Left-hander Sean Newcomb ready to eat innings for White Sox

The White Sox and left-hander Sean Newcomb matched up well because Newcomb wanted to pitch as much as possible and the Sox had a hole to fill on their pitching staff.

“I was just looking for a good opportunity to get the ball as much as possible, eat up innings,” Newcomb said over Zoom Wednesday. “That was really the main goal.”

Despite some promise from young players like Colson Montgomery and Chase Meidroth, the Sox still lost 102 games last season. They’re attractive to free agents because they can offer avenues to playing time.

Newcomb has started 67 games in his career, 30 of which came in 2018 with the Braves. Despite only starting 37 games over the next seven seasons, Newcomb said he still carried that starting mentality despite operating as a reliever mostly.

\Manager Will Venable said the Sox will have an open competition for the final rotation spots after right-handers Shane Smith and Davis Martin, and left-hander Anthony Kay. Sox starters threw the fewest innings in the majors last season, which led to a taxed bullpen.

“[I’ll] just be ready to attack a lineup once or twice, three times through if it gets to that point with five or six innings,” Newcomb said. “Just taking that mentality and also just starting to use all six pitches versus when I get stuck in the pen one to two innings [and] more just [use] my top few weapons.”