The White Sox on Thursday announced that they’ve designated veteran right-hander Steve Cishek and lefty Ross Detwiler for assignment. Their spots on the active and 40-man rosters will go to lefties Aaron Bummer and Carlos Rodon, who have been reinstated from the 45-day injured list.
Cishek, 34, inked a one-year, $6MM deal with the ChiSox this past winter — a pact that contained a $5.25MM salary and a $750K buyout on a $6.75MM club option for 2021 that clearly will not be picked up. Cishek’s overall numbers with the South Siders aren’t great — a 5.40ERA and 21-to-9 K/BB ratio in 20 innings — but he’s pitched pretty well since an awful start to the year. Over his past dozen outings, he’s pitched 11 2/3 innings while allowing four runs on 10 hits and five walks with 14 punchouts.
Recent uptick notwithstanding, the Sox feel that both Bummer and Rodon represent better postseason options, it seems. With four days of the regular season left, this move seems likely to put an end to Cishek’s 2020 campaign, although it’s technically feasible that he could be quickly outrighted to the Sox’ alternate site and selected back to the roster in the event of an injury.
Detwiler, 34, was an early surprise for the Sox, rattling off 12 1/3 shutout frames across his first nine appearances of the season. The well-traveled southpaw punched out 10 hitters and walked none in that time, although the complete absence of and a .138 BABIP each looked quite unsustainable. Detwiler has yielded seven runs (only five earned) on eight hits and five walks in the 7 1/3 subsequent innings — with two of those hits clearing the fence for home runs. He carries a sharp 3.20 ERA and 3.89 FIP on the season as a whole, but that’s been his only real success at the MLB level since 2014.
Both Bummer and Rodon will join the bullpen for a Sox club that has lost its grip on the AL Central lead, now sitting a half game back of a Twins team it topped thrice in last week’s best-of-four series. Healthy versions of Bummer and Rodon would surely help their cause. The former established himself as a breakout bullpen star for the Sox just last year, firing 67 2/3 frames of 2.13 ERA ball with a 60-to-24 K/BB ratio. That showing earned him a five-year, $16MM contract extension with a pair of club options over the winter.
Rodon, the former No. 3 overall draft pick, was once viewed as a foundational piece for the Sox’ rotation but has seen his career slowed by Tommy John surgery and shoulder troubles. Of Rodon’s 95 career appearances at the MLB level, all but three have been starts. However, given the missed time in 2020, it’s unlikely he could be built back up to take a rotation spot. He could conceivably be a multi-inning relief weapon for skipper Rick Renteria in the playoffs, but we’ll first see how he looks in his return to game action over the next four days.
Where was this when the Phillies needed bullpen arms
i wanted Cishek in the offseason. turns it it wouldnt have helped.
The Phillies could acquire Yates, Hendriks, Giles, Hader, Jansen, Osuna, and Rogers and they’d still somehow manage to have a bad bullpen. It really is amazing how every one of their reliever acquisitions blow up one way or another.
And it’s going to cost Klentak his job almost certainly
Middleton was the one who told him he had a spending limit. I really don’t think Middleton’s reasoning to get rid of him will be that.
Said it all winter that they should have put in for guys like Trevor Rosenthal and Greg Holland at no risk. Tommy Hunter was wise to retain, but other than that nothing has worked out. Those guys were bad last year but still pumping it up there at 95-97 mph. Klentak’s job is going to do come down to whether or not they can sign JT. There is nothing more frustrating as a catcher than to call a game, with a lead, and have the bullpen constantly blow it. I think he’s gone unfortunately.
I was about to say the Phillies should put in a claim for Cishek. He can’t hurt at this point.
WOW !!
For both Cishek and Detwiler,
that’s
a
real………
BUMMER !!
Come on Rangers, we got four more valuable games, we could use both of these guys. Take Jonathan Hernandez and Montero out of the pen, and pair these guys up with Chavez. Nasty Trio.
