If the White Sox have a notion to return to relevancy next year, who will pitch in their rotation?
“I’m sure everyone would like to know what that looks like,” said pitching coach Ethan Katz. “We’ll talk a lot about different scenarios for next year. But we’ve still got two more months this year. Guys have opportunities to really help themselves for next year and we’ll see where it goes.”
Dylan Cease and Michael Kopech have both shown flashes of their top-level talent, but also carry ERAs over 4.00 for the season. And it’s after those two that projecting Sox starters for 2024 really gets tricky.
Mike Clevinger is a pending free agent with a mutual option for 2024, which are very rarely exercised. The other two rotation spots are being figured out on the fly for the rest of this season, let alone next.
With five scoreless innings Friday night to lower his ERA to 3.50 in 36 innings, 27-year-old right-hander Touki Toussaint will at least get a prolonged audition. Toussaint was claimed off waivers last month and is on his fifth MLB organization, but he’s also a former first-round pick and top-100 prospect that the Sox had hoped to sign as a non-roster invite this winter.
To tackle career-long struggles to repeat his delivery, Toussaint has embraced the core velocity belt drills that helped Cease break out, and led Carlos Rodón and will lead Lucas Giolito to big paydays elsewhere.
“I pound it every day,” said Toussaint. “Built that into my routine, whether it’s in the weight room or outside or playing catch.”
Reliever Garrett Crochet also raised his hand for future consideration on Saturday, and made it clear he’s willing to return to the minors for further development.
“The stuff is there,” Katz said, “The ability to get guys out in the big leagues is there. But there’s still some stuff we need to do to make sure he’s able to go out there and go five, six, seven innings, whatever the case may be starting and help develop him that way.”
But even with improved strike-throwing, Crochet moving to a starter workload in 2024 after mostly spending the last two seasons rehabbing injuries reads as overly ambitious. In a world where Kopech’s workload is a closely monitored issue even after throwing nearly 120 innings last season, Katz floated long relief as another possible route for Crochet.
Long relief figures to be where the Sox draw from to fill their remaining rotation slot this year, with Jesse Scholtens or Tanner Banks—or some combination—handling Tuesday’s series opener against the AL West-leading Rangers. And that reality is reflective of a grisly year for starting prospects in the Sox upper minors.
Davis Martin and prospect Sean Burke are both sidelined by injuries at Triple-A Charlotte. As a 20-year-old, Cristian Mena is precocious to even be at Double-A Birmingham, but both he and former second rounder Matthew Thompson have ERAs over 5.00 with the Barons.
Katz said he has been too involved with the churn in Chicago to review video of newly acquired prospects Nick Nastrini and Ky Bush. But given Bush’s rough debut Saturday at Double-A Birmingham (3 1/3 IP, 12 H, 7 ER, 0 K), they might need more seasoning before getting on Katz’s radar.
“It’s a great opportunity for the guys here,” Katz said. “It’s always from a coaching standpoint exciting to help these guys develop, teach them at this level and make every day count and hopefully build for next year and see what we really have.”
At this point, the question of what the Sox will have in the rotation next year might be better directed to general manager Rick Hahn, and what help he can acquire.
“We’ve got work to do in terms of continuing to execute deals like the ones we have,” said Hahn on Friday. “Come August, September and certainly October, that’s the time to sort of reflect on the season and direction and what’s next.”
