReynolds.

What's interesting here is that neither the Sox nor the Rangers had any intent of having Castillo on their 2020 roster. There's an $8 million option on his contract, and who is going to pick that up for an injury-prone catcher coming off a season in which he batted .209?

Nobody.

The option includes a $500,000 buyout. The Sox apparently didn't want to pay that, even though they've got a bottom-third payroll, so they passed that financial obligation along to the Rangers. Why would Texas do that? The Rangers want that international bonus money, plain and simple.

There's precedence for this. You may recall that the Sox traded Nate Jones to Texas at the July trading deadline. Jones will never throw a pitch for the Rangers, who will pay his $1.25 million contract buyout this offseason. In that deal, Texas acquired $1 million in international bonus pool money.

Simplifying all this, essentially the Sox gave Texas $1.25 million in international bonus pool money in order to avoid paying $1.75 million in buyouts to two dead-weight veterans, Jones and Castillo.

Why would the Sox be eager to unload valuable international bonus pool money during a rebuilding cycle, and during a time when their minor league depth has been depleted by injuries? I have no idea. No idea at all.

I'm left to chalk this up to the usual Sox cheapness. Somehow I doubt that $1.75 million is going to make a difference one way or another in signing free agents this offseason.

Osich claimed on waivers by Red Sox

In other Sox news, left-handed reliever Josh Osich was outrighted to Triple-A Charlotte and later claimed on waivers by the Boston Red Sox.

Osich went 4-0 with a 4.66 ERA in 57 games for the Sox this season, and somehow, he led the bullpen with 67.2 innings pitched. He had the fewest walks (15) of any Sox reliever, but he also allowed the most home runs (15).

Right-handed batters torched Osich with a .297/.344/.559 split this season. He was effective against lefties, however, limiting them to a .171/.200/.351 split.

It would seem as though Osich would have some utility as a left-handed specialist, but remember, there's a new rule coming in next season that requires relievers to face a minimum of three batters.

Pitchers such as Osich will run the risk of being overexposed to right-handed batters in this new era, and let's face it, he's not good enough to be considered irreplaceable.