The relief pitchers
The relief pitchers that the White Sox have can be moved soon.
This year's relief pitching corps has been dreadful for the White Sox, and there's really no way around that. As things currently stand, the club's relievers have combined to post a 4.68 ERA, which is fifth-lowest in the major leagues.
In Rosenthal's piece, there are two relief pitchers who are named as potential trade chips from the Sox: Reynaldo López and Keynan Middleton.
López, 29, seemingly found his groove over the past few years once he began to focus more on relieving than starting.
In 2021, he had a 128 ERA+ in 20 outings, which he followed up with a highly impressive 2022 performance. Last year, he had a sparkling 2.76 ERA and 1.93 FIP across 61 outings and 65.1 innings pitched.
Things have not gone smoothly for him to kick off the current campaign, and López has actually been one of the more inconsistent and unreliable relievers in the game.
In 33 appearances, he has a 5.52 ERA and an ERA+ of just 80, which suggests he's been 20 percent worse than the league average this year. This does not necessarily mean that all hope is gone, though, as he has been striking out batters at a much higher rate than he ever has before in his eight-year career.
At this point, Middleton may have higher trade value than López does, which is not something anybody had on their bingo cards at the beginning of the 2023 season.
Middleton, 29, hasn't been a solid reliever since all the way back in the 2017-2019 range when he was with the Angels. Now, the right-hander has been one of the more reliable arms in the White Sox bullpen.
In 26 games this year, he has a sparkling 1.80 ERA and 245 ERA+. He has found his swagger again and is striking out a ton of batters while surrendering way fewer hits and home runs than he has in years past.