Dream Chicago White Sox starting rotation for the 2024 season
The Chicago White Sox are one of the worst teams in the league. It was expected to be a bounce-back season in 2023, but that never materialized and fans had to watch as the season went from promising to embarrassing in record time. It appears as if the rebuild was a complete failure and they have to redo it all.
With that, it sounds like Chris Getz thinks this team can compete in 2024 with the right moves. If they get the pitching that they got in 2023, they are going to be a very bad baseball team once again.
There is nothing certain when it comes to their starting rotation next year, but it doesn't look good as of right now given how much the White Sox gave up at the trade deadline and the state of the starters who are left. Big-time changes are going to be needed if they are going to take that next step.
In a perfect world, the White Sox would sign the arms necessary to have a great rotation once again. This is what a dream starting rotation would look like for them in 2024. This might not be a realistic list for a cheap team like the White Sox but it would be so fun:
Blake Snell
On Wednesday night, Blake Snell won the Cy Young Award as the top pitcher in the National League. He took home this honor after an incredible year with the San Diego Padres.
Snell's Cy Young was the second of his career. He also won it as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018. Since then, he has developed into one of the best pitchers in all of baseball.
Snell spent the first five years of his career with the Rays before making his way to the Padres in time for the 2021 season. Tampa Bay traded him to San Diego in a five-player deal. The Padres received Snell while the Rays got Blake Hunt, Cole Wilcox, Francisco Mejia, and Luis Patino.
Snell's numbers with the Rays were incredible. Over those five years, he went 42-30 with an ERA of 3.25. He had a remarkable 648 strikeouts in 556.0 innings pitched. He also was the ace of a staff that won an American League championship.
With San Diego, he found a way to get even better. His Cy Young winning 2023 season included a 14-9 record, 2.25 ERA, and 234 strikeouts in 180.0 innings pitched. He made all 32 of his starts and was a 6.0 WAR player.
Of all the pitchers on the market right now, he is at the top of everyone's list. It is likely not a move that the White Sox would consider but he'd be the ace on their dream staff in 2024.
Dylan Cease
Dylan Cease has been a fan favorite for the Chicago White Sox. For one, he came over from the Chicago Cubs in the Jose Quintana trade. Eloy Jimenez also came to the White Sox with Cease in that deal.
In 2022, Cease was one of the best pitchers to ever pitch in a single season for the Chicago White Sox. He came in second place for the AL Cy Young Award because of his 2.20 ERA, league-low 78 walks, and 227 strikeouts in 184.0 innings pitched. He made all 32 of his starts.
Somehow, Cease was able to make 33 starts in 2023 but that made it three straight years in which he didn't miss a single scheduled start. His health is a good reason that the White Sox should be trying to keep him in their rotation going forward.
The problem is that he wasn't nearly as good in 2023 as he was in 2022. He has a ton of value because people still see him as a premier talent but that will dip if he struggles again in 2024. The willingness to trade him makes sense but building a rotation with him might be the play.
In this "down" 2023 season, he had an ERA of 4.58, a WHIP of 1.481, and 214 strikeouts in 177.0 innings pitched.
He did finish strong in the end as he only allowed five runs over his last four starts. Pitching on a team that bad can't be easy and he got through it. Having him as a number two in 2024 would be a great dream.
Lucas Giolito
For a long time, Lucas Giolito was the ace of the Chicago White Sox staff. After coming over as the top pitching prospect in baseball in the trade for Adam Eaton with the Washington Nationals, it took him a while to get going in the league.
From 2019-2021, however, he was a good pitcher for this team. Then, he was bad in 2022 before bouncing back again in 2023. From 2019-2021, he finished in the top 11 of Cy Young voting each year.
During that amazing span (2019-2021), he had an ERA of 3.47 and 526 strikeouts over 427.2 innings pitched. Then, things were bad in 2022 as his ERA shot way up to 4.90. From there, he knew he needed a big bounce back.
His 2023 season with the White Sox looked a lot more like his glory years as he had a 3.79 ERA. Unfortunately, things went south for him when the White Sox traded him away. He did not fare well with the Los Angeles Angels as his ERA shot back up to 6.89 with them.
It was a weird move for the Angels to acquire Giolito in the first place but they did what they did and he didn't succeed. It became even more strange when they put him on waivers to save some money to end the season.
The Cleveland Guardians claimed him after that. He was even worse with them as his ERA went up to 7.04 in that uniform. Strangely, he got worse every time he left. It can be hard to play with three teams in one season.
Now, he is looking for his next team. He will be trying to prove that all the bouncing around hurt his game. He was great with the Sox before the trade. Now, they should be looking to bring him back if he wants to come back.
Michael Soroka
On Thursday night, the White Sox acquired Michael Soroka from the Atlanta Braves. Soroka and four other players from that organization are coming to the White Sox organization. Going the other way was reliever Aaron Bummer. This appears to be a great trade for Chris Getz.
Now that Soroka is coming to town, he is going to be a part of the rotation as long as he is healthy. He wasn't great in 2023 when he was on the mound but he was working his way from coming back after missing all of 2021 and 2022.
In 2019, this guy was an All-Star. He made 29 starts and was very good as he had an ERA of 2.68. In addition to being an All-Star, he came in second for the National League Rookie of the Year and he came in sixth for the Cy Young of the NL.
If the White Sox made the moves necessary to make Soroka the number four starter, they'd have the start of a pretty good rotation. He would be able to focus on himself and get in the best shape he can so that he can find what made him so good back in 2019.
The White Sox have had success with guys like this who struggled recently after domination a few years prior. Johnny Cueto and Mike Clevinger are examples of that working. It would be nice to see Soroka be the next in line for that.
Jared Shuster
Some people might have wanted to see Michael Kopech as the number five on this dream (but realistic) list of White Sox starters in 2024. However, based on everything we've seen from him lately, it is fair to keep him in the bullpen and let him thrive there.
That option became a reality at the end of the 2023 season and now this Aaron Bummer trade might make it even more likely as Jared Shuster might be better suited for the starting rotation.
In 2023 with the Atlanta Braves, Shuster had an ERA of 5.81 to go with 30 strikeouts in 52.2 innings pitched. All of that came in 11 starts for the NL East-winning Atlanta Braves. Those 11 starts are also the first 11 starts of his Major League career so he has a long way to go.
Shuster has a high pedigree as he was a first-round pick (25th overall) in the 2020 MLB Draft. Now, he is looking to take that next step as a starter in the big leagues. The White Sox should be giving him that chance right away. He will be 25 entering the season and will turn 26 in August.
The White Sox's dream rotation might not be as glorious as some of the other top teams in the league who like to spend. However, if it looked like this entering the 2024 season, people might be okay with it, especially at the top.
Hopefully, regardless of who is in there, they are better than the unit they ran out there in 2023. The staff must be more dangerous next year otherwise another 100-loss season could be on the horizon.
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