The White Sox relief pitcher Bruce Rondon seemed to be a good pick up in the off-season, but his June numbers show otherwise.
But, the White Sox pitcher is quickly become less of an asset and more of a liability. The goal of the relief pitcher is to pitch his inning or two and not give up any runs. In a nutshell, he should see three batters and earn a goose egg. That’s his job.
Rondon has lost the ability to do this. In his last seven outings, he has given up at least one run. In three of those outings, he has give up more than two runs.
His terrible June numbers
Rondon pitched horribly in June. In 8 innings of work in 12 games, he ended the month with an ERA of 16.88. He faced 53 batters. IN EIGHT INNINGS. That’s more than six batters in every inning.
During Saturday’s game against the Rangers, he pitched 0.1 innings and gave up five runs. Ten days prior on June 20, he pitched one inning and gave up six runs to the Cleveland Indians.
In June, the batting slash against him was .436/.566/.667. (Could you imagine having that batter on your team?) His BABIP was .593. To make matters worse for him, not one batter reached on an err. He gave up 17 honest hits, which became 15 earned runs against him. He also managed to walk 13 batters.
There are two acceptable numbers in his stats. He gave up one home run and struck out 12. But, he did walk more batters than he K’d.
He’s consistently bad
Many of the better pitchers in the MLB get better as the season progresses. Bruce Rondon is not one of those pitchers. In April, his ERA was 5.59. His May ERA was 3.24. Rondon is simply inconsistent and unreliable.
Actually, he does have two consistencies in his career. One is that his ERA numbers jump dramatically each season. And, the second is that his average fastball velocity drops each year. Those are two reasons enough to remove Rondon from any roster.
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Keep in mind that Rondon was a pitcher that the Detroit Tigers really worked hard to develop. They wanted him to be their closer and they kept him around for six years with the hope he would turn into someone great. It was almost as if he wanted to fail, as he continued to fall apart year after year.
Proven not to have it
After six full and partial seasons in the MLB, Bruce Rondon has proven that he is not an MLB-caliber pitcher. He has proven that he will not get better. His current 8.31 ERA. If his past is any indication of where that number will go, his next few months with the Sox will not be any better.
If I were Rick Renteria, I would ask Rick Hahn to get rid of Rondon as quickly as possible. Other than the fact that he can throw a fastball over 95 MPH, Rondon does not have the “it factor” to be in the MLB.
Next: Goals for White Sox Yoan Moncada and Tim Anderson
The Sox need pitchers who can help them win and grow as a team. Rondon cannot do that. He might be cheap because he hasn’t entered free agency yet. But, he’s just not worth it.