Chicago White Sox: Season preview of starting pitchers

Reynaldo Lopez

In his short career of four years, Reynaldo López has been fairly average, He had a pretty stellar 2018 putting up a 3.91 ERA in 188 innings. Things seem promising but as we all know, 2019 did not pan out as well as we would have hoped.

He had a 5.38 ERA in 33 games started with 184 innings. He gave up 110 earned runs, which was actually the most given up by any qualifying starting pitcher in the MLB. So the 2019 Lopez we got was the same player as the 2018 Giolito.

One glimmer of hope to take away from López’s lackluster 2019 is the strikeouts and walks. In 2018, he struck out 151 and walked 75. In 2019, he struck out 169 and walked 65. Despite having fantastic strikeout and walk numbers, the amount of hits and home runs he gave up is what killed him. Lopez allowed 203 hits and 35 home runs

There were rumors of a demotion along with fan criticism, but López finished the year in the majors. It is interesting to see how the team treats López moving forward. He did take a step backward last year. In the 2018 offseason, fans wanted Giolito sent back down as Lopez surprised many and held his own. This offseason, the exact opposite.

Fans should not be so quick to give up on López given he is only 26 years old. 2020 should be the year he focuses on the good things of the previous year which is his control. Channeling that will keep the hits down.