Moving Garrett Crochet to the Starting Rotation gets an A.
This one was a no-brainer. This one gets an A because the White Sox had the forward thinking to put Crochet in as a starter knowing, we assume, that he would do well.
And he has not disappointed anyone.
Barring injury, it’s hard to not see Crochet do a great job this season. One would suspect he would be the best of the starting rotation at least until Mike Clevinger comes along.
Even then, Crochet could still be the top of the lineup. It’s likely that he will be.
Health will be the biggest factor for Crochet. He’s struggled with that over the last few seasons. But if he can stay healthy he should be a great addition to the starting rotation and could end up being an all-start or even a Cy Young Award candidate before it’s all said and done. Some might think that’s a little far fetched but if Crochet continues his fine play, anything is possible.
It is a B- for the return in the Aaron Bummer trade.
The Chicago White Sox traded away reliever Aaron Bummer to the Atlanta Braves early in the year and got quite a decent return for him. What did they get? They got infielders Braden Shewmake and Nicky Lopez and three pitchers, Jared Shuster, Mike Soroka and Riley Gowens. Of those players, three of them are starters with the club at this time.
So far, Shewmake has impressed a bit at shortstop while Lopez is the starter at second base. He doesn’t have the best bat in the world but he’s holding his own as a fielder.
Soroka has started two games with a record of no wins and one loss. His ERA is 4.91 as he has allowed six earned runs including two home runs. Not great, by any means, but still just being able to be a starting pitcher and fill a spot in the rotation helps.
If Shewmake can continue playing well and Lopez improves a bit this trade could be considered a win. Right now, this trade gets a B- because we haven’t seen a lot of these players just yet. But we will and hopefully, they do well this year.