The White Sox announced that they have placed righty Reynaldo Lopez on the injured list with a shoulder strain. His timeline is not yet known. Fellow righty Ian Hamilton will take the active roster opening.
The South Siders have also made a switch in the infield. They’ve selected the contract of Ryan Goins and designated Cheslor Cuthbert for assignment.
Lopez was bludgeoned for four earned runs in less than an inning of work in his 2020 debut. He had been hoping for a full and healthy campaign to rebound from a rough ’19 effort and set the stage for his first trip through arbitration.
Fortunately for the Chicago organization, the team’s top backup plan is still in place. Veteran southpaw Gio Gonzalez will step into the rotation opening.
Goins was just added to the White Sox mix after being released by the Athletics. The 32-year-old is a proficient defender but only a .230/.279/.335 career hitter.
Cuthbert, 27, had only received one plate appearance in the early going. He caught on with the White Sox after wrapping up a six-season run with the Royals, over which he turned in a .250/.300/.378 batting line.
Plug that Lambert into the rotation. López should be shut down for season. Has never been able to throw strikes.
seems like CHW’s version of VV.
@keysox
It’s going to be pretty hard for him to learn to throw strikes if you shut him down for the season, don’t you think?
Before the season, according to Stoney and young Jason, I was hearing how Lopez was ready to dominate the division.
Cheslor I hope you like that Hot Miami ‘rona!
Don’t need to see goins again! I thought the rebuild was over. I hope we can get better players than that to fill a spot for an injured player
I would guess he’s just hanging out for a couple days until they decide to bring up Madrigal
Why go with Goins over Cuthbert? Personally i’d have thought Cuthbert provides more at the plate — I mean neither is a great hitter but Cuthbert has shown some promise at the plate at times.
Goins can also play OF. In case Eloy needs a few days off
This is not true. Or, in the sense it is true you can also say “Cuthbert can play the outfield.”
Goons is a utility IF. Last year we threw him in RF a couple times because we were just that desperate but he does not have significant experience out there and he made like 3 errors in only 15 plays in the outfield when we tried him there IIRC.
If Nomar is healthy then we have Leury or Engel in the outfield against LHP. Neither is great but they both have + (or ++ for Engel) defense and they can both handle lefties decently.
Engel’s hot start and hot 2019 in a short sample especially have earned him some more playing time.
But if Nomar is still on the IL / Covid list *and* we can’t play Eloy for. Any significant time, we need to be signing a legitimate player.
My point is— if our outfield ends up including Goins we are just as F’ed as if Ross Detwiler moves into our 5th rotation spot.
Ian Hamilton looks like a pretty solid RP prospect. Idk what his stuff looks like but his results in the minors have been quite impressive. Will be interesting to see what kind of action he gets for the White Sox going forward… as based on his minor league results he seems like a guy who could eventually develop into a late innings arm.
His stuff is even better than his results. Two plus pitches and lots of movement and velocity on his heater. Usually with + control as well.
For most of 2017-2018 Hamilton was our 2nd best reliever prospect (after Burdi, who was presumed to come back from TJ just as good as before). Plenty of people were hoping for him as our closer of the future.
Now Ian slots in comfortably far behind Heuer, and possibly behind Johnson.
Hamilton is tied in my opinion with Burdi and just a titch ahead of Burr (who we DFA’ed for his TJ, but who stayed in the organization anyway, and is apparently healthy again now).
But saying Hamilton is like our 3rd or 4th best relief prospect is still high praise. Our current relief prospect depth is actually really really impressive. Way better than it’s been for a long time.
Man, we’re starting to see the effects that the shortened spring training is having on pitchers. I believe this is the 6th or 7th pitcher injured and going on the IL after 3 regular season games. Their arms weren’t built up enough but they go out and try to throw with max effort. Recipe for disaster.
It happens every year. Of course it usually happens in Spring Training and doesn’t get the focus.
Of course, the actual solution is to not throw with max effort all the time. The reason pitchers in the past were able to pitch so many innings each and every season is that they knew how to PITCH and not just how to throw. Pitching is not just raring back and throwing as hard as you can. But that’s all anyone wants to do now with the ubiquitous radar gun always around.
I’m actually surprised at how many pitchers went deeper into games and had 80+ pitch counts. Obviously we don’t know what players did to stay in shape, but it’s clear that some took it more serious than others. Like you said, guys get hurt every year at the beginning and I’m guessing a lot of that has to do with arms not being in shape, but whose fault is that?
Briffle, Joe Kelly came in the other night and threw 15 straight breaking balls before throwing a fastball that was way outside the strike zone. Pretty clear he was proceeding with caution. And this is in his backyard.
That doesn’t make any sense for what I’m talking about. A guy is trying to protect his arm so he throws 15 straight curveballs? Lol OK. Find a better example.
No, it makes sense. He is a fastball pitcher who didn’t want to air it out.
@Briffle
Yeah, I was amazed Hendricks was able to throw 103 pitches OD.
hlflew, and this is not just MLB but baseball at all levels. The way amateur pitchers impress modern scouts is with their velocity. Pitching prospects will be blowing out their arms before they even get drafted. As extreme as that might seem, it is not totally unrealistic.
Agreed. It will be interesting to see how the 2021 season unfolds for pitchers, especially if the ’20 season ends up being canceled. For most guys, that would essentially mean 18 full months away from pitching in games that matter. Pitching is all about routine and consistency of workload. While it’s true guys regularly return from TJ Surgery, we will be asking all pitchers to return from a long stretch away from true competition. This could result in even more surgeries than we’re accustomed to. Particularly for all those “throw-with-all-your-might” guys.
Maybe they should try Lopez as a relief pitcher. He still has some decent stuff and only 26. Worth a shot and try and salavge him.
Yeah, Lopez seems destined for the BP with the lack of command/confidence in multiple pitches for any stretch of time. Unfortunate since he looked like a rotation piece after ’18 season. Perhaps his useful talent long-term will be settling for that role.
They all look like rotation pieces, when you listen to the overhyped bs of the Chisox announcers. There isn’t a player on their roster that’s not going to the HOF.
who decided to put Gio in the pen anyway?