Chicago White Sox: Ryan Burr’s bold offseason prediction resurfaces

Ryan Burr made a bold proclamation on Twitter a few months ago. After his performance on Wednesday afternoon, he is taking the first steps to make it come true. When Tony La Russa called on Ryan Burr in the tenth inning of a tie game against the Tampa Bay Rays, many fans were scratching their heads. The Chicago White Sox still had Liam Hendriks available and the heart of Rays order was due up.

The Chicago White Sox have liked what they’ve seen from Ryan Burr this year.

Burr also had to maneuver around the go-ahead runner that started the inning on second base. Burr was unphased by the moment and struck out Austin Meadows with an 86 mph cutter to open the inning. He then got Taylor Walls to fly out to left fielder Andrew Vaughn.

A wild pitch that allowed the go-ahead run to get to third base complicated things. Burr buckled down and got Francisco Mejia to line out to Andrew Vaughn. In the bottom half of the inning, Yasmani Grandal hit a walk-off single and Burr earned his first win of the season.

On February 2nd, the MLB asked fans on Twitter who was going to have a breakout season this year? Ryan Burr responded to the tweet with one word. “Me.”

Burr has appeared in four games this year since being called up from Triple-A. In 5.1 innings of work he is yet to allow a run or a hit. In his first appearance, he went 1.1 against the Cleveland Indians and retired all four hitters he faced. Burr also struck out two batters in that game.

The next day he threw another scoreless frame, retiring the side 1-2-3 with a strikeout to go along with it. He then worked two scoreless innings against Detroit before earning a win against Tampa Bay.

While it is too early to call it a “breakout season”, it is a very good start. Ryan Burr made his debut with the White Sox in 2018. He combined to go 4-3 with a 2.45 ERA, two saves and 51 strikeouts in the minors before being called up.

During his debut, he threw 1.1 perfect innings against the Detroit Tigers with two strikeouts. That would be the highlight of the season for him as he was touched up for 7.45 ERA in eight appearances.  Burr was limited to 16 appearances with the White Sox in 2019 due to two stints on the injured list. Tommy John ended his season.

Burr is no stranger to the late innings. He is the all-time saves leader for Arizona State and earned 2015 All-Pac-12 First-Team honors. At the very least he can provide a boost for a bullpen that has gone through their fair share of ups and downs.