White Sox make 11 roster moves, beat Twins in 10 innings

Tim Anderson

Andrew Benintendi's two-out RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning lifted the White Sox to a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.

It took 30 games, but the Sox (9-21) have finally won two in a row for the first time in the 2023 season. But the biggest news of the day came during the afternoon, when the club announced a series of 11 roster moves.

In the 40-plus years I've been following this team, I don't think I've seen anything quite like it. I guess you might say it's indicative of the fact that things have not been going well. 

Let's take a look at the comings and goings.

Who's here?

• Tim Anderson (sprained knee) was activated off the 10-day injured list. He played shortstop and batted leadoff Tuesday night for the first time since suffering the injury April 10. The Sox went 3-15 during his 18-game absence.
• Hanser Alberto (groin strain) was activated off the 10-day injured list. He appeared in Tuesday's game as a late-inning defensive replacement and scored the winning run as the ghost runner in the 10th inning.
• Veteran right-hander Alex Colome had his contract selected from Triple-A Charlotte. Colome served as the Sox closer in 2019-20. He pitched two-thirds of an inning Tuesday night and gave up a game-tying solo home run to Minnesota's Nick Gordon.
• Outfielder Billy Hamilton had his contract selected from Triple-A Charlotte. This is also his second stint with the Sox. He was a member of the 2021 AL Central championship team. He appeared in Tuesday's game as a pinch runner in the ninth inning. He stole a base, but was stranded at third.
• Pitcher Sammy Peralta had his contract selected from Triple-A Charlotte. The 24-year-old has never pitched in the majors. He figures to be deployed as the second lefty out of the bullpen -- or maybe the first lefty, given how bad Aaron Bummer has pitched this season.

Who's gone?

• Veteran relief pitcher Joe Kelly was placed on the paternity list. This move was expected Tuesday.
• Right fielder Oscar Colas was optioned to Triple-A Charlotte. The decision to give the 24-year-old rookie a starting job proved premature, as Colas batted .211/.265/.276 with only one home run in 25 games. He'll need to work on his plate discipline before he can return to the majors. Once again, right field looks like a sore spot for the Sox.
• Second baseman Lenyn Sosa was optioned to Triple-A Charlotte. The 23-year-old is not ready for the big leagues at this time. He batted .151/.167/.245 in 16 games with one homer. With Anderson's return, Elvis Andrus moves from shortstop back to second base.
• Utility player Romy Gonzalez was placed on the 10-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation. A fake injury? You decide. Gonzalez is batting .139/.139/.194, and he's struggled at every position he's played defensively. Had he been optioned to Charlotte, no one would have batted an eye.
• Veteran reliever Jake Diekman was designated for assignment. The lefty was the only acquisition made by the Sox at last season's trade deadline, and he was a disaster. He had a 6.52 ERA in 26 games with the Sox in 2022. This year, he was 0-1 with a 7.94 ERA in 13 games. The evidence suggests the 36-year-old's career might be over.
• Minor league pitcher Franklin German was designated for assignment to clear space on the 40-man roster for some of the additions noted above.

How much impact will these moves make? My thinking is that Anderson is the only one that moves the needle, but it's clear that Sox brass is shaking it up to try to save this sagging season. 

What else is there to do right now?

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.

Will Yasmani Grandal end up with one of the most bizarre offensive seasons ever?

Yasmani Grandal

White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal's numbers are weird. His batting average coming into Wednesday night's game against the Oakland Athletics stinks -- .228 -- but it's hard to complain about his overall slash line of .228/.418/.529. 

Grandal's on-base percentage is the best among Sox players who are in the regular lineup, and his slugging percentage is second-best, only to Luis Robert (.539). 

His OPS is a team-best .947, and his OPS+ is 161, meaning he is 61% better than the league average among those who play his position.

But here's what is really weird about Grandal: He has only 47 hits all season, but he has 51 runs scored and 54 RBIs.

Never before in the history of baseball -- and that's a long damn time -- has a player with more than 40 hits had more runs scored and RBIs than hits in a single season.

It's something to keep an eye on down the stretch, although Grandal has 13 hits in eight games since returning from the 10-day injured list. During that time, he's raised his batting from .188 to .228, bashed five home runs and collected 17 RBIs.

He might actually be swinging the bat too well to continue this anomaly of a season.

White Sox win opener in Oakland

Grandal worked a bases-loaded walk in Tuesday's 6-3 win over the Athletics, so he did get one RBI in a game in which he also collected one hit.

This victory was full of anomalies for the Sox. They had three run-producing hits, all against left-handed pitchers, and all by batters who have not done well against lefties.

Gavin Sheets is 1 for 14 against lefties this season, but the one hit was Tuesday night -- and RBI single in the fifth inning off A.J. Puk. Cesar Hernandez was 5 for 33 against lefties since joining the Sox -- until he delivered a two-run single in that same fifth inning that capped a three-run rally and gave the South Siders a 4-1 lead.

Brian Goodwin? He's 7 for 57 against lefties this season, but his broken-bat, two-out, two-run single in the eighth inning off Jake Diekman gave the Sox a 6-1 lead and effectively put the game away.

And, oh yeah, Jimmy Lambert pitched five innings of one-run ball for the Sox to earn his first career victory.

So, it was a night for surprises and anomalies, and one might argue that a Sox victory in Oakland is an anomaly in its own right. Before Tuesday, the last time the Sox won a regular-season game in Oakland was July 3, 2017, more than four years ago.

Whatever the Sox do for the remainder of this series, perhaps you can argue they've already exceeded expectations simply by winning a game in Oakland.