While the White Sox are lacking in wins, regard from the rest of the league and fan optimism for a brighter future, they are unquestionably deep in mustachioed Utahn pitchers, even after the departure of Tanner Banks.
Nothing reflects this peculiar brand of depth more than essentially swapping out an injured Drew Thorpe in the rotation with Ky Bush, who will make his major league debut Monday night. He's wearing No. 57 and will nose out the return of reliever Dominic Leone from the 60-day IL for top billing of the day's roster moves. Sammy Peralta and Prelander Berroa were optioned to make room.
For Bush, it's the culmination of a lifelong dream and all that, but also a striking reversal of fortune. His 2023 season was born under the bad sign of groin and lat strains, and he never fully regained his stuff and mechanical comfort before season's end. By the end of it, he had been traded from the organization that drafted him, posted a combined ERA north of 6.00 at the Angels' and White Sox's Double-A affiliates, and become an afterthought on public prospect lists.
The 6-foot-6-inch left-hander went into the offseason with a mission to shorten his arm action (for repeatability) and ride on his back leg longer in his delivery (to restore his velocity to the mid-90s). Bush said he was motivated to re-establish himself, but even preparing with an edge it's probably rare for a stalled pitching prospect to head into the winter with "throw harder" and "throw more strikes" on their list of needed improvements, and to pull off both well enough to debut in August.
"It just looks like a guy that's not spraying the ball and has a little more connection between his arm and his torso and just pounding the zone," Brian Bannister said of Bush. "He can spin the ball, throw multiple shapes, just another lefty with velo, which you love to see."
For that, for returning his swinging strike rates to the levels of his breakout 2022 season, and for racking up a 2.12 ERA in 80⅔ innings with just 51 hits allowed in Double-A this year, the 24-year-old Bush's season should be commended as a powerful step forward already. As Bannister alluded to, Bush is back to sitting 93-94 mph (though he was down to 92.5 mph in his most recent Triple-A outing) and the left-hander offers both a slider and curve, even if he clearly prefers the former. To channel Bannister again, a left-hander with Bush's size, slider and the velocity he's displayed for stretches almost certainly has some sort of major league utility. It's a question of where and when, and that will start shaking out tonight in Oakland. It's something to watch for the long-term outside of the final score, which has grown predictable.
Due to a 6.16 ERA in four outings at Triple-A Charlotte and being subject of a clearly needs-based promotion, Bush's readiness to succeed at the major league level will be the open question as he toes the rubber for the final White Sox series in the Oakland Coliseum, for a team where precious few look ready to succeed at the major league level.
For context, Bush first arrived in Charlotte serving as the second half of a piggyback for two Mike Clevinger rehab starts, which remain the only two relief appearances of his professional career. Since returning to starting, he's had one good one (five innings of one-run ball) and one that would have been good if not for that dang three-run homer allowed with two outs in the sixth (5.2 IP, 5 ER). After running a .225 BABIP while generating a lot of outs in the air of spacious Regions Field amid good but not great strikeout numbers, Bush's three home runs allowed in Triple-A have all come in his new home of the Truist Field bandbox. If not for the presence of Brent Rooker and the like, Oakland Coliseum would register as more comfortable environs for Bush's 2024 stylings.
Back at the end of May, owing to his fallen prospect status, I made the mistake of referring to Bush as the sixth member of Birmingham's stalwart rotation. Pitching coach John Ely did not hesitate to correct me.
"He's a 10-year major leaguer," Ely said. "He's as good or better than anybody else. Him, Thorpe and [Mason] Adams, every time they go out, we know what we're going to get."
Ely's condition for declaring Bush a 10-year big leaguer was completion of the development of his cutter, which his arsenal looks like it could use when we're seeing a version of the lefty who only occasionally sprinkles in a changeup, or is sitting in the low-90s with his four-seamer. Throughout the season, the cutter blended with his slider at times, and has seemingly yet to take over as his primary method of command the inner half above the belt to right-handers.
If Bush is commanding 94-96 mph at the top of the zone, the need for a cutter diminishes and he's garnered praises for his ability to tunnel all of his tumbling secondaries effectively off the eyeline of the high heater. It would be overzealous to say his fastball has been showing as a truly plus pitch at times, but as Jim alluded to during the podcast, his shorter arm action lends a funky deception element to Bush's release. And any degree to which Bush can inspire overeagerness from hitters trying to cover the top of the zone will only help his efforts to finish off at-bats at the knees.
To round things out with a lukewarm take, the level to which Bush's slider plays against right-handed major leaguers will be the barometer for how Monday night and the next two months go for him. He's had borderline bizarre reverse splits for most of his pro career (.499 OPS allowed to righties, .759 to lefties this season), because the backfoot slider has been a putaway offering that opposite handed hitters have swung over. Again, it's easy to imagine how a cutter might enhance that dynamic, but Bush being able to drop in his high-70s curve for strikes would also limit how many looks at his slider hitters have before seeing one hum in on a two-strike count.
"He's got four pitches that hitters have to honor," Knights pitching coach R.C. Lichenstein told Jim. "When you do that, like if you're in good counts, and you're ahead in the count, it's hard to cover any individual pitch, and you can't hunt it because he's throwing them all for strikes."
Bush is more adept with inducing weak contact from right-handers than his arsenal might suggest, but the recent results suggest a work in progress. He is capable of having a nice night if his command is on and his velocity is strong, and might look a weapon short of being able to wriggle out of tough spots if neither are on point. Given where he started the season, getting hit hard in the majors would still represent a big meaningful leap and would still set up Bush to be an improved cutter or changeup away from staking a more competitive claim upon a rotation slot in 2025.
But it would be nice for White Sox fans to have a player work out better than expected this season, without the epilogue of and then they didn't get quite as much for him as I hoped they would at the deadline.
