The White Sox Should Just Sign Dallas Keuchel
White Sox recent pitching struggles have led the team to a record well below .500. The franchise should consider adding a veteran pitcher that’s still a free agent.
So far the White Sox have struggled to a 3-7 record this season, and a big part of the reason for that is starting pitching.
Every starting pitcher in the White Sox rotation has a horrible stat line, save for Carlos Rodon. Even Rodon struggled in his last start against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Dallas Keuchel, who is amazingly still on the free agent market, could provide the answers that the team is looking for. Keuchel has the track record to build the White Sox for present and future success.
After the epic failure that was the White Sox 2018-19 offseason, they opened the season without signing any major free agents and a payroll of $92 million, which ranks just ahead of the notoriously cheap Oakland Athletics for 25th in MLB. There’s no reason a professional sports team based in the nation’s third-biggest city should rank that low. Having not signed a $300 million player, the Sox have lots of money to spend and it’s time to start spending it.
But shouldn’t they wait until next offseason to start signing players? No, next year’s free agent class is extremely unimpressive, and there likely isn’t a single pitcher on the market as good as Keuchel. The best free agent might be Jose Abreu, and the Sox need to extend him as soon as they can.
And the White Sox aren’t signing Keuchel just for this season, they should give him a multi-year contract, and the point of this rebuild is that the Sox are supposed to become good in the somewhat near future, right? This team can’t keep tanking forever, and it’s time to start winning more games. Even if they only win 70 games instead of 65, that’s an improvement, and the point of baseball is to win, right? It doesn’t matter how many runs the young team scores if they can’t pitch. The White Sox need pitching, and they need someone to fill the ace role they haven’t had since Chris Sale left. Ervin Santana is not the answer.
Keuchel would cost the White Sox second-round draft pick, but it’s not like the Sox are any good at drafting anyways. Draft picks don’t mean as much in baseball ESPECIALLY for the second round. Whoever the White Sox would take with their second round pick this year, it’s extremely unlikely that they will turn into a better player than Dallas Keuchel, for now, and the future.
Other moves the White Sox should consider to be competitive are trading for the Marlins’ Starlin Castro to fill the hole at second base for the time being, and replacing their current manager with Joe Girardi.
Next. The Yoan Moncada Bandwagon. dark
It’s time to stop stinking and tanking, and time to try to put a competitive team on the field. White Sox fans deserve a better team than what they have currently, and it’s time for Rick Hahn and company to attempt to make that happen.