With Lance Lynn Sidelined, the White Sox Turn to Johnny Cueto

Final Saturday, the White Sox rotation took successful when Lance Lynn limped off the mound in ache after tearing a tendon in his proper knee. Within the wee hours of Tuesday, simply earlier than Lynn underwent surgical procedure, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported that Chicago signed free agent Johnny Cueto to a minor league deal. The transfer helps to replenish the staff’s depth and provides the promise of one other go-round for for a pitcher who has been beset by accidents lately however has lengthy ranked among the many sport’s most entertaining hurlers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGD2HacudGg

Via ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the 36-year-old Cueto will make a prorated share of $4.2 million {dollars} if he’s within the majors. According to MLB Community’s Jon Heyman, he has a Might 15 opt-out date if he’s nonetheless within the minors.

Cueto spent the previous six seasons with the Giants by way of a $130 million deal, however the staff lower bait final November by declining his $22 million choice for this season, as an alternative paying him a $5 million buyout — a transfer that was hardly a shock given his ongoing harm issues. After making a full complement of 32 begins in 2016, he by no means made greater than 25 in a season through the the rest of his deal. Blisters restricted him to 25 turns in 2017, and an ankle sprain and Tommy John surgical procedure to only 13 in ’18-19. He did make 12 begins through the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, however simply 21 final yr, scattered round separate journeys to the injured listing for a grade 1 lat pressure, a flexor pressure, COVID-19 protocol, after which an elbow pressure that restricted him to only one September look, the primary aid look of his main league profession.

Regardless of these maladies, Cueto’s 4.08 ERA (101 ERA-), 4.05 FIP (100 FIP-), and 1.5 WAR made for his finest season since 2016, despite the fact that his 114.2 innings had been 32.2 fewer than his complete in ’17, when he produced 1.2 WAR. He struck out 20% of batters, proper at his profession common however putting him in simply the twenty fifth percentile in line with Statcast; walked simply 6.1% (good for the seventy fifth percentile); and allowed 1.18 homers per 9, 0.15 decrease than the main league common for starters. Although his exit velocity and barrel and hard-hit charges had been higher than common, along with his 6.4% barrel price coming in on the 71st percentile, his low strikeout price inflated his xERA to a gaudy 4.99.

Inside the context of what was primarily league-average work, a pair elements of Cueto’s efficiency stand out as encouraging. His common four-seam fastball velocity of 91.8 mph was his finest since 2016, marking his third straight season the place that determine has gone up (albeit incrementally). Batters hit simply .219 and slugged .342 in opposition to the pitch, his finest marks in the identical interval when you wave off the small-sample years interrupted by Tommy John surgical procedure. His 13.0% swinging-strike price on the pitch and his 28.1% whiffs-per-swing price had been each profession highs, the latter of which positioned him within the 84th percentile amongst pitchers with a minimum of 100 four-seamers.

If that’s the excellent news, nicely, the dangerous information is that his sinker and secondary choices — primarily a slider and changeup — had been significantly much less efficient. Batters slugged .570 in opposition to the slider, .552 in opposition to the sinker, and .456 in opposition to the change, the final of which a minimum of produced a decent 14.3% swinging-strike price. His slider, although, produced only a 5.1% swinging-strike price and a 12.6% chase price; the pitch wasn’t fooling anyone besides perhaps Cueto himself.

With over 2,000 innings on his large league odometer, Cueto isn’t the pitcher he as soon as was — the man who pitched to a 2.73 ERA and three.32 FIP, topped 4.0 WAR 4 instances from 2011 to ’16, and made two All-Star groups. However at that wage, the White Sox aren’t paying him to be that man, only a strong back-end complement to a rotation that ranked seventh in the majors in our preseason Positional Energy Rankings and as excessive as fourth earlier than Lynn’s harm and the Padres’ acquisition of Sean Manaea. The unit is headed by Lucas Giolito, who has obtained down-ballot Cy Younger votes in every of the previous three seasons and ranked sixth in the majors with 11.2 WAR, and Dylan Cease, who’s coming off a breakout marketing campaign. The staff is hoping for a rebound from Dallas Keuchel, who was dreadful final yr, and a clean transition to the rotation by Michael Kopech, who spent most of final yr within the bullpen after lacking all of 2019 because of Tommy John surgical procedure and all of ’20 after opting out for private causes.

Odds are that the White Sox will miss Lynn a minimum of considerably, on condition that over the previous three seasons he’s ranked among the many sport’s finest, rating fourth in WAR (12.3), fifth in innings (449.1), and seventh in each ERA (3.26) and WAR (3.39). The 34-year-old righty, who handled proper knee irritation final yr, appeared to injure himself throughout a pitch within the fourth inning of Saturday’s sport in opposition to the Diamondbacks. He’ll in all probability wind up lacking about two months, first going 4 weeks with out throwing off a mound after which spending one other 4 weeks build up his pitch counts.

Therefore Cueto, the one remaining free-agent starter apart from Matt Harvey who produced a minimum of 1.0 WAR final yr. He had been throwing within the Dominican Republic and had been involved with Chicago pitching coach Ethan Katz, who was the Giants’ assistant pitching coach in 2020. Supervisor Tony La Russa expressed pleasure on the addition, adding, “He’s had glorious command of three or 4 pitches that grew to become like 10 or 12 as a result of he had totally different angles coming at you.”

In accordance La Russa, Cueto will head to Triple-A Charlotte to begin the season. When requested how quickly the pitcher can be prepared to hitch the large membership, the supervisor replied, “Hoping not lengthy.” Presumably, Cueto might want to construct up his pitch depend and get into sport form. Within the meantime, Reynaldo López and/or Vince Velasquez will fill the emptiness within the rotation, with one or the opposite beginning the house opener subsequent Tuesday in opposition to the Mariners after Giolito, Stop, and Kopech go in opposition to the Tigers in Detroit over the weekend, and Keuchel following on Wednesday. Lopez spent the primary half of final season at Charlotte; after present process eye surgery and transforming his mechanics, he pitched nicely in a swingman position final yr (3.43 ERA, 4.19 FIP, 57.2 innings). Velazquez, then again, was largely ineffective with each the Phillies and the Padres, getting torched for a 6.30 ERA and 5.86 FIP.

Even when he’s now not a front-of-the-rotation expertise, Cueto provides the potential of bettering upon these choices, not solely throughout Lynn’s absence but in addition as a fill-in if additional accidents arrive or if the staff must handle workloads, notably that of Kopech, who threw simply 69.1 innings final yr. Hopefully it gained’t be too lengthy earlier than he’s as soon as once more exhibiting off his shimmy and his distinctive assortment of deliveries and angles.