Right-hander Ervin Santana will make his White Sox debut Tuesday with a start against the Rays, James Fegan of The Athletic and Scott Merkin of MLB.com suggest. Santana is not on Chicago’s 40-man roster, but the club has an opening, so a corresponding move isn’t a necessity in that regard. The White Sox did free up a 25-man spot Sunday when they optioned outfielder Ryan Cordell to Triple-A Charlotte, though.
Once promoted, the 36-year-old Santana will immediately become the elder statesman in a White Sox rotation which features Ivan Nova, 32, and three mid-20s hurlers in Carlos Rodon (26), Reynaldo Lopez (25) and Lucas Giolito (24). The former Angel, Royal, Brave and Twin will bring a quality track record to Chicago, having logged a 4.06 ERA/4.26 FIP in 384 appearances (381 starts) and just over 2,400 innings. Santana has also fired upward of 200 frames in six individual seasons, including as recently as 2017, when he turned in a terrific 3.28 ERA in a 211 1/3-inning campaign in Minnesota.
Had that version of Santana shown up last season, he likely would have landed a guaranteed major league contract in free agency over the winter – or the Twins could have exercised his $14MM option for 2019. Instead, Santana suffered through what may have been a career-worst campaign and then sat on the free-agent market for nearly four months before signing a minor league contract with the White Sox in late February. However, the deal did come with a $4.3MM salary in the majors, which is especially high for a minors pact.
A right hand injury limited Santana to just five starts and 24 2/3 innings in 2018, when he registered an atrocious 8.03 ERA/7.94 FIP with a personal-worst strikeout rate (5.84, compared to a lifetime 7.18) against 3.28 BB/9 (versus a career 2.8 mark). Nevertheless, after their rotation was among the majors’ worst last season, the White Sox deemed Santana worthy of an affordable, low-risk accord. Now, a rebound from Santana would be a boon for the White Sox, who have received mixed results from their starters this year. Rodon has been effective in both of his performances, while Nova and Giolito have each posted one solid start and one clunker, and Lopez hasn’t been good in either of his appearances.
Im a White Sox fan i honestly feel our rotation isn’t that good hopefully im wrong
Don Cooper knows absolutely nothing about pitching anymore and hasn’t for a while now, hence the White Sox endlessly picking up and throwing away pitchers.
Bring back Mark Buehrle!
Sox not expected to win World Series until 2-3 years from now.
For now, we are waiting on Kopech, Cease, and Dunning.
Hopefully, Santana can help teach the 3 young current starters.
Hang in there.
That’s a shame for Cordell. Palka has given the team nothing offensively or defensively since spring training. He’s the player deserving of a demotion to AAA
100% spot on
Absolutely, Palka swings at the first pitch and does nothing with it . Cordell has more hits in 2 trips to the plate lol
Unrelated, but why is “Giants, Blue Jays Discussing Potential Kevin Pillar Swap” a top story, right below “Giants Acquire Kevin Pillar From Blue Jays In Four-Player Swap?” Things like that don’t usually slip through on here.
Should be interesting to watch Santana’s velocity. After returning from finger surgery, he dropped 4mph all year and wasn’t able to top 90mph with his fastball when he was actually able to pitch. Then he wasn’t ready to pitch in winter league games, but MLBTR hasn’t covered much of any of his problems from what I’ve seen.
If Santana shows back up throwing 90mph fastballs, he’s going to get obliterated, but if he’s recovered the lost velocity, he should be a very solid addition to the White Sox’s rotation.
I hope he works out cuz what I’ve seen so far from our rotation is that it’s probably going to suck again and our middle relievers our even worse. I think we are going have a lot of blowouts like the last two. Sox were ready to spend 30 mill for Machado then just put that money back in thier pockets rather than put some of that money towards some starting pitching!
Our whole farm system is pitching prospects. Don’t expect them to sign a major “ace” starter until we are ready to commit 100% to competing. They are hoping these pitching prospects turn into those aces you wish.
Sometimes it just takes time man. They are still very young and learning.
What starters would you have wanted them to sign ? The SP market was dry to begin with especially by the time they blew the Machado deal.
Curious who gets sent down when Santana hits the 25-man roster. Personally, I’d keep Fulmer up. He didn’t look horrible (for once), and the way the rotation’s been, that bullpen will get constantly taxed this year. Not a bad idea keeping two long men on the roster.
This is it for Fulmer. Either chit or get off the pot. The Sox are already shedding those busts who don’t fit their long-term plans (Avi, Davidson, most likely Covey), so give Fulmer that final chance. The Sox once again are a laughing stock, even if TA and Moncada look far better this year (albeit 9 games into the season).
Speaking of Covey, he must be bad if MLBTR doesn’t even acknowledge his demotion. LOL, dumpster dives like Guyer and Escobar get mentioned but Covey doesn’t. Says all you need to know about Covey. Of course, nothing’s been said yet about Fulmer’s promotion, so I guess it says all you need to know about Fulmer also LOL.
Guess it was Fulmer. The Sox do need to bring him back up sometime this year and give him his final audition. Maybe he’ll shock the world and stick with the team, otherwise get rid of him. It’s not going to hurt, the Sox are still far from competitive.