Dallas Keuchel deserves a shot in the White Sox rotation

The Chicago White Sox is going to have a fantastic pitching staff in 2022. Pitchers and catchers were supposed to report on Tuesday but that isn’t happening because of the lockout. That leaves more time for us to speculate who will be a part of the team but we would really like to have baseball back.

One player who is looking to make an impact in 2022 is Dallas Keuchel. He did not have a good year in 2021 but it wasn’t as bad as some people think. It got worse as the season went along but there were games where he had a good start.

His WAR was 0.0 and both his ERA and WHIP were bad. However, he did go 9-9 but a lot of those losses came in the second half of the year. He fell off hard enough to be left off the postseason roster. It was tough to see for him as he only knows success in the big leagues.

The Chicago White Sox need to get something out of Dallas Keuchel in 2022.

Keuchel deserves the benefit of the doubt for right now. It was a bad year. However, he is a Cy Young winning World Series champion. He isn’t going to just lay down and give up with a resume like that. You can bet that he has been working hard all offseason to get this thing right.

The White Sox absolutely have an open spot in the rotation. Lucas Giolito, Dylan Cease, Michael Kopech, and Lance Lynn figure to be the four locks in there. It doesn’t look like Carlos Rodon will be coming back so that fifth spot is open.

Guys like Reynaldo Lopez and Garrett Crochet are candidates to compete with Keuchel for the job. As of right now, you would think that Crochet probably stays in the bullpen for another year so that leaves Lopez and Keuchel. Sound familiar?

Carlos Rodon came into 2021 with a very similar story in terms of his production. He had to win the job over Lopez and did an outstanding job. It would be great to see Keuchel do more of the same in 2022. He has the ability to do so.

Keuchel is going to get his chance. He has accomplished to much in his career to not. Even as recently as 2020, he was one of the best pitchers in the American League. If he can get back to a similar level of production, this team’s staff could be borderline unstoppable. Hopefully, he figures it out because it would really help.