3 free agent starters who the White Sox must try to get signed right away
The White Sox have prime opportunities on the starting pitching market right now if they act quickly.
The Chicago White Sox are coming off one of the worst years in franchise history. They have been incredibly mediocre over the years but they rarely ever lose 100 games. In fact, 2023 was just the fourth time in a century that they reached the century mark for losses.
Why were the White Sox so bad? Well, there are a ton of reasons for that type of underperformance. The biggest, however, is the fact that the starting pitching just wasn't good enough. Among all teams in MLB, the White Sox's rotation ranked just 24th by fWAR at 8.7.
Dylan Cease, Lance Lynn, and Michael Kopech failed to pitch to their potential and Lucas Giolito was eventually traded away despite having a good bounce-back year. The reason Giolito was traded (and so was Lynn) was because of how bad the team was by the deadline.
Mike Clevinger is the only starter who began the year with the team and had a good year with them for the entire season. For reasons that have little to do with baseball, Clevinger will not be back in 2024.
The Chicago White Sox already need to rebuild their entire rotation
Because of this, the White Sox were forced to use starters that most people didn't expect to see entering the year. Without good pitching, you can't win. As we saw in the postseason with teams like the Texas Rangers, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Houston Astros amongst others, pitching is king.
The White Sox may trade Cease and they may move Kopech to the bullpen. Clevinger, Lynn, and Giolito are going to be gone too so they need an entire new rotation. These are three pitchers that are currently free agents to consider:
Luis Severino
The Chicago White Sox just need players to pitch for them at this point. It is clear that they aren't going to be a good team again in 2024 so they might as well sign a few pitchers. One of them that fits that potential innings-eater role is Luis Severino.
Severino has had a very interesting career up to this point. He has been in Major League Baseball since 2015 and every season has been a member of the New York Yankees. It has been a very up-and-down tenure for him throughout his career.
He has been an All-Star twice early in his career which had people thinking he would become a star pitcher in this league. Unfortunately, injuries and inconsistencies have brought him down.
In 2017, he had an ERA of 2.98 and came in third place for the Cy Young. In 2018, he followed it up with a 3.39 ERA and a ninth-place finish for the Cy Young Award. Those were the two years that he was an American League All-Star.
Between 2019, 2020, and 2021, Severino made a total of seven appearances in MLB because of injury. Then, he had a bounce-back season in 2022 as he went 7-3 in 19 starts with a 3.18 ERA.
It just got bad for him again in 2023 but it was performance-based this time. He made 18 starts for the Yankees (and had one extra appearance) and it didn't go well for him. He went 4-8 with a 6.65 ERA. He also only had 79 strikeouts in 89.1 IP. His WAR of -1.5 speaks volumes about his performance.
Severino is not going to be particularly expensive for whoever signs him. The White Sox should take a chance on him. Either he will be great and they got a steal or he will be terrible which won't matter much for the White Sox who have low expectations.
Frankie Montas
The Chicago White Sox have prematurely let a lot of players leave them too soon over the past decade. One of them is Frankie Montas. The White Sox got Montas as a prospect from the Boston Red Sox in the trade that sent Jake Peavey back to Boston.
The White Sox used him a little bit in 2015 but they eventually traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the three-team trade that landed the White Sox Todd Frazier. Before playing in a single game for the Dodgers, he was traded to the Oakland A's where he became a very good pitcher.
With the A's. he was there for parts of six seasons where he went 35-30 with a 3.0 ERA. The A's were actually pretty good for most of his tenure there. During the 2022 season, Montas was traded to the New York Yankees.
He is now a free agent after a 2023 season that saw him appear in just one game because of an injury. There isn't anything from the last year to really evaluate him on so teams will just be hoping for a big injury bounce-back.
The White Sox should consider bringing him back. He will be entering his age 31 season on Opening Day so he doesn't have the potential that he once did but he could still come to town and provide a few really good outings for a team that will desperately need it.
Sean Manaea
The Chicago White Sox should consider signing Sean Manaea before he gets taken by another team. He would be a great fit for this team at the top of their rotation. The Sox need a few good players at the top of this pitching staff and Manaea would be a great veteran for them.
He started his career as a draft pick of the Kansas City Royals. However, before ever playing a game for them, he was traded to the Oakland A's in the deal that landed Kansas City Ben Zobrist. The Royals and Zobrist won the World Series that fall (2015).
He has had a cup of coffee with the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants in 2022 and 2023. Now, he is looking for a new team headed into his age 31 season. There are plenty of teams that could use a player like this.
In 2023 with the Giants, he went 7-6 with an ERA of 4.44, a WHIP of 1.241, and 128 strikeouts in 117.2 innings pitched. He had a WAR of 0.3 so he was decent but nothing too special. Adding a guy like this wouldn't be a gamebreaker but they'd be adding a good player that can eat innings.
There is also that chance that he returns to his top form and the White Sox have themselves a stud that will pitch well for them. If that happened, they could potentially trade him for great future assets. It is something to consider for sure.
It is a shame that the White Sox don't shop at the top of the market with intentions to win but these three guys are good players for a team like them to contender.
Next. The 15 worst contracts in Chicago White Sox history. dark