White Sox Plan To Continue With Opener Strategy Amid Rotation Struggles
The White Sox are continuing their strategy of using openers, announcing Monday that left-hander Tyler Gilbert will start the series opener against the Brewers, followed by Bryce Wilson.
Manager Will Venable introduced the opener approach during the recent three-game series against the Athletics, deploying Gilbert on Friday and Saturday and fellow left-hander Brandon Eisert on Sunday. The plan yielded solid results, with Gilbert throwing scoreless frames in back-to-back games and Eisert allowing just one run. That set the table for the trio of scheduled starters, Sean Burke, Jonathan Cannon, and Davis Martin, who allowed just six earned runs across 19 innings.
The White Sox pitching staff is making $10 million, with most of those arms having less than one year of service time. With Matín Perez on the shelf for the foreseeable future, the White Sox needed to find a way to eat innings.
After firing six scoreless innings on Opening Day, Burke has averaged just over four innings a game while posting a 7.56 ERA in his first six starts, while Cannon only made it through six innings once. Meanwhile, Martin failed to make it past the sixth inning in his first six starts, averaging just under six innings a game.
The White Sox hoped to ease some of the burden off their bullpen by having an opener set the lineup in favor of a starting pitcher, by avoiding the best hitters at the top of the lineup. It also lowers the chances of a starter facing the opponent’s top hitters three times in a game, a situation where starters have historically struggled.
While Martin said he still views himself as a starter after Sunday’s 3-2 loss, it was hard to argue with the results. Martin had arguably his best outing of the season, throwing 44 of his 73 pitches for strikes, while allowing just three hits over six scoreless innings, striking out five.
Cannon was also effective, earning his first win of the season on Saturday, after firing 7.2 innings of three-run ball while striking out five.