The White Sox roster will be in a healthier place when they can make it through an entire 162-game schedule without optioning their Opening Day starter.
For the second straight season, the top of the White Sox rotation has been bumped down to Charlotte. The difference is that last year, they optioned Sean Burke in the middle of August, whereas this time they’re optioning Shane Smith in the middle of April. As we discussed in this morning’s Minor Keys, Tyler Schweitzer is up to give the bullpen a fresh arm. Tying up a loose end from that conversation, the White Sox moved Brooks Baldwin to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man.
“He completely understood; he’s a total pro, took accountability,” Will Venable said. “Shane clearly he is in a spot where he needs to get to the best version of himself and he’s not quite there right now. As he continues to work through the thing that he needs to do to get there, we can’t have that happen here where it comes with the cost of wins, at the cost of our bullpen.
“He understands that and was accountable to that. Give him a chance to go down to Charlotte with a very clear structured plan and really get back to dominating with the four-seam fastball.”
The White Sox optioned Smith to Charlotte after failing to make it out of the fourth inning despite throwing scoreless baseball on Tuesday. It was by far his best outing of the season, as Venable presented it after the game …
…. but that merely reflects the size of the problem, as he’s 3-for-3 in compromising the bullpen this season.
Earlier this week, James wrote about Smith’s efforts to right the ship, and while Chris Getz didn’t sound like an intervention was right around the corner when he spoke to the media between Smith’s starts …
We certainly don’t need to get ahead of ourselves and start doing significant interventions so to speak. It’s more, tweak this, tweak that.
… he left open the possibility by referring to such a move as merely premature, rather than wholly unrealistic.
“Everyone knows Shane’s going through it a little bit, but he’s an incredible athlete, he’s an incredible baseball player, so he’s going to make some adjustments and I have no doubt in my mind that he’ll be back stronger than ever,” said Kyle Teel.
The move raises flags on two different timelines. Regarding the near future, Schweitzer gives the White Sox length in the bullpen, or somebody who can lead a bullpen day, but it’s unclear what the next move is.
“We will talk about that rotation spot when we get there,” Venable said. “We’ll try to get through these next few days with a bullpen that has felt it the last couple of days. We’ve asked a lot of them. Schweitzer comes and gives us some length and innings we can really use.”
Smith’s next turn is Sunday, which lines up with Jonathan Cannon in Charlotte, except Cannon required his own optioning last summer, and his Triple-A numbers through two starts this season don’t look much different from Smith’s through three. Noah Schultz is dealing, but like Sam Antonacci on the outfield side, it’d be surprising if they broke the glass on that option this early. There is an off day after the Kansas City series on Monday, so perhaps they’ll see if weather allows them to kick the can on a larger decision, or if the other members of the rotation will allow them to bullpen their way through it.
The bigger picture is the bigger problem. Even if they didn’t expect Smith to maintain his All-Star status, the White Sox are still relying on Smith to be a fixture of the five-man rotation, and he hasn’t looked right all year. Perhaps this intervention will be as successful as Colson Montgomery’s, but their other efforts to take players to the mechanic have been less successful. Burke hasn’t completely locked down his rotation spot, Cannon still seems adrift, and the less said about Jairo Iriarte, the better.
Basically, among the many things the White Sox didn’t need at the start of a season, this is toward the top of the list, as it casts doubt pretty far downstream. Perhaps this demotion is the best way of getting a handle on it, but one man’s “proactive” is another man’s “panicking,” and until Smith returns in sounder shape or the White Sox otherwise improve upon the third-worst team ERA in baseball, any person is justified in thinking it looks like the latter until proven otherwise.
