White Sox place Dallas Keuchel on 10-day IL, recall Reynaldo Lopez

Dallas Keuchel

The day before starting a marathon stretch of 17 games in 17 days to close the season, the White Sox put their second-best starting pitcher on the 10-day injured list.

Dallas Keuchel has done his job to this point in the season. He is 6-2 with a 2.19 ERA in nine starts, so he's brought both production on the field and leadership in the clubhouse -- just as the Sox hoped he would.

Unfortunately, he's been pitching with a balky back this year, and it locked up on him after he threw five shutout innings in his last start against the Kansas City Royals. The Sox announced earlier this week that Keuchel's turn in the rotation would be skipped during this weekend's series against the Detroit Tigers, so his landing on the IL is not a surprise. Might as well put a healthy pitcher on the active roster, right?

The Sox have said they want Keuchel to be healthy to pitch in the four-game series against the Minnesota Twins, which will be Sept. 14-17 at Guaranteed Rate Field. The IL move is retroactive to Sept. 7, which means that it is still possible for Keuchel to take the mound Sept. 17 against the Twins.

Let's hope that happens. Keuchel is among the essential pitchers if the Sox hope to make a run in October.

In the meantime, Reynaldo Lopez takes Keuchel's spot on the roster, and he's likely to get a start sometime this weekend against the Tigers. It's been a rough season for Lopez. He injured his shoulder in his first outing of the year, and he's got a 8.38 ERA over four starts. That will happen when you've allowed 22 baserunners over 9.2 innings.

Perhaps having been sent to the Sox's alternate training site in Schaumburg will serve as a wake-up call for Lopez. The right-hander has been inconsistent throughout his career, but the past two seasons, he made at least 32 starts and threw more than 180 innings for the Sox.

Coming into the year, my thinking was, at minimum, Lopez would be able to soak up some starts and some innings at the back of the rotation. Now, I wasn't sure how quality those innings would be, but I felt Lopez would at least be around to take the ball every fifth day.

Unfortunately for him and the Sox, he's been a combination of injured and horrible all season. However, there's still an opportunity for Lopez to make three or four starts the rest of the way and redeem himself. Given all the pitching injuries and all the rookies hanging around the roster, the Sox could use some contributions from Lopez, even if it's just eating up some innings so that more important pitchers can have a breather.