Selecting Shane Smith with the first pick of the Rule 5 Draft looks like a steal.
His first two starts have been very impressive.
It almost makes you question the sanity of Milwaukee's front office for not adding him to their 40-man roster to keep him out of the draft, especially with all the starting pitching injuries the Brewers are experiencing right now.
Smith has a 1.54 ERA in his first two starts with nine strikeouts. He blanked the Minnesota Twins for the first five innings of his big-league debut, and had he not suddenly run out of gas, it likely would have been six.
He did blank the Cleveland Guardians in his last start for six innings and took a no-hitter into the sixth. It took a weakly hit infield single by Jose Ramirez to break it up.
You see his stuff and you think the White Sox are lucky they only had to pay $100k to acquire him.
Now he still has ways to go toward developing into an ace, but his stuff looks the part.
He is giving off those same vibes that Crochet did last season. He will have a chance to see if he can match the White Sox's former ace on Sunday as the two are slated to face off in the series finale of a three-game set between Chicago and Boston.
However, Getz made many offseason decisions that are not looking so good. Two of them are looking particularly awful.
Tendering Justin Anderson a contract was a bad decision.
He was not very good for a bullpen that blew 37 saves last season. For some reason, the front office actually thought he could be the team's closer this season.
It is one reason they tendered him a contract despite having a 4.39 ERA last season, and he was projected to get $1.1 million in arbitration.
The White Sox were able to get him to agree to a $900k one-year deal to avoid arbitration.
However, it is turning out not to be money well spent. Since the club is pinching its pennies, the Sox cannot afford to be wasting financial resources as they will be doing after designating Anderson for assignment.
Anderson did not even make the Opening Day roster after a terrible spring training. Now he is no longer worthy of a 40-man roster spot.
With the White Sox bullpen in shambles, it might have been better to realize Anderson was not it and use that money on a different option.