Chicago White Sox: Bruce Rondon a boost for bullpen?

After coming from Detroit in a trade, Bruce Rondon made a memorable impression in his first Chicago White Sox appearance. Can he help improve a bullpen with a lot of issues?

Full disclosure: I have adamantly preached the importance of understanding the context of sample size with both the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox early in this MLB season.

After all, remember when everyone was freaking out about the Cubs’ 2-3 start and praising the White Sox’s 2-1 kickoff to 2018? Well, the Cubs have since won three of their last four, and the White Sox lost four of five.

See how that works?

For the White Sox especially, the pitching hasn’t done them a whole lot of favors thus far in 2018.

We already knew that the starting rotation would go through some bumps when relying on young, unproven starters (Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Carson Fulmer) and old, mediocre veterans (James Shields, Miguel Gonzalez).

And truthfully, we also knew that the bullpen was hardly stocked with world-beaters.

And just yesterday, the White Sox sent Juan Minaya down to Class AAA Charlotte a day after he walked four batters in a game. Can’t really blame the Sox for that move.

Interestingly, the guy that replaced him in the bullpen had a completely different outing with the White Sox today. And with any luck, maybe he’ll be able to consistently put that type of performance together regularly.

After reportedly forgetting that he wasn’t a Detroit Tiger anymore, Rondon went out and dominated his former team on Sunday just hours following his call-up from Class AAA Charlotte.

Yeah, that about sums it up.

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Even better, one of those strikeouts came against the legendary Miguel Cabrera himself. And what an impressive strikeout it was. Rondon worked him with triple-digit fastballs before eventually wiping him out with a slider.

Yes, we need to see more of that before getting an idea of how much he’ll actually help this bullpen. But after admitting that he’d lost some confidence with Detroit, he sure looked like a guy who can get it done in the big leagues today.

And the White Sox badly need someone with that confidence and ability right now.

Following this performance, I expect Rondon to get plenty more chances to prove himself as long as he throws strikes. For one thing, missing his spots on critical pitches was a big reason he sported a 10.91 ERA in 2017. Secondly, the White Sox have already shown that they don’t have patience for guys who can’t find the plate.

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Besides, with Rondon’s stuff, all he has to do is pound the strike zone consistently, and he’ll be successful. As he showed today, hitting him is no easy task when he’s got everything working.

And if he can find himself here in Chicago, the White Sox could reap the benefits of the 27-year-old’s arm for a while.