MLB Season Preview: AL Central X-Factors

X-Factors… Round Three! Halfway home! Week three, the final division of the American League in our tour of baseball’s X-Factors: secret weapons and make or break pieces for each AL Central team. The same rules as before applying, no trade candidates and no injury return candidates. You can see the AL West and AL East lists here.

Chicago White Sox: Relief Pitcher Garrett Crochet

I mean how can it not be Crochet, the dude can throw 102, When thinking of quintessential X-Factors, someone with Crochet’s profile springs to mind. A fastball so fast that sometimes it feels like there are flames coming out of the back.

One could make an Aroldis Chapman-esque comparison purely based on velocity alone but Garrett Crochet is not the second coming of him, but rather the first coming of Garrett Crochet. From his expedited path to the Majors, to the sheer power that Crochet possesses, there’s nothing ordinary about Crochet.

Perhaps the most impressive though, (as noted by FanSided’s own Mitchell Kaminski) is Crochet’s development as he learns how to pitch, not just be a flamethrower. Crochet’s fastball velocity would usually be cause for concern, but with an improved offspeed pitch mix, the results for Crochet were great. In his first full season in the MLB, Crochet pitched 54.1 innings of 2.82 ERA to go along with a 1.27 WHIP.  If Crochet can be a constant producer in a White Sox bullpen with quite a few shuffling pieces, it will give Tony La Russa plenty of margin for error late in games.

Detroit Tigers: Starting Pitcher Tarik Skubal

It had to be one of the three-headed pitching monster that is slowly coming into shape in the Motor City (four-headed if you include Alex Lange).

For argument’s sake let’s presume that Casey Mize becomes the bonafide ace that the Tigers used the number 1 overall draft pick in 2018, this is by no means a guarantee, but the early returns in his first full season seem to be promising.

The next order of business for the Tigers is to make sure that the rest of the young pitching core follows in Mize’s footsteps. Skubal is a good place to start, he pitched to a 4.34 ERA/1.26 WHIP, compare that to Mize’s 3.71/1.14. Skubal gave up 35 home runs which tied him for third-most only behind Mike Foltynewicz, Patrick Corbin, and Jordan Lyles. If Skubal can solve his long ball issues, he will be well on his way to becoming the clear number two in a young rotation.

Cleveland Guardians: Centerfielder Myles Straw

I debated quite a bit between Straw and reliever James Karinchak. Once Straw got out of Houston and wasn’t overshadows by the plethora of stars in Houston, not only did Straw’s numbers improve from hitting higher in the order, but Straw also thrived with the increased pressure coming over to the Guardians in the Phil Maton trade.

In 60 games with Cleveland, Straw had a .285/.362/.377 triple-slash line, albeit in a smaller sample of games.  If Straw can sustain those numbers over a full 162, Straw becomes a centerpiece to the mini-rebuild the Guardian undertook ever since letting go of Francisco Lindor.