Chicago White Sox: Season preview of starting pitchers

Gio González

Drafted by the White Sox 38th overall in 2004, Gio González never made his White Sox debut. He and a couple of prospects were traded in 2008 to the Oakland A’s for Nick Swisher. In 2011 with Oakland, González pitched his breakout season with a 3.12 ERA in 202 innings. But he was traded in the offseason to the Nationals. In Washington, Gonzalez hit is prime.

In 2012, his first year with the Nationals, he pitched 199.1 innings with an ERA of 2.89. He earned an All-Star spot and finished third in Cy Young voting. Many make the argument that González is past his prime and he cannot put up the same numbers as he did in 2012. That may be true as he is 34 years old. But in 2017, in 201 innings he put up a 2.96 ERA and finished sixth in the Cy Young voting.

What the White Sox are getting in González is a solid back-end of the rotation left arm which is very scarce in the league. He will not put up his same 2.89 ERA as he did almost a decade ago, which is okay. If he could put up a sub 4 ERA and eat between 180-200 innings, he will be worth the 2 years of $5 million.

He also provides the perfect plug to fill the void Carlos Rodón has left. Down with yet again another injury, we’re not likely to see him until about late May. But with a potential six-man rotation in the works without him, we may not see him until maybe after the All-Star break as it would be foolish to rush Rodón into an already packed rotation.