How The White Sox Can Make The Playoffs for the 2019 Season and Shock The World
Starting Pitching – this is probably the most important part. While Carlos Rodon and Reynaldo Lopez can be counted on as average to above-average starters the rest of the rotation is full of question marks.
Lucas Giolito and Dylan Covey were two of the worst pitchers in baseball last year, and significant improvements from them would really help the teams win total. Giolito put up an atrocious negative -1.3 WAR last year, so an improvement to being a solid starting pitcher could net the White Sox two to four more extra wins. That still isn’t enough, as Ivan Nova is just plain mediocre, and he will likely be gone at the trading deadline to make room for Dylan Cease , who the Sox will also need to be good once he comes up.
What the White Sox will need from their rotation is a big breakout season from one of their guys to become an out of nowhere ace. Whether it’s Giolito, Covey, or Carson Fulmer, one of those guys will need to become ace-like pitcher to get them to be an 85-plus win team and compete for a playoff spot.
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This will require a lot of luck, but baseball team’s get lucky a lot, and the law of probability states that luck is certainly something the White Sox are due for. They won’t win because Hahn is a genius, but if the players come together, rally around each other, and have some unexpected breakouts, it’s possible the White Sox could make the playoffs this year. If they did make it to the postseason as a wildcard, their opponent would most likely by an AL East team, and how fun would it be to beat Chris Sale in a wildcard game?