He seems to be doing a lot better since mostly becoming a 2-pitch pitcher who throws harder in the shorter stints. They don't seem to want to mess with this, even when he's in Worcester.
Names I've seen rumored include Eduardo Rodriguez, Marcus Stroman, and Old Man Zack Greinke. Amusingly, now that Pittsburgh is falling out of contention, there's a chance they could bring back Rich Hill yet again. I hesitate to bring this up, but I've read some "Maybe Shane Bieber??" rumors here and there. Decide for yourselves how desirable any of those would be in trade.
The Cubs have been playing very well lately, and on the fringes of the playoff hunt. That central is a terrible division right now. I'd be surprised if Stroman was available.
I could see Winck to the rotation with Murphy taking his spot in the pen.
At least we can squint and see Pivetta as being serviceable as the 5th best starter for 6-8 weeks.
Apparently Eovaldi's 4-seam velo tanked last night so it may be time to get bearish on his next month or so.
Yeah, if we were given a chance to up our offer on Eflin after the Rays matched & we didn't, that was probably a bad choice.
Yeah, a bullpen game is the likely the answer until Houck returns on a deadline deal is swung
When is Schreiber coming back?
I can see Pivetta going back to the rotation, similarly to how Crawford just did. He's barely a month removed from being a starter throwing 90+ pitches, so it would probably only takes a couple turns to get his pitch count back up (he threw 43 on Sunday so he's not that far off).
In theory a bullpen game doesn't sound bad for a couple of times through the order. The biggest issue I see is Kluber being part of the pen. He's completely unreliable and even if he's not a part of the pen game he's going to be regrettably pressed into action at times when others who are seen as long guys are unavailable due to scheduled usage.
He's not going to be available right now, which is when the Sox need a starter. The Pirates are four games out of first place. They're not trading their #3 starter with 90 games to go.
I was thinking long relief for Hill. If(?) the White Sox would consider selling, Lance Lynn is another possibility for LR.
Trade for other teams' starters to move to the bullpen? Is that how Chaim argues for a lower price tag? "No Ben, we want Rich to work out of our bullpen. We'd give you Nick Yorke if he was going into our rotation but since we're not, I'm going to have to insist you take Fitzy instead."
No one is giving up Nick Yorke for Rich Hill. I said I'd consider giving up a mid-level prospect for the latter. Someone ranked between 15-30. A 43-year-old pitcher on a losing team who's having a meh season doesn't have much value. He'd be a decent upgrade for the Sox pen, though.
Honest question: Who does he replace in the bullpen, and why is giving up any kind of prospect for a "43 year old having a meh season" a better option than, say, Ryan Sherriff, or Andrew Politi, or Oddanier Mosqueda, or Rio Gomez, if it comes to that?
I think you DFA Kluber in that scenario. But I don't think they give up an asset to go from Kluber to Rich Hill.
I am in violent agreement, and that was basically my point. There is zero reason for this team to trade for Rich Hill. None.
He replaces Kluber in that situation. As pointed out earlier, moving Winck to the rotation for an undetermined amount of time leaves a hole at long reliever. I thought about Sherriff, but he seems to be strictly a short reliever. From his history, it looks like you could move Politi to long relief, but he's an unproven commodity. Mosqueda has a WHIP of 1.55 at Worchester, so that's a pass for me. Rio Gomez looks like a reach.
Winckowski isn't really a long reliever at this point. He's a short reliever. He's not moving to the rotation.
That's a valid concern.
Agree with this. He's not going anywhere. Once the season got going, it seemed pretty clear to me that one of Winckowski or Crawford was always going to stay in the bullpen. Winckowski also seems to have shown the ability to bounce back for a 2nd day.
Crawford flashed promise last year, but was terribly inconsistent. What I really liked about his performance last night was that even though he didn't have his good stuff (the Twins were hitting line drives left and right), he excelled pitching with runners in scoring position. His performance in the fifth was inspiring!
ATM he's got decent value to Pittsburgh, especially with slightly more than half the season to play. They're not giving him away right now and if the Sox are looking for a bullpen piece, that's what they should be targeting.
I thought Crawford looked pretty solid last year until his last three starts (his ERA went from 4.18 to 5.47). He hit the IL promptly after, so that may have explained the struggles. And even then, his FIP and xFIP were more than a full run below his ERA.
Not exactly what I said, but OK I'll play. At this juncture would you prefer a guy that's used to going every five days when you may need him every 2-3 or guy who has been accustomed to that sort of usage? And at his age, with his injury history (because that seems to be a big concern here at SoSH) don't you worry about his durability?
