Chicago White Sox: Signing Dallas Keuchel is a must

The Chicago White Sox should be in the bidding war to sign Dallas Keuchel. He could be what the team needs to make a Wild Card run.

Now that the 2019 MLB Draft is over, Dallas Keuchel will not be available for long. The Chicago White Sox are currently one game under .500 and two games back in the Wild Card standings. The team has been overachieving from what most people expected going into 2019. The team does not seem to quit this year and keeps finding ways to win games despite horrible pitching.

Outside of Lucas Giolito, the pitching staff for the White Sox has been worse than awful. Yet, the team is competing in nearly every game. The Minnesota Twins are running away with the AL Central division, but the American League has been subpar for the most part.

If we look at the other teams in the Wild Card running, the big difference is run differential. The White Sox are -43 whereas the other teams are all in the positive. This is not a defensive issue as much as it is a pitching issue.

If we look at the team as a whole, the combined ERA is 4.85 for the season. This is not good. Now, if you take away Lucas Giolito’s 2.54 ERA, the starter’s average ERA is 5.94. The second best pitcher on the team right now is Dylan Covey with his 4.73 ERA. Not a single starter has a WHIP under 1.20 other than Giolito either.

If the team is serious about putting fans in the seats and making a Wild Card push, then they need to go see about signing Dallas Keuchel. Keuchel has made it no secret that money is the deciding factor. There are other teams looking to sign him but do not have the financial capabilities the White Sox have without going into the Luxury Tax.

In the offseason, the White Sox made a push to sign Manny Machado. We all know how that turned out. In that debacle, Rick Hahn made it known that they realize they will need to invest their money in their prospects (he, like all of us, is hoping they all become superstars). With the way the team has been this year and the injury bug they have sustained to their pitching staff, sighing Keuchel makes too much sense.

Keuchel turned down a $17.9 million qualifying offer from the Houston Astros. This means Keuchel is going to want to see at least this amount of money. The White Sox have just over $100 million dollars on their current payroll. This means they can spend nearly another $100 million before worrying about the luxury tax. We as fans know they will not spend this much, but why not throw $18 ($11.5 million prorated for the rest of 2019) to $35 million (two-year deal) at Keuchel?

Give him a one-year deal. Or maybe even a two-year deal. The free agent market is not going to be great in 2020 either. Keuchel, even though 31 years old, has a career 3.66 ERA with 1.250 WHIP. He was the 2015 AO Cy Young Award winner and has not had an ERA over 4.00 since 2013.

If the White Sox can sway him with cash, Keuchel could be the piece needed to propel this team into true Wild Card contention. With a -43 run differential, the team will not sustain this success the rest of the season. If the team can win consistently and make a Wild Card run, the experience alone will be great for the young core.

With a short-term contract, the White Sox will remove any money given to Keuchel from their books before having to pay up to their better, young players and prospects. Plus Keuchel should jump at the money plus the ability to earn another big payday before turning 35 years old. This signing makes too much sense, but will the team pony up the dough? Doubtful.