White Sox Jesse Crain on DL

Former Minnesota Twins reliever Jesse Crain has been suffering from an oblique injury since the 20th of April, and his current AL Central club, the Chicago White Sox, have finally decided to place Crain on the DL.

During Spring Training, Crain suffered from a right oblique injury, but this injury is to the left side and was apparently caused by a weight room injury.

Current closer Hector Santiago has been horrible thus far. Former White Sox star and current manager Robin Ventura will still keep Santiago as the closer, and he was still utilizing him in that role even when Jesse Crain was healthy and pitching at a much higher rate.

So far this year, Santiago has an 8.53 ERA, has blown two saves, and he’s allowing opposing hitters to launch home runs. ZiPS believes that he will have an ERA around 6.00 by the time the season’s over, and Ventura will be inclined to act when Crain comes off if Santiago doesn’t improve drastically. He looks out of his element on the mound, and it doesn’t seem like he should be pitching in high leverage situations.

As for Crain, the veteran, always steady RP had a 2.57 ERA through seven innings of work and was pitching well before the injury. He is coming off of a 0.9 WAR campaign last year and a 0.8 WAR 2010 season. Jesse Crain is projected to have a 4.00 ERA, and he will likely continue to rack up the strikeouts whilst handing out a little too many free passes once back from the oblique injury.

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