Chicago White Sox: Reynaldo Lopez really hurt his chances
The Chicago White Sox really needed someone to step up and be the fifth starter. After acquiring Lance Lynn in a trade earlier in the offseason, some people thought they weren’t done. Well, it turned out that they would end up being done and try to use someone in-house to take that job. One of those candidates is Reynaldo Lopez. He went into spring training with a chance to be the fifth starter but it looks pretty bleak right now.
It doesn’t look like Reynaldo Lopez will be one of the Chicago White Sox starters to begin the year.
The White Sox acquired Lopez in the trade that sent Adam Eaton to the Washington Nationals. He was considered the second piece in the trade as Lucas Giolito was the main focus. They also acquired Dane Dunning who is probably better at this point than Lopez. Giolito is now the White Sox ace and Dunning was traded to the Texas Rangers for Lynn. It was a pretty nice trade for the Sox.
In Lopez’s first year with the big club, he was much better than Giolito. In fact, he was the best pitcher on the team that year and looked to have a really bright future. Unfortunately, since then every other pitcher has taken steps forward while he has taken steps back.
We wondered if Ethan Katz’s wisdom would be able to help him but his spring training auditions have not been going well. He seems to have been dueling with Carlos Rodon for that fifth starter job. We know who the first four in the rotation will be but that fifth spot was up for grabs.
In Sunday’s spring game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Rodon was better than Lopez in every way. Rodon gave up one hit in four innings with no walks and five strikeouts. Not a single run was yielded. As for Lopez, he gave up four runs on six hits. He allowed two walks and had one strikeout in the game. The White Sox ended up tying 4-4 but they probably would have won if Lopez was a little better.
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It is unfortunate because he is a really easy guy to root for. We can only hope that he makes a solid transition to the bullpen so he can help this team win. It doesn’t look like he is the guy to be in the rotation right now but he also isn’t a bad person to have as a backup starter in case of injury. It would be nice to see him really figure this out one day, with the White Sox or someone else.