Aaron Bummer went from having a very limited role for the Chicago White Sox to now holding a key role in their bullpen as he has become one of their best relievers in 2019.
The southpaw entered the season with a career 4.36 ERA, 3.94 FIP, and 1.453 WHIP in 53 2/3 innings (67 appearances) over his first two seasons in the league. That went along with a pretty high walk rate of 4.2 BB/9 as compared to 8.7 K/9.
However, he did show improvement in the walks category in 2018, lowering the rate down 2.8 BB/9. His 2.40 FIP as compared to a 4.26 ERA also suggested he was getting some bad luck on the mound.
In 2019, he has established himself as a good arm in the Chicago White Sox bullpen, now holding a 2.25 ERA, 3.55 FIP, and 1.016 WHIP. His walk actually increased slightly to 3.4 BB/9 as compared to 7.7 K/9.
After struggling mightily against right-handers in 2018 when he allowed them to hit .338 off him, Bummer found a way to actually become effective against his different-handed opponents this season.
In 2019, righties are hitting only .188 off of him which is only slightly higher than the .180 average that lefties have against him.
There really isn’t any reason to think that Bummer will regress significantly either as this is a career-high in innings (64) for him and he’s shown no trouble of being effective over the course of the season.
While Bummer is not in the mix to be the team’s closer for this team in the future, having another piece in the bullpen that can be reliable in addition to Alex Colome is really nice to have.
According to ESPN, the White Sox entered Tuesday night’s game with the 14th best bullpen in all of baseball in terms of ERA, in which their’s is 4.37.
That has actually been a really solid part of this team for most of the year, but Bummer, Colome, and Evan Marshall currently represent the only comfortable options for the 2020 season.
Kelvin Herrera will likely be back in 2020, for better or for worse, as he is set to make $8.5 million next season as detailed by Spotrac.
With that being the case, the Chicago White Sox should probably add at least a couple of relievers to solidify the bullpen, which could become very good long-term.