The Opening Day bullpen is a hot topic in camp for the White Sox, as there are a bunch of guys that could easily break camp with the team. There are plenty of guys who have had major league experience and plenty of young arms eager to pitch in the major leagues for the first time. There are 100s of combinations the White Sox could go with to open up the season, but one name that should be on every list is Jordan Leasure.
Jordan Leasure was the other player to join Nick Nastrini from the Dodgers in the Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly trade. What seemed to be a throw in could easily turn into their closer of the future. Leasure features one of the best fastballs in the minor leagues, as MLB pipeline grades his fastball as an 80-grade, which is the highest it could possibly be. That is some major league stuff, but he still needs to prove himself in Spring Training to break camp with the White Sox.
He was off to a good start, as he threw a clean inning for the White Sox today. He struck out one batter and went one, two, three. He will have to string some more outings like this together to give himself a chance to make the team, but he easily has the potential to do that.
He even has some fans outside of the White Sox, as Lance Brozdowski, the player development analyst for Marquee Sports Network, broke down some of Leasure’s stuff from last season. Brozdowski noted that his four seam fastball sat at 97 mph, 18″ iVB from 5.8′ release at AAA and compared it to Ryan Helsley’s fastball, minus 2 ticks. This is a great comparison, as Helsley is known for a devastating fastball.
Brozdowski also broke down his slider, which sat at 88 mph, with 6 inches of sweep, comparing it to Adbert Alzolay’s, plus a tick. This is also a great comparison, as Alzolay is known for having a great slider, and for Leasure’s to be around that level could be huge.
This would be a great development for the White Sox, as they could run away as the clear winners in this trade. However, Leasure will have to improve from his lofty numbers in the minors last year.
Before the trade with the White Sox, Leasure pitched with Tulane, the Dodgers AA team. He looked fantastic. Leasure threw 32 innings, giving up 21 hits, six of those being home runs. He would walk 16 but strike out 56 batters. This was good enough for a 3.09 ERA, but opponents would hit a measly .169 against him. He would have a fantastic 1.06 WHIP, which lead the Sox to target him in the trade with the Dodgers.
But, once he got traded to the Sox, he would not put up those same numbers. He would post a 6.08 ERA in only 15 games. In those 13.1 innings, he would give up 16 hits, including three home runs, while walking eight. He would still have some elite strikeout numbers, as he struck out 23 batters. But other than that, it was not a great start to his AAA career. He would have a 1.8 WHIP and opponents would hit .286 off of him.
The strikeout numbers are there, he just needs to make sure that he has better control. If he can work with Ethan Katz and the other members of the major league coaching staff, he could easily tweak things to ensure he has better control. He is a name to watch and I really hope he makes the team out of Spring training, as he will be very fun to watch.
