CLEVELAND – Earlier this week in Houston, entering a best-of-three series with a shaky rotation, the White Sox tabbed rookie left-hander Hagen Smith to kickstart a bullpen game.
To start a longer, best-of-five series, the White Sox have tabbed Smith to start Game 1 of the American League Division Series against the Guardians, once again kickstarting a likely bullpen game. With off days before each of the first three games of this series, manager Will Venable sees the built-in rest enabling him to aggressively deploy his relievers, countering the superior rotation depth of Cleveland.
“That’s one of the advantages of these off days for us and how we are built is that we’ll use Hagen Smith and Grant Taylor as an example,” Venable said. “We could potentially use them in each one of these first three games.”
Sean Burke will not pitch in Game 1, setting him up to be on regular rest for Monday’s Game 2, where he could start or serve as a bulk pitcher. But even for Burke–the team’s best starter this season–getting pulled at four innings, 72 pitches and before he faced any member of the opposing lineup a third time on Wednesday, should be seen less as a judgment on him and more as the biggest chunk of work any Sox hurler can expect this series.
“Opportunity for a lot of these guys might present itself mid-game, so we just want to be as proactive as possible and communicating what roles look like,” Venable said. “Nothing different than what we’ve done before, it’s just now really all of our starting pitchers we may end up using in different ways.”
Sox starters who’ve dreamt of logging seven innings in a playoff start have to put those dreams on the backburner, but none of them can say they weren’t warned in advance.
“You have Chris Sale throwing the eighth inning for Atlanta [Thursday] night, like, it doesn’t matter, it’s all hands on deck,” said starter Davis Martin. “It’s definitely a little unorthodox, but obviously, it’s worked so far for us now in the postseason, and we’re going to continue to be selfless.”
One big key against Guardians
Venable said he spent more time planning out when the Sox would intentionally walk Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez than he did on any other matchup of the Wild Card series, only to never do it as his pitchers held the likely AL MVP to a 1-for-8 showing.
The Sox skipper says they have premium respect for Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez, even amid his down season, and are wary of facing outfielder Jo Adell with a left-hander, or first baseman Nathaniel Lowe with a right-hander. But there’s a simpler key he’s focused on against Cleveland.
“The No. 1 thing as you are gameplanning for this team, is if you give them free bases, they will beat you,” Venable said of the Guardians. “If we don’t catch the ball and we make errors, they will beat us. If we walk guys, they will beat us. If we allow a bunch of stolen bases, they will beat us.”
Arbitration estimates
Six current Sox players will be arbitration-eligible next season, and MLBTradeRumors.com released projections for what each will likely command in 2027, based on performance and service time:
- Miguel Vargas – $5.4 million
- Brenton Doyle – $3.6 million
- Joey Bart – $2.9 million
- Huascar Brazoban – $1.6 million
- Jordan Leasure – $1 million
- Chris Murphy – $900,000