Chicago White Sox: This is the perfect rotation for the 2021 season
The Chicago White Sox need to have a great pitching rotation in 2021.
The Chicago White Sox are going to have a very good team in 2021. They have a lot of talent in all parts of the diamond. Of course, their lineup is spectacular and it is going to be even better in 2021. They have an abundance of players who can hit the ball out of the park along with the ability to hit for contact. They scratched the surface of their potential in 2020 and we know it is going to get even better in 2021.
Of course, the defense and pitching are going to need to be great to take full advantage of an offense like that. As far as defense, they improved mightily in 2020. They were one of the worst defensive units in all of baseball for 2019 and were much better in 2020. They had a total of five Gold Glove nominations and Luis Robert took it home in his rookie season.
Even more important than offense and defense are pitching. If you can’t pitch well, you have no chance to win baseball games on a regular basis. We know that the White Sox have a very good bullpen. They still might even add more to it this offseason which would be nice but they are set up nicely for 2021.
The rotation was pretty good in 2020. It did, however, run out of gas by the time the playoffs rolled around. They had a brilliant 1-2 punch all season long and just some solid play behind them but that turned out to not be enough in the postseason. If they are going to win a World Series, they need to be just a little bit better. This is the best possible rotation for them in 2021:
SP. Chicago White Sox. Lucas Giolito . 27. player. 128.
Make no mistake about it, Lucas Giolito is an ace in Major League Baseball. His ERA is enough points higher than the league average by a good amount so you can safely call him an ace. He is the guy you want taking the ball on Opening Day. More importantly, he is the guy you want taking the ball in game one of any playoff series. He has been so good for a couple of years now so having him at the top of this rotation is awesome.
It wasn’t always this way for Giolito. He was statistically the worst pitcher in Major League Baseball for the 2018 season. He changed some things up and came out in 2019 as a different player. He was so good that he came in 6th place for the American League Cy Young Award and then followed that up with a seventh-place finish in 2020.
Giolito has never had a full five-man rotation that you can trust pitching behind him. That might be the case in 2021 which might really help him. It could absolutely relieve some of the pressure that he has faced as one of a few good White Sox started in recent memory. He will most likely not have James McCann helping him out anymore but Yasmani Grandal might be the next best option. This is going to be a great year for White Sox pitching and Lucas Giolito is a great person to have leading the way.
128. . SP. Chicago White Sox. Dallas Keuchel. 60. player
Some people might be surprised, based on some recent White Sox transactions, to find Dallas Keuchel here at number two. You can’t just assume, however, that Dallas Keuchel will lose that spot as the number two guy just based on one trade acquisition. Any of the top three can go in any order but it will probably be best to roll with Keuchel in the number two spot. He is also a lefty so going with the opposite as Giolito will be a good option.
Keuchel surprised some people with the way he pitched in 2020. He has a Cy Young and a lot of deep playoff experience in his past so he should really be able to help the White Sox moving forward. All he needs to do is be as good as he was in 2020 and the White Sox will be set with the top of their rotation.
You can argue that Keuchel was even better than Giolito in 2020. The Cy Young voters as a whole believed that he was better as Keuchel came in 5th as opposed to Gioltio’s seventh. It was a good year for both but Keuchel did have his meltdown in the playoffs. He needs to make sure that he comes into next season healthy and ready to go for what will be a 162 game grind.
128. . SP. Chicago White Sox. Lance Lynn. 31. player
The Chicago White Sox made one of the biggest moves of the Winter Meetings when they traded Dane Dunning to the Texas Rangers for Lance Lynn. Dunning would have been on this list but much lower and now they have Lynn instead. He is truly one of the best pitchers in the league and not many people really talk about it. He came in 5th place for the American League Cy Young in 2019 and 6th place for it in 2020. He has put together a really nice stretch here.
The White Sox are hoping that they can get that same level of production out of him. He could even end up as the number two pitcher but going righty, lefty, righty, seems like the best possible option for the White Sox going into 2021. Lynn was sandwiched right in between Giolito and Keuchel for the 2020 Cy Young Award.
If Lynn comes into 2021 and pitches as well as we know he can, the White Sox will have one of the best rotations in all of baseball. Having three guys with ace potential in one rotation has to have them feeling good about a playoff series as well. Giving up Dunning was tough but landing a veteran like Lynn should really help them going into a season in which they are clearly trying to win the World Series.
player. 128. . SP. Chicago White Sox. Dylan Cease. 84
Dylan Cease didn’t have nearly the level of Minor League playing time that some of the other White Sox top pitching prospects had. He still has a long way to go before he is as good as his potential says he will be but he should be a great player soon. There was a good amount of improvement in 2020 but he still needs to work on his control. That will lead to fewer baserunners which in turn will lead to more success for him and his team.
Cease has awesome stuff and it has never been a problem. The biggest thing for him is to learn how to do something with that stuff. Once he does, he will be a great piece to the White Sox rotation. When he was acquired by the White Sox in the Jose Quintana trade, he was their top pitching prospect for a reason and now the White Sox are doing a great job developing him.
He is going to have one season (at least) where he is the number four pitcher. With Lucas Giolito, Dallas Keuchel, and Lance Lynn all there, they should be able to use Cease in more favorable matchups. He is going to be slotted behind those guys with much less pressure put on him. If he can really start to click at some point in 2021, the White Sox are going to be so happy. Fully expect him to be considered a great pitcher by the time we get to the June portion of the schedule.
Michael Kopech. 34. player. 128. . SP. Chicago White Sox
Out of every pitcher on this list, the Chicago White Sox might be the most excited to have Michael Kopech. He could have the highest ceiling of anyone on this list as far as his potential. He can hit triple digits with his pitches and get those triple-digit speed pitches to move like breaking balls. It is truly something to behold for those who have been lucky enough to watch him pitch at any point.
If Kopech is so great, why is he sitting here in the five-spot? Well, that is because of how his career has gone so far. Michael Kopech made his MLB debut at the end of the 2018 season and was electric. By the end, however, he needed Tommy John’s surgery which shut him down for the rest of the 2018 season and all of the 2019 season. He was set to come back in 2020 but then he opted out of the COVID-19 shortened season.
We are fully expecting to have Kopech back by the time the 2021 season starts. He should be getting warmed back up to the league by being the number five starter at first. They might even try him out in AAA again but having him as the number five instead would be perfect.
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If he rounded out this group and they all played well, he would really help them win more games. This could be a group that evolves into one of the best rotations in all of baseball. There are some people who want them to go for another low-end starter but using Kopech and Cease would be much smarter. Not only is this a good group in the present, but it might also be one that helps them win a lot of games for a long time.