I understood why Kelvin Herrera wasn't available in the eighth inning of the White Sox' collapse against the Indians on Monday. He would've been pitching three consecutive games 1) during the first week of the season 2) after an injury-marred season, 3) when his velocity isn't its usual heat and 4) he was roped around the field by the Royals on Sunday.
Any two of those reasons would've been enough. With all four working in concert, I had eliminated him from my thinking before the eighth started. Alex Colome, given his clean bill of health and two easy innings before what would've been a third consecutive day, could be considered differently.
So Rick Renteria and I were on the same page there:
It really comes down to Dylan Covey being the best choice with the bases loaded and one out in a two-run game, and what it means when somebody like Covey -- he who entered the season with a 6.10 ERA and a 10 percent walk rate and 15.5 percent strikeout rate -- could be construed as the best available option in such a situation.
It means that Jace Fry isn't doing the job, and it's been a rough start for him. The guy who held lefties to a .143/.217/.190 line last year has allowed three of four to reach to start his season. That's obviously a small sample, but it's also very acutely felt when he's the only pitcher resembling a high-leverage reliever from the left side. He gave up a leadoff walk and a one-out double to lefty hitters during the nightmare eighth, and he's searching for a reason:
'I’m always expecting to face the next batter and complete an inning but for me I have to get back in the zone, have consistency,' Fry said. 'I don’t want to make any excuses. It’s different out here. The dry air and the ball is slick, but it’s something I’ll have to work with because it’s not going to get warm any time soon.'
He also struggled during the spring, and while Arizona has its own arid climate, he seems to realize that it's a thin excuse for a month of iffy results.
The Covey appearance, while being more wishful thinking than pragmatic, also casts doubt over what exactly Nate Jones has to offer this season.
There's been a strange vibe around Jones all year. A rough spring led to some pretty harsh self-evaluation in the later stages of Cactus League play, and Renteria had to answer about Jones' 92-96 mph fastball on Sunday:
'If he stays in that particular range, then we can think about what’s going on,' manager Rick Renteria said. 'But other than that, he feels great. He’s not complaining about anything physically.'
But it seems like the White Sox are thinking about what's going on. Jones didn't pitch on consecutive days during spring training, and he had only faced one batter over the previous four days when Covey got the call.
This kind of uncertainty is why I was ambivalent about picking up Jones' option after the end of last season. His contract isn't hurting anybody, but there also might've been some value in moving on, which is something the White Sox generally struggle with.
If the Sox really don't like what Jones is throwing, then they'll likely wrestle with the larger questions Renteria referred to, and sooner rather than later. In between, they'll have to throw Ryan Burr, Jose Ruiz, etc. into the fire in search for mid-leverage potential, even if they have to take some lumps along the way. Covey might've been a bad idea on its face, but there's also some value in issuing an early reminder why you shouldn't touch the pan.
If Fry doesn't rally, that's a much tougher issue to solve, and given the way Caleb Frare has come out misfiring, they might not actually be able to solve it.
Four games into the season, the hope is that these are temporary panics, along the lines of Chris Sale's struggles in his first full season in the bullpen. It's just never great when the team wastes no time highlighting the easiest way it could all go sideways, especially when this is supposedly the easy part of the schedule.
