Earlier today the White Sox made a couple moves that will instantly upgrade an already loaded bullpen.
White Sox activated Aaron Bummer and Carlos Rodón and DFA’d both Steve Cishek and Ross Detwiler to make room not only on the active roster but the 40-man
— James Fegan (@JRFegan) September 24, 2020
With Rodon and Bummer officially back, the bullpen now has 7 studs to help them get out of jams (yes the team has confirmed that Rodon will work out of the pen).
Rodon, Bummer, Matt Foster, Codi Heuer, Garrett Crochet, Evan Marshall, and Alex Colome will form one of the most feared bullpens out of any team in the playoffs.
Picture this: it’s the 5th inning of a do-or-die Game 3 in the Wild Card round and the White Sox have a 1 run lead. There’s 2 on, no outs and Dane Dunning’s pitch count is getting high. Enter Aaron Bummer, who promptly shuts the door in a high-leverage situation. Then they can throw Foster for 2 innings to get you to the 7th (he hasn’t let up a run in appearances in which he’s gone 2 full innings this year), Marshall for the 8th, and Colome for the 9th.
What’s really important to remember here is that there won’t be any off days in the middle of a series until the World Series. Bullpens will be much more taxed because of this. The White Sox should be able to take advantage of this because they’ll have so many options to choose from.
Garrett Crochet was drafted in June, and he's already on big-league mound pumping 101.
pic.twitter.com/AItTWkN8Wn
— MLB (@MLB) September 19, 2020
If the Sox bats can heat up a bit before the playoffs begin, the bullpen should be more than ready to do its job and shut teams down to preserve leads.
We’ve seen what dominant teams can do in the playoffs before (see Kansas City Royals teams in ’14 and ’15). If the White Sox make a deep run this October, the bullpen will be one of the biggest reasons why.