New headline:
“Bummer For Cishek”
MLBTR twitter crew, make this a thing!
Bummer for Cishek but not for Bummer
Surprised about ross tbh
Welcome Cishek back to the north side.
Ross Detwiler has had a lot of different jersey numbers throughout his career.
It feels like Detwiler has been in the majors since around 1980.
I had the same thought….checked out his page and saw he was the 6th overall pick in 2005…..he certainly fared better than picks 3 and 4 (Josh Vitters and Daniel Moskos)
drafting is hard…haha
I love your user name.
The Sox only ocassionally used Cishek in high leverage situations, and the playoffs are filled with those. And the Sox never seemed to have a ton of faith in Detweiler, even when he was pitching zeros early in the year, instead regularly turning to other options (too often to Jimmy Cordero) in spots when Detweiler could have been used. So these DFA’s are not that surprising, even though Cishek and Detweiler have been on the roster all year long and helped the team get into the playoffs.
Detwiler deserved better. He pitched the best he had in his career early in the year because he had really sharp control for the first time in years. But he went weeks between innings, and the toll of under-use messed with his control in the end.
This is a good point but as a White Sox fan I feel better about having Aaron Bummer and Carlos Rodon available for these important last 4 regular season games and into the playoffs over Ross Detwiler and Steve Cishek.
It should be noted that once the postseason begins active rosters roll back to 26 with a cap on 13 pitchers. It’s very unlikely that Detwiler and Cishek would have been a part of those pitching staffs. Bummer is guaranteed a spot and Rodon might get one as well provided both pitchers have no setbacks before the playoffs begin on Tuesday.
I’d take Detwiler over Rodon in a heartbeat.
Um, no
Rodon has more ability to miss bats then Detwiler, something that could come into play for the remainder of the year and with a White Sox defense that can be worrisome at the INF and OF corners.
sportingdissent, what are you smoking son?
This thread has already aged well. Well done, Rodon.
Detwilder had an ERA near 9 in September. I doubt he would have done any better.
I don’t think it would be hard to do better than 2 hits in 1/3 of an inning, but we’ll never know. I don’t really have much of an opinion on Detwiler, but I don’t understand why anyone thought it was crazy for sporting to prefer Detwiler over Rodon. Rodon has been bad for a while now.
First relief appearance since 2015 with the bases load Jimmie &@$#%¥ Cordero, and you’re throwing Rodon under the bus?
ChiSox, I don’t think anyone has blamed Rodon for tonight’s loss. I think our comments about him have just been in comparison to Detwiler. Yep, this loss is on Cordero.
Not tonight he didn’t miss bats.
Blame loss on Ricky. That was Bummer time. He is the relief pitcher.
Unfortunately you called this one sporting. Sad way to end the season.
Aaron, pretty sure that they will keep the playoff roster at 28. That was part of the deal when they scuttled the idea of going from 28 to 26 in sequence after the Marlins and then the Cards had the Covid issues. They never got to 26 this season.
No, it’s 26!
You are correct mike127: MLB did make a late change to the postseason roster sizes. Rosters will remain at 28 players, as they have been since Aug. 6. Clubs can continue to choose to have up to five players on a taxi squad.
This link provides a complete overview of all the changes in effect for the 2020 postseason: mlb.com/news/mlb-announces-expanded-playoffs-for-2…
Chisek was awful for the Sox and they milked Detwiler for every last quality inning. Both needed to go. I thank Detwiler for a strong couple of months, not so much for Chisek.
Obviously it’s a serious upgrade with Bummer, and it could be for Rodon, though it’s hard to tell right now. Rodon can’t be much worse than Chisek–at least there’s that.
If the Sox turn it around, hopefully it starts on Tuesday (earlier would be even better, but as long as they turn it around, that’s all I care).
Bummer could really help. They sure could have used him Tuesday night.
DFA Detwiler, not Cordero? Perhaps Detwiler not pitching well now but Cordero has not done well most of the year. Both might still be better than Rodon.
