Chicago White Sox 2021 Season Preview: Codi Heuer
One of the biggest surprises amongst all of the 2020 Chicago White Sox players is Codi Heuer. He was awesome in 2020 and is looking to be awesome again in 2021. They have a really stacked bullpen and it will be even better if Heuer is what he was last season. It was his first year in Major League Baseball and he didn’t disappoint. This is a big year for him because there really isn’t much room on this team for anyone who doesn’t hold up their end of the bargain.
The White Sox drafted Heuer in the sixth round of the 2018 MLB Draft out of Wichita State and are starting to reap the benefits. He was so good in 2020 that he accumulated a 0.8 WAR as a surprise rookie in a shortened season. He had a record of 3-0, a 1.52 ERA, a 0.887 WHIP, 25 strikeouts, and one save. Those numbers came over a span of 23.2 innings pitched and 21 games.
The White Sox are going to have Heuer in a really unique bullpen setting this year. There are two flamethrowing starters around him in the bullpen in Michael Kopech and Garrett Crochet. There are some other stud relievers around him like Matt Foster, Evan Marshall, Aaron Bummer, and Liam Hendriks amongst others.
Having that much talent is going to really help the White Sox shut down games that they are leading. They are also going to have each pitcher feel a little bit less pressure because it won’t all be on them. That is a perfect recipe when they have a young guy like Heuer ready to go. If he can be the sum of a greater part, the White Sox bullpen will be so sweet.
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2021 Expectations:
Codi Heuer is a talented young pitcher who has a long career awaiting him. You can probably expect a lot of the same from him going forward in 2021. There is a lot of arm talent there to help him get outs which will come in this relief role for now. We don’t know what the future holds for him in terms of his role but for now, just one of the guys coming out of the bullpen is perfect.
He might not have quite the same numbers as he did in 2020 just because the sample size was so small. He will have his ups and downs but the ups are clearly going to outweigh the downs. A lot of people believe that the White Sox will win a lot of games that they lead after the 6th inning and he is a big reason why.