The White Sox announced that southpaw Dallas Keuchel has been activated off the 10-day injured list in advance of his scheduled start tonight against the Reds. Right-hander Jonathan Stiever was optioned to the club’s alternate training site to create roster space.
Keuchel was placed on the IL due to back spasms, and since his placement was retroactive to September 7, he will return having missed only a couple of days past the 10-day minimum. The injury wasn’t thought to be overly serious in the first place, and Keuchel will now get to make at least one tune-up start before the White Sox begin their postseason run.
Signed to a three-year, $55.5MM free agent deal last winter, Keuchel has thus far been a big plus for the White Sox, posting a 2.19 ERA over his first 53 1/3 innings on the South Side. ERA predictors (3.19 FIP, 3.84 xFIP, 4.42 SIERA) are naturally less impressed with Keuchel due to his lack of strikeouts, as he has only a 5.4 K/9. As always, however, Keuchel is generating a ton of grounders (56% grounder rate), and this season has done a better job than ever of keeping the ball in the park. The left-hander has a league-best 0.3 HR/9 this year, a massive improvement over the 1.3 HR/9 he posted over 112 2/3 innings with the Braves in 2019.
Just give him 5 innings and yank him!
Gave him 4 innings.
75 pitches.
7 Ks
0 runs
Great outing.
His numbers are great this year. Almost back to his heyday in Houston. Seems like the White Sox can do no wrong this year.
Just in time. CWS will need him for the playoffs.
I read that Aaron Bummer looked good in throwing 20 pitches today. Sounds like he will be back soon as well. I feared that Crochet promotion might have been because Bummer would not be back at all, was good news to read he threw well today.
And not negative on Stiever but I would not start him again in 2020 and risk hurting his confidence. So glad they sent him back down as well. 4 homers yesterday had to sting a little bit.
White Sox just proved that nurtured youth + experienced veterans = success. I’m not a WSox fan, but I’m impressed.
Well said!
I’m not sold quite yet. Less than a third of a normal length season at this point. False hot starts like this happen, I’m waiting for their young arms to crash when the league adjusts
Nice to see Keuchel back in the fold. It was good to give Stiever a taste of the show. Might as well see what he’s got. Now it’s time for him to make the adjustments to get back for good. It will be interesting to see if he can make the necessary adjustments.
I’m pretty excited to see Crochet up. Wasn’t sure if he was going to make it up with so little time to go. He looked like the left-handed version of Kopech (at least for one night anyway). Getting way ahead of myself, but I’m imagining Crochet and Kopech together, pitching the same night, either one as a starter or both as late inning options. But Crochet’s only pitched one game and Kopech hasn’t pitched in 2 seasons, so I know it’s way too early. Still, the potential for that looks so sweet.
Great news! The Sox need to finish the regular season strong.
Now if Luis Robert could stop flailing away at low and away sliders off the plate, that’d be great. His at-bats have been embarrassing to watch lately (4/38 the last two weeks).
Side topic: Moncada looking great at the plate tonight against Bauer. That would be huge for him to come alive late.
Well since Mazara homered… anyone can!!
Robert needs to work on his plate discipline, Mazara is just useless. He should’ve been sent to Schaumburg. Delmonico had more in his bat and that’s not saying much.
Robert needs to layoff the sliders/breaking balls low and away. The entire lineup struggles with this. Gonna haunt them in the playoffs against quality pitching.
Ask Jobu to come. Take fear from bats.