Prior to this afternoon’s series finale, the White Sox announced a series of roster moves:
- Placed Carlos Rodon on the 10-Day IL with Shoulder Fatigue
- Recalled Matt Foster from AAA Charlotte
- Sent Yasmani Grandal on a Rehab Assignment to AA Birmingham
As a result, Lance Lynn will now start tomorrow’s Field of Dreams game.
This is an important set of moves for the White Sox. Let’s break each one down.
Rodon, who is on a Cy Young pace this season with a 2.38 ERA, 4.1 fWAR, and 2.52 xERA, is tired. He hasn’t thrown this many innings since he threw 120.2 innings all the way back in 2018. This is his first full season since Tommy John Surgery as well. He experienced “dead arm” a few weeks back and missed a start.
All of these signs point to one thing: the dude is just tired, and the White Sox are trying to manage his workload.
Between Reynaldo Lopez’s resurgence and the need to stretch Michael Kopech and Garrett Crochet out to multi-inning guys, this tiredness comes at the perfect time for the White Sox. They are 10.5 games up in the division and can start to give their guys some much-needed rest. The next game that truly matters to the White Sox is the first playoff game in October.
Foster has looked good in AAA since being sent down, striking out 48.3% of batters while walking just 3.4% of them. He has a hilariously absurd 0.10 FIP, and as I mentioned before his most recent major league outing, it looks like he’s brought his slider back – making him a true three-pitch pitcher again (which was a key to his 2020 success).
These first two moves signal to me that Reynaldo Lopez, Michael Kopech, and Garrett Crochet are in line to see increased innings. If the White Sox were concerned about eating up Rodon’s innings, they wouldn’t have brought up a reliever. Look for both Kopech and Lopez to continue to get spot starts in Rodon’s absence, while Crochet fills a multi-inning role behind either of those two guys.
As for the Grandal move, this is a very positive sign. Grandal was having an odd – yet productive – season, slashing .188/.388/.436 with a 135 wRC+, 1.8 fWAR, and .364 wOBA. Simply put, the White Sox miss his production both at the plate and behind the plate. Although Seby Zavala and Zack Collins have done a decent job in his absence, a .179/.274/.357 slash line (74 wRC+) from the catching position just isn’t going to cut it for a playoff team.
The longest an IL rehab assignment can last is 20 days, so at worst, Grandal will be back in the lineup by the first week of September. This gives the start catcher the ability to get his timing back in sync during the September stretch run before the playoff push.
Assuming all goes well on the South Side over the next 20 days, we will watch the White Sox at full stretch for the first time all season in September. This is exciting.
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