The starting rotation was supposed to be the weak spot for the Chicago White Sox pitching staff when spring training ended.
Instead, it has been the bullpen that has been a major issue for this club.
The White Sox have the second-worst bullpen ERA in the league and the most walks issued by a relief group. The Sox have blown 49 leads this season. Now some of those leads have been blown by the starters, but the bullpen has contributed to the majority of that terrible number.
Now that John Brebbia has been designated for assignment, none of the pitchers who were part of the Opening Day roster in the bullpen are currently on the 26-man roster.
The White Sox opened the season with nine relievers, and after John Brebbia's DFA, none of them are on the 26-man roster now. https://t.co/VLf0kpM3IC
— Jim Margalus (@SoxMachine) August 28, 2024
Injuries have contributed to that happening with Jordan Leasure, Dominic Leone, and Steven Wilson currently on IL.
Being ineffective or bad is another reason and that is just the latest indication of how bad the bullpen has been this season.
Deivi Garcia, Tim Hill, Bryan Shaw, and Brebbia were so bad that they could not stay on the roster of a team that lost 100 games before September. The two good arms the Sox had in the bullpen were traded at the deadline in Tanner Banks and Michael Kopech.
Kopech was inconsistent until the very end of his White Sox tenure. Banks was not exactly a lockdown pitcher either.
The guys the front office has replaced their original bullpen pitchers with have not been very good either.
Jared Shuster, Justin Anderson, Prelander Berroa, Sammy Peralta, Chad Kuhl, Touki Toussaint, and Fraser Ellard have been promoted from Triple-A Charlotte to take over. They all have ERAs over four. Anderson and Kuhl have had their moments, but they have been mostly bad. The same can be said with Shuster.
The Sox claimed Enyel De Los Santos off of waivers after ironically being cut by the New York Yankees after the Southsiders roughed him pretty good earlier this month. He has already given up two earned runs in 1.2 innings of work for the Pale Hose.
Michael Soroka got demoted to the bullpen and had some decent long relief outings before going on the 15-day IL.
Kuhl and Toussaint are veterans who have proven they are just bad. They serve no purpose being on this team. Bringing back Soroka at this point does not seem like a good idea since he will be a free agent after the season.
The front office should be taking this time to see if Adisyn Coffey, Anthony Hoopii-Tuionetoa, Sean Burke, Jake Eder, or Trey McGough can be more effective. It would make sense to see those pitchers who are at Triple-A to see if they are good enough to be a part of next year's bullpen.
Instead, the Sox send the wrong message to those prospects and stick with bad veteran players or younger pitchers like Shuster who have proven they cannot be effective.