I don’t see what use Rodon has at this point. His ERA early in the season was 9, his velocity was way down, and he’s coming off yet another arm injury. His ERA has gotten worse every year for the last 5 years, control issues and consistenly high WHIP. He is always a few innings away from another DL stint. And the only reason he showed potential before was a power arm, which appears long gone. I don’t see a lot to like about whatever role they have for him, unless it is in lopsided ballgames.
Because Rodon can go down to two pitches and be more effective in the ‘Pen. It’s actually a smart move. Power lefty with a slider.
Can he? He isn’t the pitcher he was when they drafted him, his slider isn’t that great anymore and his velocity is way down.
Rodon is no longer a power arm. Did you see any of his 3 starts this year? Nothing like he was when he first got to the majors, his ERA progressively worse every year. I don’t see him coming in and striking anybody out like he might have 3+ years ago, he does not throw hard enough anymore and is liable to get hurt every time he takes the mound. They should have tried him out of the bullpen back then, he might have been a power arm at the time.
And he never threw like Crochet does. That guy has an arm, if he develops command he will be the steal of the draft. Could not look any better than he has so far. Question I have is, how could he possibly not have dominated in college if he is doing this well in the majors already? Does not make any sense that he did not need time to develop command or whatever the reasons were that he did not dominate in college.
I think Rodon has proved beyond any doubt in 2020 that he has nothing left.
Cordero under control for next season and was solid last year.
Cordero has actually been pretty good. He got severely overused for a stretch and his numbers then suffered. But he has been great about not allowing inherited runners to score and good most of the time, at least for one inning stints. And Ricky seems to trust him. So I think you have to keep him on the roster.
I don’t have a ton of faith in Rodon, either, but we don’t know how he has been performing at the alternate site. Maybe he hadn’t completely recovered from TJ earlier in the year, and has since regained his velocity, etc., over the past couple months. And if he only has to worry about his fastball/slider combo out of the pen, maybe he can be effective.
@oddvark I think it is safe to say that Cordero blows, and Rodon is useless. Neither belongs on the roster, and neither is better than Detwiler. Seriously, Detwiler a 3.4 ERA even if he has struggled lately. Cordero has a WHIP of almost 1.5… terrible for a reliever. Nuff said.
Sox fans, any reason Detwiler was DFA’ed? I get he struggled in his last outing, but he seemed like a solid LHP bullpen piece.
historically he’s bad. id assume they just wanted to get off before he regressed to previous numbers.
Numbers game.
Too many younger guys outperformed him. Especially last few weeks of season.
Are waiver claims at this point allowed to join postseason rosters? Detwiler’s got decent lefty-on-lefty splits, sub-.500 OPS.
No.
Another poor signing by Rick Hahn. The failure to hit on so many free agent deals and smaller trades is what is holding this team down.
Insert chisox311 or chisoxfan saying “blah blah blah, Cishek needed to go. Dumpster divin’ Theo, and he was horrible!” Especially after the Sox get bounced from the first round.
Dude, it’s guys like you that drive them back to the Cubs articles. Don’t troll here and maybe (yep, maybe) they (he) would show some respect back. The Sox just made a move that they are sure will improve their chances in that first round and beyond.
Lol don’t say I drive them back. They comment quicker on Cubs articles than Sox ones. They’re instigators. Don’t fuel the fire.
They never show respect back. Don’t give them that much credit. Or should I say, don’t give “him” that much credit. Because everyone’s pretty sure “they” are the same person.
Don’t feed the trolls.
@xxtremecubsguy89 he’s got a point, it’s guys like you that enable me and other guys on here to go to cubs articles and troll them. why are you cub fans such hypocrites? I wouldn’t even bother talking smack if it wasn’t for jerky cub guys like you, dogboner, bryzzo,ncaachampanelli,kyleschwarbersmom and so on. Sox guys like chisoxfan and chitown11 only do it because you guys do it and because it bothers cub fans feelings so much to see chisoxfan in their articles, so how is it ever going to end? It doesn’t make sense for you and other cubs fans to complain about trolling on your articles when you guys are more than willing to do the same in Sox articles. Wanna stop seeing it? You should start by cutting it out then.
