Chicago White Sox: Best bullpen staff that nobody knows about
The Chicago White Sox have an amazing bullpen that nobody knows about.
The Chicago White Sox have done some amazing things over the last few seasons. One of those amazing things was the signing of Liam Hendriks. The news came late on Monday night and sent the Chicago White Sox fandom into happiness. Alex Colome is a free agent and it was clear that they wanted to sign someone new and Hendriks is the guy. The crazy thing is that he is the top-shelf purchase because he is the best reliever going in baseball right now.
Of course, people want to dive right into Hendrik’s numbers and that is warranted because he is so elite. The MLB Network ranked him as the number one reliever in baseball right now because he was so good in 2020. He had a 1.78 ERA and 0.671 WHIP to go along with 37 strikeouts in 25.1 innings so you know that he is a great pitcher. He even came in 9th place for the Cy Young Award as a reliever which tells you everything you need to know.
The other thing that is sort of going unnoticed is what he does for the rest of the bullpen. Now, everyone is able to slot in the right places. Of course, outside of Hendriks, Aaron Bummer is probably the best arm in the bullpen. He can give you a lot of innings but he works best as a setup man to the closer. He should work very well with Hendriks in the late stages of baseball games that the White Sox hold a lead.
It doesn’t end there either. Matt Foster, Evan Marshall, Codi Heuer, and Garrett Crochet are expected to make up the rest of the bullpen. There are also a couple of other arms that will compete for starting jobs but could end up in the bullpen as well. Regardless of what happens there, the meat and potatoes of this bullpen are elite and will come in handy.
Hot. The White Sox should really consider DJ LeMahieu in free agency. light
Not many people are going to talk about the bullpen (or the starters for that matter) as the strength of the team because of what they have on offense. That is completely okay as long as the manager and front office is aware of it. Maybe they can even catch a few teams off guard with this squad. With Hendriks added to the mix, it is really hard to find that big of a hole on the entire roster.