Pregame notes: Six-man rotation incoming? Not until Mike Clevinger is healthy (2024)

The White Sox relayed before the clubhouse opened on Wednesday that they were pushing the entire rotation back a day.

A bullpen day will likely be deployed on Thursday against Chris Sale and the Braves, with Drew Thorpe, Jonathan Cannon and Garrett Crochet–all starters the Sox are looking to give extra rest frequently–lined up to face the Rockies this weekend. Crochet’s workload limitations have been discussed endlessly, but Cannon eclipsed 120 in in the minors last season and Thorpe nearly reached 140. Nevertheless, the Sox want to pump the brakes.

“It’s not the same throwing 150 innings in the minor leagues as it is throwing 150 innings in the big leagues,” said Grifol, who opined that maybe Cannon’s 8 2/3 innings against the Astros could have affected him in Detroit. “We’ve got to find days. We’ve got to buy days, we’ve got to buy innings, we’ve got to buy pitches. It’s a long season, and we’ve got half a season left. The last two or three weeks, our starting pitchers have gone deep in games. We’re pushing these guys deep in games, and that’s the mentality we want to have. At the same time, these guys are young and first-timers, other than [Erick] Fedde and [Chris] Flexen. The rest of the guys, they’re new to the league or they’re new to doing this. We’ve got to be careful. We’ve got to do a little bit of controlling the workload.”

Of course, the most immediate takeaway from the rotation shift is that Mike Clevinger is not returning to the White Sox rotation this week from his injured list placement for elbow inflammation, as was originally planned. About an hour before first pitch, the Sox detailed that they are shutting down Clevinger’s rehab assignment due to neck stiffness; a separate issue that had pushed back some of his bullpen sessions earlier in this process. It’s sort of a procedural move to restart the clock, as the White Sox plan to send Clevinger back out on another rehab assignment next week–likely Tuesday or Wednesday.

Rehab outing stats are about as meaningful as spring training stats, but Triple-A hitters hit .333/.389/.606 against Clevinger in the two recent rehab outings he made, even as his velocity has ticked into the mid-90s. But instead of growing skeptical that he can help anytime soon, Grifol offered that when Clevinger is ready that the Sox could move to a six-man rotation as a built-in way for Crochet and the rookies to regularly work on extended rest. With Clevinger’s rehab progress stagnating and Crochet the subject of vigorous trade interest, their time in the same rotation could be quite fleeting, but this is where things currently stand.

— With Tanner Banks, Michael Soroka, Jared Shuster and Chad Kuhl, the Sox are strangely heavy on the long relief options necessary to make a seven-man bullpen viable. It’s just in stringing together enough high-leverage relievers to close out a win where the White Sox bullpen has been decidedly not viable.

“I just spoke about that in our meeting, we’ve had the ability to close games out in all areas,” Grifol said. “And at times we haven’t. I go back to a game in Seattle where we were up 4-0, bases loaded, we get a base hit right there, 6-0, it’s game over. Now they’re throwing the middle guy as opposed to a leverage guy. We’ve had games where we don’t make a play in the infield or outfield, we’ve had games where we don’t take an extra base on the bases. We’ve got to really focus on closing out games in all facets of the game.”

— On that note, Grifol acknowledged Lenyn Sosa and Paul DeJong regularly crossing paths and crossing wires on grounders to the five-six hole as one such issue.

“I just think there needs to be better communication,” Grifol said. “Not just when the play is happening–prior to–and understanding their range and where they’re at.”

He did not think their lack of familiarity together was a valid excuse.

— Eloy Jiménez is getting a day off initiated by his injury recovery plan. The same is the case with Robert starting at DH. Korey Lee has started at catcher for every game of this series, and in seven of the last nine games.

— Erick Fedde has faced Shohei Ohtani three times in his career, retiring him twice and walking him once. Smart man.

Fedde’s most familiar opponent in the Dodgers lineup is Freddie Freeman, whom he’s faced 24 times. Freeman’s .278/.458/.333 line against Fedde is punctuated by six walks and just one extra-base hit. Again, smart man.

All these results are probably irrelevant because Fedde’s arsenal has completely changed since these encounters.

FIRST PITCH: WHITE SOX VS. DODGERS

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