Fansided

4 offseason moves the Chicago White Sox made that seem to be working out

By Todd Welter |
/ Melissa Tamez-USA TODAY Sports
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The Chicago White Sox had a horrible April. It was historically bad as the Sox had the worst start to a season in team history.

That is 124 years of history we are talking about here. It is not like the White Sox have a rich tradition of being champions, but at the same time, they have never reached this level of embarrassment as they did to kick off the 2024 season.

Despite only winning six games, there has been enough evidence of four offseason moves that are turning out to be good moves made by general manager Chris Getz.

Erick Fedde is on an All-Star pace.

Fedde was so bad as a pitcher in the majors that he had to go to Korea to salvage his career. He won the KBO MVP and that got him a two-year, $15 million deal from the Sox in the offseason.

At the time, this was a depth signing for a rotation that just needed bodies.

Fedde has been more than just a bottom-of-the-rotation guy. He has become a legit stopper in the Sox rotation.

Fedde has a 2.60 ERA despite having a 4.03 FIP. The key is he has been throwing strikes as he has 20 strikeouts over his past two starts.

He has to be the assumed leader in the clubhouse to be the White Sox representative in the All-Star Game with how he is pitching. Hopefully, he can continue at this pace and be flipped at the trade deadline.

Even though he is 31, a contender might find him attractive if he keeps getting outs at this rate especially since he is on an affordable deal for another season.

Moving Garrett Crochet to the starting rotation is having some success.

Crochet was outstanding in his first three career starts. He was must-see television. Then he struggled in his next three starts.

He could not avoid a big inning and giving up home runs. It was looking like he was not ace material. He was solid in his outing.

It has renewed hope that Crochet will be a dude in the rotation.

He is going to be treated with kid gloves since he has pitched in just a shade over 70 innings before this season.

He was cruising along in his last outing, but he was pulled after five innings and 77 innings as part of the plan to ease him into being a starter.

Crochet still has a high ERA, but that is because of three outings where he gave up 16 runs in three games. In his four other starts, Crochet has yielded just six runs.

He is second in the majors in strikeouts. His stuff does have the potential to anchor the White Sox rotation for a couple of years. A rotation that could be very good, young, and controllable for years to come with promising arms like Nick Nastrini, Jonathan Cannon, Drew Thorpe, Jairo Iriarte, and Noah Schultz.

Moving Michael Kopech to the bullpen has rejuvenated his career.

Getz decided to pull the plug on Kopech being a starter during spring training. So while not officially an offseason decision, it was made before the season started, so it meets the criteria.

Kopech was outstanding in 2021 coming out of the bullpen. Say what you want about Tony La Russa's second tour as the White Sox manager, he deserves credit on how to deploy Kopech out of the pen. He was a high-leverage weapon La Russa could use to get multiple big outs.

Kopech was not the same pitcher as a starter. His velocity was not as high, and he did not trust any of his pitches besides his four-seam fastball. If that pitch had no movement to it, hitters were going to a get piece of it and send the ball very, very far.

Now he is back in the pen and the velocity is back. Kopech is a fun pitcher to watch again. The only problem Kopech has is sometimes he does not want to throw any pitch besides his heater. If he can trust his slider and cutter, he has a chance to be an outstanding closer.

He has only had three outings where he looked like the Kopech the starter. Otherwise, he has two saves on the season and if he can keep mixing in his secondary pitches for strikes, he will get good results. The Sox need that as they could flip him at the deadline since a rebuild does not need a top of the line closer.

Trading Dylan Cease has the rotation set up for a promising future.

Cease was on the trade block the entire offseason. The reason he had to be traded during spring training was the asking price was rumored to be astronomical.

Once Getz decided to stop asking for the moon, the sun, and the stars, he got a good trade offer from the San Diego Padres. Cease is thriving in San Diego, but Getz made no indication he was going to offer an extension to Cease who is set to be a free agent after next season.

It made sense to leverage the best trade asset to acquire players to be about of the White Sox rebuild version two. Hopefully, this rebuild works out better than the previous one.

Drew Thorpe was the key piece the Sox got back in the trade, and he has been outstanding for Double-A Birmingham.

Jairo Iriarte has also been great for the Barons. Those two, along with Crochet, give you hope that the Sox could put together a young and talented starting rotation down the road.

Steven Wilson has been a solid bullpen arm. Samuel Zavala has the potential to finally solve the White Sox' eternal problem in right field. However, he is off to a slow start in High-A ball. Regardless, the trade has the Sox set up for a promising starting rotation which is something to look forward to especially with the team being so bad right now.

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