PHOENIX — Let’s get one thing straight going in.
“If they’re healthy these are the guys we’re going with: Lucas (Giolito), (Dallas) Keuchel, (Dylan) Cease, Lopey (Reynaldo López) and Gio González,” White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper said. “No matter what happens out here, that’s what we’re doing. Because none of this matters down here.”
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With a souped-up offense that will soon tout core pieces, top prospects, hired guns with lengthy resumés — and at its shakiest, a defiant Nomar Mazara ready to prove people wrong — the fate of the White Sox’s immediate playoff hopes most centrally lie on the starting rotation transcending its limitations, from the veteran additions to the unproven young arms.
“A free agent is a guy that’s pitched for X amount of years or played for X amount of years and you’re acquiring a free agent for the numbers they put on the back of their bubblegum,” Cooper said. “See Keuchel as an example of that. What are we looking for? Do what you’ve been doing throughout your career. We’re not looking for more.”
If the White Sox simply want the back of Gio González and Dallas Keuchel’s baseball cards — and Keuchel would refer to that extensive record if anyone were to bring up his escalating FIP — then the biggest inflection points are Reynaldo López and Dylan Cease turning their high-octane arms into high-end production after statistically ugly seasons with ERAs over 5.00.
A side benefit of adding Keuchel is the supposed mentorship of a clearly erudite and accomplished veteran, even if his overcoming being an overlooked soft-throwing sinkerballer does not quite jive with their journey to reclaim optimal spin axis on their four-seamer. That can take time to start showing fruit.
“The mental side is what you can kind of project on these young guys because they haven’t been through the wringer of 162, they haven’t faced big league talent every fifth day,” Keuchel said. “The mental state is really what you can dive into. I’m new to these guys so I don’t usually like to put myself on these guys. I like to see what makes these guys tick first, see how these guys operate first.”
Perhaps an easier example to immediately follow is the gangly and gregarious presence of Lucas Giolito, who at 25, has both walked the path of initial struggles, and as the likely Opening Day starter, carved a trackable path out of it. He’s also more than willing to chat about it.
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“At the same time, I’ve had one good year,” Giolito said, having just set down his trusted core velocity belt after demonstrating it to the rest of the pitching staff. “I feel like the path I had, from really bad to good, it’s definitely interesting to people, it’s interesting that players have had some questions. I’m trying to do my best to be a leader.”
The belt, which looks a harness for a parachute and ties to the wall or the hand of a helpful teammate, was best summed up by Sox prospect Tyler Johnson as he was strapping himself in: a device that allows you to feel exactly how you’re falling off line in your delivery. It used to be a defining image of Giolito’s uniquely engineered turnaround, as he dutifully walked out to the bullpen to strap himself in, alone, between every start. Now, the belts are spread across the spring training complex, and Carlos Rodón, now entering his seventh season in the organization, is strapping in.
“I’ll try anything new,” Rodón said.
That is the ethos the White Sox would claim as they step out of “this fucking hard to deal with fucking rebuild,” with Cooper helming a pitching staff they’ve spent three years assembling and developing. Spending an hour every day looking over the logs of Rapsodo data and Edgertronic after hours of jetting his golf cart from mound to mound, Cooper and assistant pitching coach Curt Hasler try to put eyes directly on every arm in big league camp.
Cease and López’s fastball command and performance struggles, despite top velocity, are best described as spin axis issues, which Cooper points out is a long-discussed concept that used to be referred to as “angle,” or simply “getting on the side of the ball.” But he acknowledges the need to meet the new generation of pitchers on their own terms.
“To relate to the guys that are weaned by numbers, us as teachers, we have to know them too and be adept at them,” Cooper said. “There’s some fucking bullshit going on that we’re old school; we don’t like it, we don’t know it. This is not scientific shit going on. This is not brain surgery. The numbers are easy to get and easy to learn, axis to spin — easy. We’ve got it all.”
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From this, Cooper admits they knew Cease was stuck in a funk of getting too rotational in his front side upon his arrival in the majors last season, but figured he was better off addressing the matter directly and getting some of his acclimation out of the way before expectations increased in 2020 — another reason for Kopech’s slow ramp-up since he only has four career starts due to injury.
For Cease, knowing the issue and the mechanic behind fixing it, knowing the feeling when he executes his fastball right, and getting the process to become physically second nature, are all separate stages that he feels like he’s at the tail end of. By the end of the progression, he doesn’t want to talk numbers or mechanics, but knows those are the building blocks to create the memory of what it feels like when his delivery is right.
It’s more clear when Cease is conducting an active demo in the middle of the crowded Sox clubhouse, but when he extends his glove arm too far out in his delivery, he naturally creates a need for his body to circle around it, lengthening his arm action and forcing his body into a more circular motion. When he keeps his glove closer to his body, his arm action shortens up, his body drives more directly to the plate, and his hand stays on top of the ball to produce the straight backspin and ride he’s seeking. He wouldn’t shy away from the idea that the final product is best explained by how much it looks like Giolito’s coiled delivery.
“I think if I get to the same position and same spots as he is, and get that same axis, I should have similar results,” Cease said.
