8 MLB pitchers that need to deliver for postseason hopefuls
By Bill Felber
8 MLB pitchers that need to deliver for contenders
Maturity on the South Side
The Chicago White Sox enter 2020 flush with emerging talent, including on the mound where Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Dylan Cease finally broke through and where the hope is that Michael Kopech will follow.
What the Sox need in 2020 is mound maturity, and they want Gio Gonzalez to provide a healthy dose of it.
Gonzalez is a 34-year-old journeyman signed to a two-year, $11.5 million contract over the winter. The White Sox also signed Dallas Keuchel, but with a .542 career winning percentage he is the surer performance bet.
Gonzalez, three years older than Keuchel and coming off a season in which he barely averaged five innings per start, is the question mark.
A soft-tosser, Gonzalez went 3-2 in 17 starts for the 2019 Brewers, and he hasn’t recorded a seventh-inning out since 2018. But facing him can be a frustrating experience for opposing batters. Gonzalez ran up a 127 ERA+ in 2019, and he improved with work. After making just six starts before July 1, he got the ball 13 times in the season’s second half, building to a .193 opponents batting average in September.
If the White Sox want to fulfill their hopes of challenging for the AL Central title in 2020, they need Gonzalez to over-perform expectations and do so in pennant pressure.