With Eloy Jimenez added to roster, Chicago White Sox getting closer to turning corner
The healing can't begin until the bleeding stops.
For the Chicago White Sox, they're just about out of bandages.
As they prepare to open the regular season Thursday afternoon at Kansas City, the Sox are likely to post a losing record for the seventh straight year.
Picking at another scab, the White Sox haven't been to the playoffs in 10 years. In major-league baseball, only the Seattle Mariners (17 years), Miami Marlins (15) and San Diego Padres (12) have longer runs of futility.
The Sox embark on a new season with some big question marks in the lineup, starting rotation and bullpen, and an overly patient fan base did not take the news well when star free-agent Manny Machado signed with San Diego in late February.
The sun always comes up, even in baseball, and the White Sox emerged from a pretty dark training camp buoyed by the news Eloy Jimenez is on the roster.
The 22-year-old left fielder should provide instant offense, but he won't be able to pull the Sox out of their extended slide all by himself.
As much as Machado would have helped the cause, he wasn't going to be a one-man team either.
“From my position, and the position of us in the baseball department, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture from time to time and get focused on one or two potential moves that may be out there,” White Sox general manager Rick Hahn said. “But when you take a step back and you look at what we've been able to accomplish over the course of the first couple years, and what it's going to start looking like over the course of the next couple, it's hard not to get excited.”
Jimenez gives the White Sox a much better look, and pitching prospect Dylan Cease is making fast tracks toward the rotation.
After going a combined 12-2 with a 2.40 ERA and 160 strikeouts in 124 innings for high Class A Winston-Salem and AA Birmingham last year, the 23-year-old Cease is starting the season with AAA Charlotte.
“I am ready to execute pitches wherever they put me,” Cease said.
Until he's ready, very possibly after the all-star break, it's going to be Carlos Rodon at the top of the Sox's rotation, with young holdovers Reynaldo Lopez and Lucas Giolito joining veteran newcomers Ivan Nova and Ervin Santana.
Rodon and Lopez have staked claims in the Sox's promising future, but Giolito needs to show much more after leading the majors with a 6.13 ERA and leading the American League with 90 walks last season.
In 2020, Michael Kopech should be ready to go after having Tommy John surgery. Dane Dunning had the same elbow procedure March 18, a painful blow for the White Sox's future.
The hitting side is in much better shape.
Jimenez is going to bat sixth behind Jose Abreu and Yonder Alonso this season, but he eventually will move up to No. 3 or cleanup slot.
More young offensive talent such as Luis Robert, Nick Madrigal, Zack Collins, Blake Rutherford and Micker Adolfo is on the way, so the White Sox are going to be a team to really start watching next year.
Avoiding a second straight 100-loss season is an obvious goal, and it's one the Sox should be able to meet, especially if new third baseman Yoan Moncada starts realizing his potential.
“My excitement now shifts into the expectation and the hope that we're starting to near a place where we're going to start to getting more of the young talent transitioning to the major-league level and helping us perform and win some ballgames,” manager Rick Renteria said.
“I think we're all excited about all the possibilities as we're moving forward, because now the time has been put in both at the major-league level and at the minor-league level with the different players.
“I think they're evolving in a very positive way.”