White Sox: Bullpen Still An Area of Concern Heading to 2017
By Matt Manetti
The White Sox have had a great offseason. But the bullpen still is an area of concern heading into 2017.
The Chicago White Sox had issues with their bullpen this past season. Aside from Nate Jones and Dan Jennings, the rest of the bullpen had issues. The only moves Rick Hahn has made thus far with the bullpen is releasing Daniel Webb and declining the option on Matt Albers.
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It won’t be a surprise if this team does not contend next season. However, looking towards the future, the bullpen needs to get much better. That was the key to them winning the World Series in 2005. They had solid starting pitching and a light’s out bullpen. When Bobby Jenks came in to close games, there was no doubt it would be a White Sox winner.
These days, that isn’t the case. David Robertson struggled at times in his role as closer and the rest of the bullpen followed suit. There is going to be an influx of young pitching in the farm system. And that will be a key to the organization moving forward. They need all this talent to pan out, so they can build a winning franchise. Pitching is going to be the key. They have a lot of solid starting pitching but they are kind of iffy when it comes to the later innings.
The problem was the bullpen was not deep enough. If the starter couldn’t go six or seven innings, the White Sox were in trouble. Depending on when they went to their pen, they wouldn’t be able to hold the lead. I had never seen a team blow such big leagues, yet it seemed like commonplace when watching this team.
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Hahn definitely showed he knows what he’s doing and can rebuild an organization. He still has a lot of work to do. And the bullpen needs to be rebuilt as well. There’s some good young talent in the minors. But they need to bring in some veterans to complement it. It’s not something they necessarily need to do now but looking at this longterm, it is definitely something they should consider doing. That way they have some guys in place when all this talent is ready to go.