It’s always an oversimplification to say a pitcher just needs to add fastball command, literally the most valued currency in the game, but Cease is a particular case where any team would salivate over the returns if they get him in control of the count just a little more often.
“If Dylan Cease gets ahead in the count with the pitches he’s got, he’s got a pretty good chance of putting you away,” Cooper said. “Because he’s got a high riding fastball he can throw, a breaking ball, curveball from fucking hell, and a changeup.”
Giolito’s relationship with Cease can seem like the closest and most directly instructional on the staff a times, but Giolito shared a clubhouse with López at Low-A Hagerstown as far back as 2014 when they were with the Nationals, and both have seen each other suffer through the worst years of their careers in Chicago. They’ve also known each other long enough that when López initially turned down Giolito’s invitation to train with him in Los Angeles, Giolito thought his teammate was beyond convincing and was shocked when he saw him at Mamba Academy this winter.
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“He said ‘Wow, you’re here bro!'” López recalled through team interpreter Billy Russo. “Maybe for me it’s good to get out of my comfort zone and try something different. I said well, why not, let’s give it a shot.”
López said he saw different results from working with trainers set up through his representation at CAA within a week, after spending last offseason at his home in Santo Domingo. His teammates vouch for it showing up in bullpens so far as well, even if his manager conceded that López is still rusty at this point of the year.
“Behind the ball really, really well,” Giolito said of López. “I’m very impressed. He looked really good in L.A. He was working his ass off.”
López has never been consistently cited for elite carry, but is still looking to erase excessive, uncontrollable cut issues similar to what Cease generated throughout his debut year, if only to shore up his command after giving up the fourth-most home runs in baseball last season.
“I realized last year many of the homers I gave up were on pitches, fastballs were running back to home plate when they were supposed to be on the edges of the strike zone,” López said. “If I can get behind the ball more consistently, I know I’m going to generate more spin rate and if I can generate spin rate, it’s going to be more difficult for hitters to get to those pitches.”
Cooper has preached patience for López and Cease, just as he did for Giolito before his 2019 transformation. He likely will continue to do so for Kopech, and has made it clear that faith is the product of a firmly rooted belief in their long-term future as starters. But at the same time, the veteran pitching coach acknowledges that the tolerance for growth on the job has gone the way of the many fill-in starters who have shuffled into the Sox rotation the past three years and shuffled out of the league when they were done. He’s as sick of the rebuild as anyone — just ask.
“Does López have to be more consistent? Abso-fucking-lutely,” Cooper said. “With that continued growth with Cease, we need you to go out there and fucking give us a shot to win every five fucking days.”
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Giolito isn’t the focal point anymore, but in the wake of whipping up on the league primarily as a right-handed fastball-changeup artist, he’s actually been changing stuff. He’s old enough to remember when his big curveball was his out pitch, and has spent the winter trying to establish a consistent release point that will allow him to flip it into the zone again. His slider was his best breaking ball, but was inconsistent enough that he felt the need to change the grip so that he could find his landmark on the seams more consistently. The only hiccup in this process was that the same flu that knocked him out of SoxFest and dehydrated him enough to strain a chest muscle and eat away a lot of his practice reps over the last month.
It illustrates the point that as much as he’s the cornerstone of the rotation going forward, Giolito is an unfinished product who is still developing. There are limits to expecting every other young pitcher to follow his mold, even if the influence of his turnaround is obvious and players are typically more keen to give a teammate credit than anyone else.
“I don’t give a fuck,” Cooper said. “I don’t need the credit. I don’t want the credit. I just want wins.”
For the White Sox to get wins, they’ll need to develop their own turnarounds in-house, and have a prime candidate in their would-be deadline addition Rodón, who is set to spend the next several weeks building up his game and stamina at the complex. Rodón has mostly gained attention this spring for his blunt intention to return to the rotation, despite five starters and a revamped Kopech healthy and ready. He explained that he’s simply stating his goals, not making demands.
“It’s not like I’m going to throw a fit,” Rodón said.
No one denies he has the talent to be one of the top five starters if he can stay healthy and unlock consistent command. It’s just become a question whether that breakthrough will come before the Sox and Rodón have to make a decision about their future. Free from the strain of trying to compete while physically compromised, Rodón has an opportunity to focus on structural improvement and is a good test case of the Sox’s ability to bring it forth.
Primarily, Rodón feels he hasn’t gotten the most he could out of his lower half the past few years, and has been modeling Clayton Kershaw’s ability to ride on his back leg before stepping forward and firmly planting his front. Or to use old terminology, it’s more drop-and-drive and generating power with his legs to take stress off his arm.
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“I’m not saying it caused the injuries, but it didn’t help,” Rodón said.
It’s an idea formed from spending time in the White Sox’s new pitch lab at the complex, which Rodón said provides a wealth of motion tracking to find areas of inefficiency.
“A bunch of nerd stuff,” Rodón said.
A new set of tools is exactly the sort of thing that would lend confidence to the idea that the Sox can engineer some rapid maturation of their high-ceiling arms and make a run at 2020 contention. Besides, haven’t you heard? The White Sox have always been in on the nerd stuff.
“There’s a lot of new stuff,” Cooper said. “And I’m into it all.”
(Top photo: AP Photo / Gregory Bull)