You’re calling me out? Find me a post or two of mine where I’m trolling on the Sox articles. I’m usually pretty positive on them. On the dozen posts of yours that I scanned, it seems like paulie0514 exists to rehash the same comment that you just posted. So stop crying and add something of value in your comments next time.
These are the most useless comments. If you want to slam every White Sox move on each post related to them, that’s fine. Even mocking comments by White Sox fans, whether deserved or not, is OK. But criticizing comments that haven’t even been made — that’s weak sauce.
This is encouraging. Bolsters the bullpen, and improves their chances greatly in the playoffs.
If Bummer and Marshall can shake off IL rust, this bullpen can be an enormous strength in shortening games postseason going 6 quality arms deep…..along with rookies Foster/Heuer/Crochet and cool closer Colome that does not get rattled.
Rodon, Cordero, Gonzalez services not needed in meaningful moments. Offense just needs to get back enough confidence to support the pitching.
Mazara, Encarnacion, Cishek, Gonzalez.
Good thing 66% of Hahn’s offeason acquisitions don’t have guaranteed contracts for ’21.
Good thing Sox fans didn’t expect much from the guys you named anyway… well, except you.
I seem to recall a lot of excitement around here over 3 of those busts .(except me)
So you knew they were bad signings and were cool with the Sox wasting a prospect and $26 mil?
Hope Rick spends more wisely this offseason. They’ll have several holes to fill if they want to contend without half their games vs Royals, Tigers and Pirates.
Go Sox!
My recollection is that folks thought EE was a decent pickup that would improve the Sox’s DH production (which was godawful in 2019).
But people were decidedly mixed-to-negative on the Mazara trade. Many hated it, and some tried to rationalize it as a lottery ticket, hoping (but not really expecting) that the Sox could somehow tap into Mazara’s potential that the Rangers were unable to tap into over the past several years, and if they weren’t able to, hoping they were saving money to spend on a free agent outfielder in the 2020-21 offseason.
And Gio Gonzalez and Steve Cishek were better than nothing, but merely checked the “left-handed starter” and “bullpen arm” boxes, without really moving needle.
Granted, they have all been busts, but no one expected them to be studs.
I knew they got 1-yr contracts for a reason—they’re all placeholders. Most Sox fans understand this. The team needed more veteran presence (for character/growth). Hopefully the Sox can land a few free impact free agents during the offseason. Springer and Liam Hendriks would be pretty cool, but who knows. Would have preferred to see more of Mercedes and Jimenez at DH over Encarnacion, but I understand why they brought him in.
I don’t. They were already set to rotate DH among McCann/Grandal/Jimenez/Abreu, and could have given an extended look to Mercedes. Instead, in Hahn form, he gives money to declining vet. He also add Gio, who had arm problems. And if there was no COVID, Heuer and Foster probably don’t make team.
Hahn has consistently brought in players who have not only underperformed, they have often been worse than the player they were supposed to replace. Avila, Navarro, Keppinger, Herrera, Castillo, Santana, Manny’s Friends, now Cishek, EE and Mazara. Today’s game alone demonstrates how these poor decisions are impacting this team. The backend of the Bullpen is a mess, and they still are getting no production from DH. Money better spent – or actually giving young players a shot – could have dealt with these holes.
Exactly! Smart move by Hahn.
Better than giving them 5+ years and $100+ mil guaranteed!!
Oh look, Jimmy “Bases-Loaded-Nobody-Out” comes in to blow another late lead for the Sox again. I told you, leave that fool at the hotel. Did anybody listen? Nope.
Renteria incompetent this evening. If they have to lose to make it 100% clear to even him that Cordero/Rodon have zero place pitching in playoffs, it is a win. The 6 competent BP arms were cited above.
