The Chicago White Sox are in good shape with their bullpen. They a couple of players that you could consider to be superstar pitchers (or future superstars) on the bullpen staff. There are also some outstanding starters to round out one of the best units in Major League Baseball.
The best reliever on the team is Liam Hendriks. He is the closer that they paid a lot of money for last offseason after a very good stint with the Oakland A’s. He lived up to his contract in year one and hopes to bring even more going forward.
Hendriks isn’t the only big free-agent reliever to come to the south side in the last 24 months. Not long after the 2021 season ended, the White Sox signed Kendall Graveman in free agency. He split the year with the Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros and was very good.
Hendriks and Graveman each have something very interesting in common. They each joined the White Sox in the offseason after eliminating them in the postseason. Hendriks’ Oakland A’s defeated the White Sox in the 2020 playoffs and Graveman’s Houston Astros took care of them in 2021.
Liam Hendriks and Kendall Graveman have similar journeys to the White Sox.
Each of them must’ve liked something about the way that the White Sox played or dressed or something. They didn’t play amazing in either series but they showed what they can do at the height of their powers. When this team is rolling it is outstanding and people are starting to see that. It would have been nice to beat those teams and advance in the playoffs but good things are coming.
Hopefully, these guys connect in a way that helps anchor the bullpen. They are each outstanding pitchers but they each seem to have good personalities that gel well with others. We all know about Liam Hendriks and his fun-loving self so it would be nice to see Graveman feed off of that. They each have successful MLB careers going right now which will certainly help the Sox.
We don’t know if they will end up trading Craig Kimbrel or not but their bullpen should be great either way. Michael Kopech will be moving to the starting rotation but Hendriks still has Graveman, Garrett Crochet, and Aaron Bummer pitching in front of him.
You also never know if someone like Reynaldo Lopez, Matt Foster, or Dallas Keuchel plays a role well for the White Sox. If that happens, this team will be hard to beat once the 2022 playoffs come round.