Chicago White Sox: Three bold predictions for 2021

Prediction Two: Liam Hendriks will be the closer for the Chicago White Sox in 2021.

It doesn’t feel like Alex Colome is going to be the closer for the White Sox in 2021 as he had been for the past few years. It is sad because he was very good but it would be much less sad if they replace him with someone who is even better. Liam Hendriks might be the best closer/reliever in all of baseball so if the White Sox brought him in, they would be so set.

If they brought him in to be their closer, they might have the best bullpen in the American League Central (if they don’t already). In 2020, he was brilliant. He had a WAR of 1.4 in a year where he had played in 24 games (25.1 innings). He had an ERA of 1.78 and a WHIP of 0.671 so you know the year was really good based on all of that alone. If they brought him in to be their closer, there would be many games with a one-run lead that are saved and stashed in the win column.

The cool thing about adding a closer like Hendriks would be the way that it rounds out the rest of the group. Pitching ahead of him would be guys like Evan Marshall, Jace Fry, Matt Foster, Garret Crochet, Codi Heuer, and Aaron Bummer. If they all pitched to their capabilities, they would help the White Sox win a lot of baseball games.