No, Mookie Betts is not coming to the AL Central. You can breathe easy on that front, White Sox fans.
But the division-rival Minnesota Twins were involved in the biggest blockbuster of baseball's offseason, the third team in a deal that sent the 2018 AL MVP to Hollywood. Their own acquisition was hardly Earth-shattering: They added Kenta Maeda to their ever-growing collection of veteran starting pitchers in exchange for a top-100 prospect. It could be argued that it was a bit of a head-scratcher, considering the prospect evaluators' high regard for Brusdar Graterol, who went to the Boston Red Sox as part of the return package for Betts and David Price.
But the Twins did what good teams do, and that's adding starting-pitching depth ad infinitum.
The Twins have had an inarguably good offseason, with much of that good stemming from landing perennial MVP candidate Josh Donaldson to man the hot corner for the next half decade. Donaldson's long been a thorn in the White Sox side — a career .333/.435/.686 slash line against the South Siders, mercy — and his joining the Bomba Squad obviously bolsters an already ferocious Twins lineup. The lineup that set the major league record for home runs in a single season in 2019 is now even more dangerous, and that makes for a tough challenge for a White Sox team that, thanks to a busy offseason, suddenly has realistic playoff expectations.
But in a more competitive AL Central — the White Sox are on the rise, and the Cleveland Indians still boast two of baseball's best hitters and one of the game's finest starting rotations — the Twins will have to do more than just slug. They'll have to pitch, too. While the addition of Donaldson to the lineup is a home run of a move, their attempts at bolstering their starting rotation have been decidedly less thrilling,
The Twins did well in retaining Jake Odorizzi, who was an All Star in 2019, and Michael Pineda, who will continue to sit out while serving a steroid suspension. Those necessary moves kept the rotation afloat, but how inspiring was it behind All-Star ace Jose Berrios at the top? Odorizzi's first- and second-half splits were noteworthy: He had a 3.15 ERA in the first half but posted an ERA just under 4.00 after the break. Pineda pitched brilliantly against the White Sox — going 4-0 with a 2.88 ERA in his four starts against them — but his season ERA was north of 4.00. It's probably also worth mentioning Randy Dobnak, the former Uber driver who gave up just five runs in 28.1 regular-season innings but then got lit up in his postseason start against the New York Yankees.
Berrios' excellence aside, the Twins didn't win 101 games last season because of their pitching, they did it by out-slugging everyone. That rotation needed an upgrade, and to accomplish that, they opted for volume.
MLB
— They signed the 33-year-old Homer Bailey, who made 13 starts for the Oakland Athletics in 2019 after starting the season with the Kansas City Royals. His 4.57 ERA on the campaign was his lowest since 2014. In just 46 starts in the four seasons in between, he had an ERA of 6.25.
— They signed the 39-year-old Rich Hill, who had actually been terrific for the Los Angeles Dodgers since arriving there in 2016, even if durability was an issue. He had a 3.16 ERA in 69 games (68 starts) in four seasons with the Dodgers. Durability remains an issue, by the way: He had elbow surgery in October.
— They signed the 32-year-old Jhoulys Chacin to a minor league deal. No pressure there, with the minor league pact, and it's a good flier for depth. But Chacin was not good for the Milwaukee Brewers and Red Sox last season, with a 6.01 ERA in 25 outings (24 of them starts). That said, he's just a season removed from a 3.50 ERA in 35 starts for the Brewers in 2018, when he was one of the best starting pitchers on a team that won the NL Central and reached the NLCS.
— And now they've dealt for the 31-year-old Maeda, who was fine for the Dodgers last season, with a 4.04 ERA splitting time between the rotation (26 starts) and bullpen (11 relief appearances). He was, it should be noted, great in the postseason, making four appearances in the NLCS and giving up just one hit while striking out seven of the 15 hitters he faced.
Time will tell if this was quantity over quality, but you can't blame a contender for stockpiling starting pitching. None of the Twins' additions to the starting staff were as good as Dallas Keuchel landing on the South Side, but if any one of these vets can chew up a ton of innings and keep the Twins in games, that high-powered offense can do the rest.
But on the surface, this less-than-menacing collection of arms can seem like good news for a White Sox team that loaded up offensively this winter, adding Yasmani Grandal, Edwin Encarnacion, Nomar Mazara and Luis Robert to a lineup that already included Jose Abreu, Yoan Moncada, Eloy Jimenez and Tim Anderson. If the White Sox are going to make a run at the division title, they'll have to do better than the 6-13 record they posted against the Twins in 2019. The White Sox having a strong lineup and the Twins having a questionable rotation would seem a nice way to improve that record.
Indeed, it doesn't seem easy to figure out what the Twins can expect from this group, but be careful what you wish for. The White Sox know as well as anyone how important starting-pitching depth can be. Just rewind to last season, when a complete dearth of major league ready starting-pitching depth plagued the South Siders. Once Carlos Rodon went down to Tommy John surgery — and already without Michael Kopech, who spent the season recovering from the same procedure — the White Sox were forced to trot out a parade of ineffective options to fill out the starting staff: Ervin Santana, Odrisamer Despaigne, Manny Banuelos, Dylan Covey and Ross Detwiler. That quintet combined for a horrifying 7.44 ERA in 205.2 innings.
Point being, the White Sox would have loved to draw from the Bailey-Hill-Chacin-Maeda pool last year. The Twins might not be sparking fear in opposing hitters with their collection of starters after Berrios, but they do have depth. And that depth might prove itself valuable as the season rolls along, valuable enough, perhaps, to be a determining factor in the AL Central race.
You know, if they haven't already slugged their way to another postseason berth.
It should be a fun summer in a more competitive AL Central. How these veteran starters perform up in the Twin Cities figures to be a storyline all the way.
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