The starting rotation hopefully is the strength of the team despite no ace.
Garrett Crochet is gone, but the starting rotation still has plenty of promise. Jonathan Cannon, Davis Martin, Drew Thorpe, and Sean Burke all provided flashes of potential to be a solid rotation.
Cannon and Martin showed they can reach their floors of being good middle-of-the-rotation starters.
Sean Burke is being predicted to be this year's breakout player. However, he has to prove he can handle once baseball adjusts to him. He has only made three career starts, so baseball will come for him. Therefore, he has to adjust to the adjustment.
Drew Thorpe's off-speed stuff including his change-up gives him the potential to be an ace. The hope is the bone spurs he had surgically removed from his elbow is what caused him to have two terrible starts and his fastball reaching only around 90-91 mph.
If his fastball can get back to 93-94 mph, then he has a chance to reach his ace potential. Still, those are four pitchers that should give the White Sox a possibility every night to be in games.
You would feel more comfortable if the Sox add a veteran pitcher to the rotation. Well, at least someone whose production fits better to the rotation than the bullpen.
Bryse Wilson has been signed, but his career numbers point to a better reliever than a starter. Maybe getting Jose Quintana or Jakob Junis would help ease any concerns anyone would have with the rotation.
The hope is this rotation can help keep the run differential to say, -200 and not over -300. That is literally the difference between standard being bad and historic being awful.
Expect 2024 first-round pick Hagen Smith to debut at some point in 2025.
There was some belief that Smith did enough in college that he would not require much time in the minors. If that still holds out, do not underestimate this franchise wanting to make the callup to draw fans to the ballpark.
It would be great if top pitching prospect Noah Schultz also debuts, but if the franchise follows their handle-with-care development plan, he will be up in 2026.
Schultz only pitched four innings on Saturdays in 2024. You will likely see Schultz be on the Garrett Crochet plan only in the minors and then be ready next season to take the league by storm.
In Smith's case, his workload has been built up by pitching in college and his stuff might not need much time in Birmingham or Charlotte.