Starting to get well: Rotation leading White Sox out of deep hole
Entering the season, the starting rotation looked to be the White Sox's obvious strength.
Headed by Dylan Cease, who finished second in American League Cy Young Award voting last year, the group had an enviable blend of experience and success.
But from the top of the rotation to the bottom, it was mostly failure in April and that spilled into May.
New manager Pedro Grifol was probably stunned by how ineffective Cease, Lance Lynn, Lucas Giolito, Michael Kopech and Mike Clevinger were in the early going, but he wasn't overly concerned.
"Our starting pitching, they've been good before, they'll be good again," Grifol said. "These guys know the wear and tear of the regular season and they're going to be all right. I'm not concerned with our starting pitching."
As they gradually stride away from a 7-21 start, the rotation has finally come together and is leading the way.
"Our starters have done a pretty good job going deep into games and giving our bullpen the opportunity to come into easier situations," pitching coach Ethan Katz said. "They've been responding. Everyone is getting on that train and the vibe is really good right now."
In Friday night's 2-0 win over the Royals, Kopech flirted with a no-hitter and settled for a 1-hit gem over 8 innings.
On Saturday, Giolito followed with another quality start, going 6 innings and giving up 1 run against Kansas City.
Over the Sox's last nine games, the starting five has a 2.57 ERA and 47 strikeouts over 56 innings.
"They are more consistent," catcher Seby Zavala said. "They are doing what they actually want to do. I saw Lance say the ball is doing what he wants it to do. When you have control of what the baseball is doing, it's more likely going to be in your favor.
"They've had really good careers and they come to work every day and even after the work is done, they are trying to figure out how to be better every day."
It's already been another tough season on the injury front for the White Sox, but the starting rotation has yet to be dinged. In MLB, the Blue Jays are the only other team that has used only five starters this year.
The odds of going through the whole season with the same rotation are long, and Davis Martin was supposed to be waiting in the wings at Class AAA Charlotte in case of injury.
Martin had Tommy John surgery on Wednesday and is out for the year. The right-hander made 9 spot starts for the Sox in 2022 and was also used as a long reliever.
With Martin down, there are other options.
"We've got (Jesse) Scholtens and a few other guys we feel are getting close to being ready," Grifol said. "Scholtens is probably going to be the first guy. It's unfortunate for Davis because he had a good year last year and he had a good spring."
Signed to a minor-league contract in late December after pitching for the Padres' Class AAA El Paso farm team in 2022, Scholtens is 2-2 with a 3.99 ERA for Charlotte this year.
After Scholtens, the White Sox are keeping an eye on Nate Fisher and Sean Burke at Charlotte. Cristian Mena is an intriguing prospect at AA Birmingham.
Only 20 years old, Mena has 50 strikeouts in 30⅔ innings for Birmingham to go with a 3-3 record and 4.99 ERA.
"Cristian Mena has been a consistent pitcher," said Sox assistant general manager/director of player development Chris Getz. "His last two outings weren't up to his standards. But as a whole, for a 20-year-old kid doing what he's doing in Double-A is impressive and we continue to support him with showing him guidance for improvement in that league. Who knows where it takes him for the rest of the year."