Wow…..Bummer was available…..even more ridiculous to not use him or the 3 rookies in lieu of Cordero/Rodon.
The great thing about the White Sox is… no lead is safe with this team.
The bad thing about the White Sox is… no lead is safe with this team.
Bummer’s an 8th inning guy, so it wouldn’t have made a difference anyway.
You said it. Why bring in Rodon to get the final out in 7th if the plan is to bring in Bummer in the 8th anyway? Cordero never should have started the 7th, first mistake. He should not be on the roster in favor of Detwiler, among other things.
This was the worst managed game I’ve seen in 4 decades. Not just questionable, I mean beyond dumb. Rodon has had 3 relief appearances in his career, all back in 2015. He was terrible early in the season, and is likely to break something every time he pitches. He’s the guy in the 7th with the bases loaded that Renteria picks, not Bummer? He then brings Bummer in, after the lead is already blown, are you kidding me? Rodon does not even belong on the roster, nor does Cordero.
There, there. The Cubs are sucking right now, too. Should be a fun series this weekend and then it’s playoff time, division winners or not.
Well boys we learned 3 things tonight! 1.) Ricky Renteria cant manage and its been clear for a while now! 2.) Carlos Rodon still has control Issues. 3.) Ricky Renteria need to be replaced by Ozzie Guillen
And we still have this multiple loser Cordova blowing games everytime he comes in….Cooper has lost his so-called “Golden touch”! You’re not in 2005 anymore “Dorothy”!!!
Cordova?
Get a grip!
Let the Twins and Indians beat up each other in the first round.
Sox need to be matched up with playoff opponents who are not afraid to start a lefty P!
Then the bats will come alive again.
Perhaps Ricky is just testing Rodon to see if he can help in the playoffs. The Sox are in, so maybe these games are just auditions.
Renteria might have done the Chi-Sox a favor. With the Tribe sweeping, Oakland is
now most likely to get the #2 seed & face the Tribe. The Rays get Tor.
That leaves the WSox the Yanks & Twins the Stros.
The cubs looked awful vs the Bucks so the WSox who looked great in the rotation & at the plate have a good chance to sweep even with an ailing pen. Even better the Bucks gained confidence & might take one from Clev. The scalding Reds took 2/3 vs WSox last weekend & might do the same vs the Twins now. So I think the WSox just need 2/3 vs the hit-challenged cubs.
As for the WSox ailing pen, Renteria is partly to blame. Calome should’ve pitched that 10th inning. Renteria lacked confidence Calome could get it done with a man on 2B & no outs. You can’t do that to your closer as you enter the playoffs. Renteria also lacked confidence Bummer could close out the 7th with RISP & 2 outs. If he makes the right calls instead, the WSox might’ve won 3/4 vs the Tribe.
Did he learn? I’m sure Cooper did & he will be in Renteria’s ear from now on.
As for Rodon, the jury’s still out. That was a tough scenario to pitch in & if we are honest, the rest of the pen has not handled that situation great either. Bummer has more experience with it but he might’ve given it up too. That was a tough part of the Tribe lineup. Normal rehab ends with AAA appearances. Rodon & Bummer just got simulated games.
I still think Rodon can be a BIG help in the upcoming games. His velocity looked OK last night. Both Rodon & Gonzo provide quick hooks if a starter should falter in a playoff game. Other playoff teams don’t have those LHSP options in their pen.
Let’s not forget he is playing for next season. He’s angry now & if his arm feels good he is capable of striking out the side. I hope he gets the chance vs the cubs.
FYI: If Alex Colome was available to pitch that 10th inning he might have. Unfortunately, he experienced back spasms following his easy 9th inning versus the Indians and was not available to pitch in the 10th.
juan, if you believe Rodon can be a big help, please pass me what you are smoking. Must be some good …. !
I used to love when Cishek was A closer for the Marlins and would come in to face the Mets, we owned him even when he was A lights out reliever. But I would not give up on him he still has A year or two to be a reliable mid inning reliever somewhere.