Chicago White Sox: Team preview and prediction for 2020 season

Chicago White Sox:  Team preview, prediction for 2020 season

But unfortunately, I have a ton of questions about the Sox’s rotation and bullpen this year and if it can step up to the plate and keep pace with their offense that I expect to be pretty explosive. As far as the Chicago White Sox pitchers are concerned, I feel pretty good about Giolito having himself another great year and potentially winning the CY Young.

Aside from him, I really like Aaron Bummer and Jimmy Cordero in the bullpen. A lot of people don’t know either of these guys, but Cordero is an unbelievably-hard thrower who came aboard the Sox last year mid-year and pitched to a 2.75 ERA in 30 appearances. Bummer is an even more impressive reliever that pitched to a 2.13 ERA last year in 58 appearances with 60 Ks and 43 holds in 67.2 innings.

Alex Colome is solid as well and is probably the closer of this team, but I think the real show will be in the setup innings with both Cordero and Bummer. One big concern will be what will become of Kelvin Herrera because unfortunately, he has absolutely disappeared since leaving the Royals. They’ll need him to get back to his old self as well if they hope to have a strong overall bullpen.

Other than those guys, to me, it just seems like their pitching staff isn’t strong enough right now to win this division over two very good Twins and Indians teams. I love me some Dallas Keuchel. I think he moves the ball around the strike zone as well as anybody in the game and I’m still shocked to this day that it took a team until late June of last season to sign him.

But I worry he may have lost his momentum much like how Craig Kimbrel has lost his. Both guys were top of the line the year before they became free agents. Teams seemingly saw something they didn’t like in both, so neither were signed until mid-2019.

Gio Gonzalez is another guy in this White Sox rotation that I wonder about because he obviously isn’t the same pitcher he was a few years ago. The two veteran lefties the White Sox have brought on to go behind Giolito aren’t exactly in their primes anymore.

That leaves the back end rotation guys to hopefully be the ones who spark this season, and I see two standout injuries that could prove to be big losses for the Sox in 2020.

Carlos Rodon is out after Tommy John last year, so I think if we see him at all, it will be at least sometime after the All-Star Break. And Michael Kopech, though he’s recovering from his Tommy John a bit ahead of schedule, is still a prized commodity for the White Sox, so they have to be really careful when he comes back that he’s fully healthy.

That leaves Dylan Cease and Reynaldo Lopez. Both guys have high ceilings. Cease got beat up a little bit in his rookie year (understandable) and Lopez has consistently had a problem with walks and losing command of the strike zone. So, with all of these questions around the White Sox rotation, who is going to step up behind Giolito? It cannot be a one-man show if they want to win the Central.