PHOENIX -- You don't get to 70 players in camp without having a lot of arms, and with no White Sox starting pitchers expected to debut during the opening weekend of Cactus League play, it's time to learn about them whether you're willing or not.
A handful of relievers won't be seen this weekend because injury has already felled them in some way. Right-hander John Brebbia, who is one of two Sox relievers added this season on a guaranteed contract, suffered a right calf strain in his last live bullpen session. Brebbia was last seen on a mobility scooter and isn't expected to appear in a Cactus League game for a few weeks, but the Sox intend to keep his arm active with some sort of modified throwing, and reiterated multiple times that they expect him to be ready for Opening Day.
Sinkerballer Edgar Navarro, a Pedro Grifol favorite last spring, is set for Tommy John surgery next month and will miss the season. Lefty Rule 5 pick Shane Drohan underwent nerve decompression surgery on his throwing shoulder Thursday, which will knock him out for the rest of spring. There are no good shoulder surgeries, but the Sox insist this is a minor one. With Drohan a long shot to make the team out of camp, this operation kicks the decision of retaining him down the road until the left-hander starts a throwing program at the end of next month.
Corey Knebel missed last season rehabbing from a far more serious shoulder operation (capsule tear) and pitching coach Ethan Katz said on Thursday that he's "behind some guys right now" in his progression, and will need a handful more bullpens before he appears in Cactus League. It's no shade to anyone else to call the former All-Star closer the most accomplished non-roster invitee currently competing for a White Sox bullpen spot, and is someone who would bring some instant legitimacy to the team's late-inning mix if he's near his old form. For his part, Knebel, who was drawn to the Sox largely because of his connection to new director of player personnel Gene Watson, has been upbeat about his progress.
"It's all about trust now, knowing that everything I've done to this point with the shoulder is going to hold up, and it is," Knebel told me earlier this week. "For being the oldest I've been in my career, I think I'm feeling just as good as I was in my prime, my early-20s."
Slated for the spring opener
The first pitch of the White Sox Cactus League season is scheduled to be thrown by a 40-year-old right-hander that second baseman Nicky Lopez and outfielder Kevin Pillar have been calling "Coach" since last season in Atlanta. Jesse Chavez was why-did-he-only-get-an-NRI good with the Braves in 2023 (1.56 ERA, 39 strikeouts in 34⅔ innings) and reads as a solid bet to make the team that is trying to instill a franchise culture.
Joining Chavez on the mound Friday are probably some minor league extras, as well as Nick Padilla, lefty Fraser Ellard, high-velocity cutter specialist Alex Speas, and Joe Barlow. As recently as 2022, the 28-year-old Barlow was closing games for the Rangers, though his bat-missing was never typical for a late-inning presence. Barlow has become a slider-first pitcher over the past couple years, but that came alongside his fastball sliding down to the mid-to-low 90s in velocity, which made him more vulnerable.
Comforted by the presence of fellow Utah native Tanner Banks, Barlow came to the Sox convinced some ticks on his fastball could be reclaimed through better mechanics. His early bullpens with senior advisor to pitching Brian Bannister were focused on not rushing through his hand break as much in his delivery, but keeping it coiled to his body for longer.
"It's just kind of timing," Barlow said. "Keeping the arm connected with the lower body, syncing that back up. Hopefully that starts to translate once the game starts. It's syncing things up and having things fire at the right time and not leaving my arm behind."
A LEASURE SLEEPER
A lot of complicated elements come together make relief prospect Jordan Leasure really interesting. For example, do you understand what this means or are you just gleaning that it's good from context clues?
In closer to laymen's terms, Leasure throws his four-seam fastball exceptionally hard and has touched triple digits, and it comes out of a uniquely high slot that makes its vertical movement (or backspin) play up even more. Andrew Benintendi told Katz that Leasure, who has no major league experience, was the nastiest at-bat he had in camp, and this is certainly the sort of vertical heater that will give lefties trouble.
"I always felt good up there, then I got with the Dodgers and learned more about analytics and figured out the fastball plays better out of that slot for me," Leasure told me. "[The Dodgers] were like 'This is really good what you're able to do from there, so keep doing it.'"
Folks, they don't call the Dodgers the best player development system in the sport for nothing. The White Sox had Leasure add a curveball upon acquiring him last July to give him an off-speed pitch that mirrors his heater with more straight up-and-down than his slider, and he's working on throwing it harder so it can better keep pace. Leasure's control and strike-throwing is the hurdle between his present and blowing away the world, as his walk rate has hovered in the double digits and helped spiked his Triple-A Charlotte ERA to over 6.00 in 15 appearances last season.
But the raw stuff and unique plane of Leasure's heater makes him a single command grade away from being a factor. This offseason was marked by Leasure getting really into Pilates to increase his core strength and stability; a practice he plans on continuing into the season.
"I feel stronger but also more loose, if that makes sense," Leasure said. "Everything good that you need to throw hard, I've been able to reach at this point."
Two more worth remembering
-- Obviously it's a function of necessity with a slashed payroll, but a common remark from White Sox staffers was appreciation that the team had taken more shots on pitchers with good underlying characteristics beneath ugly surface numbers.
With a 27.7 percent career strikeout rate (but a 15.7 percent walk rate), 31-year-old righty Justin Anderson certainly qualifies. He has five career saves to speak to leverage experience, but has not pitched in the majors since blowing out his UCL in the rushed build-up to the 2020 season. Katz offered that he has a chance to be this year's Keynan Middleton (no, not in that way).
"He got injured, fell off the map a little bit. So I’m really excited to get him into games and show what he can do, because he is a big-time arm and has that experience at the back end of games. People should know about him and not forget about him," Katz said. "It reminds me a little bit of that situation, where you’re talking about a guy who hasn’t done it for a couple years — even though he has been pitching — but at the big league level. I think he could surprise some guys and have that kind of outcome.”
-- Even while bouncing through four organizations last year in a season where he felt like he could never get settled, right-hander Dominic Leone generates such stratospheric chase and whiff rates that he's more than a worthy NRI. But the difference between his last two seasons and being a medium-leverage lynchpin of the 2021 Giants bullpen alongside Bannister seems to be his cutter generating oodles of weak contact.
"He was one of the big reasons I had success in '21," Leone said. "He's very, very good at breaking down the analytic side of things and putting it in layman's terms for us to go out and have success in the field."
