The White Sox peppered the media with press releases this morning announcing the terms of their two recent pitching additions.
Joe Kelly: Received a two-year, $17 million contract with a club option as originally reported by Joel Sherman. He'll make $7 million this year, $9 million in 2023, followed by a $9.5 million club option with a $1 million buyout.
PERTINENT: Joe Kelly does everything the White Sox like
Vince Velasquez: Received a MLB deal as assumed, good for one year and $3 million.
PERTINENT: White Sox signing Vince Velasquez, presumably to pitch
We'll start with Velasquez, who effectively replaces Carlos Rodón on the payroll, although nobody is going to expect a fifth-place finish in the AL Cy Young voting this time. Nobody expected that from Ródon, either, but at he'd shown an ability to throw two different pitches with conviction over the course of his career. Velasquez only has a fastball, and he gave up 23 homers over 94 innings in 2021 as a result.
Rick Hahn gave the typical assessment of such a project ...
... and if you want to throw "spring enthusiasm for Vince Velasquez" in the same bucket as "spring enthusiasm for Felipe Paulino," you're probably correct to do so.
Still, Velasquez's presence on the pitching staff at this point in the spring became more apparent when Hahn talked about other pitchers.
One was Kelly, whom Hahn says won't be ready for Opening Day as he recovers from the nerve injury that ended his postseason. Hahn sounds like he doesn't want Kelly's progress rushed by a spring training that's only half the length. That makes sense, even if it doesn't do much to assuage my nagging Kelvin Herrera fears.
If Kelly's remaining in Arizona on Opening Day, then that opens a spot in the bullpen regardless of whether Craig Kimbrel stays.
The other guy who makes Velasquez a little more useful is Michael Kopech, who is a little behind on his own work.
Kopech threw today, which makes it easier to process than other unspecific spring health announcements, but if Kopech needs special attention among a rotation that will be handled softly out of the gate due to the short runway, then the White Sox probably need more long-relief capabilities than Reynaldo López can provide by himself.
It gets a little murky trying to determine what purpose Velasquez serves on a staff where Kimbrel, Kelly and Kopech have no special concerns attached to them, but that assumes the White Sox will be able to get to that point. These questions have a way of resolving themselves short of the best-case scenario. Hopefully it'll be a "too many guys" problem, which isn't a problem at all. If only Hahn would see it that way on the position-player side of things.
