Chicago White Sox: 3 most underrated relievers in the bullpen

Jose Ruiz

There have been many situations where Jose Ruiz has been great for the Chicago White Sox.

Along with being underrated, Jose Ruiz is the most underappreciated member of the White Sox bullpen. Ruiz gets a bad rap because of his 6.08 ERA in 2019. Since then, he has been sneaky good.

He opened the following season on the injured list and was reinstated from the IL on August 9th. Six days later, he made his season debut against the St. Louis Cardinals on August 15th and tossed a scoreless inning. He only allowed one run in five games in 2020 and has built off that this season.

Jose Ruiz had to earn a job out of spring training. His big arm combined with some solid outings were enough to convince the White Sox he deserved a roster spot. Ruiz has not disappointed them this season.

In 62.1 innings pitched this year, he has posted a 2.89 ERA to go along with 61 strikeouts. He has the fifth-most strikeouts which are impressive considering that he shares the same bullpen as K machines such as Liam Hendriks, Craig Kimbrel, Aaron Bummer, and Garrett Crochet.

Like Crochet, he has also been dialed in recently. He has not allowed a run in his last 8.2 innings. He is also riding a streak of ten-game consecutive games without allowing a run. It should be noted that Ruiz has seen a dip in production during high leverage situations. He does his best work when pitching in low leverage situations.