The Chicago White Sox starting rotation no longer has an ace after Dylan Cease was traded last week.
It is a rotation of castoffs and a converted reliever who will be the Opening Day starter despite making his last start in college. That's right, Garrett Crochet is getting the start on March 28th when the Sox host the Detroit Tigers. The man has only pitched in 73 innings during his three-year career and missed 2022 after Tommy John surgery, but he is getting the honor usually reserved for a team's best pitcher.
The White Sox do not have any good starting pitchers. Michael Soroka's career was trending towards being a top-of-the-rotation pitcher but then injuries wiped out the past two-and-a-half years of his career. Chris Flexen has had two solid seasons in 2021 and 2022. He also had three horrible seasons with the New York Mets before that and was terrible in 2023.
Erick Fedde won the KBO's equivalent of the Cy Young last year. He also had to go to South Korea because he was practically exiled there after a horrendous tenure with the Washington Nationals. Manager Pedro Grifol still has not given a solid indication that rookie Nick Nastrini has won the fifth starter job.
Hey, it is a rebuilding year no matter what ownership thinks, and we have seen bad rotations last decade as the franchise tried to build a winning ball club. This rotation might be the worst of them all and the Sox once had James Shields at the top of the rotation when Lucas Giolito was the worst pitcher in baseball during those painful rebuild seasons.
It is shaping up to be a tough rotation to watch. There are three reasons, in particular, to not like this rotation this season...