Johnny Cueto has been everything the White Sox needed

So far this season, there has been more negativity surrounding the Chicago White Sox than positivity. That has been the result of bad management, bad caching, bad roster construction, and slow starts for a lot of players.

However, there have been a few things to be excited about. One of those is Johnny Cueto coming in and being a really solid starter for them. He has been everything they needed in a fifth starter and more.

They were able to finally let Dallas Keuchel go because he has been so good. The rest of the rotation (Dylan Cease, Michael Kopech, Lucas Giolito, Lance Lynn) are all much better because he is there.

So far, the White Sox offense has been awful at getting him run support so his record only stands at 2-4. He does have a few no decisions that became wins because he did his part. He has been pumping out quality starts with regularity which is exactly what the White Sox needed from him. 

In 54.0 innings, he has a 3.33 ERA, 1.167 WHIP, and 45 strikeouts. He doesn’t pump gas as he ages but he knows how to use the stuff that he does have to his advantage. All of this has accumulated him a 1.3 WAR which is really nice from your “5th starter”.

The 2022 Chicago White Sox are loving what they get from Johnny Cueto.

In Tuesday’s game against the Los Angeles Angels, he had a rough start. Already down 1-0 thanks to giving up a solo shot, he gave up back-to-back home runs to Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani.

Sometimes you give up home runs to the best players in the world. How you bounce back the rest of the way is what is important. Cueto only gave up four more hits after the three solo shots and was very effective.

He went a total of 6.0 innings with seven hits, three runs, one walk, and five strikeouts. It was as good of a performance as you can expect Cueto to have at any point. If they can get those starts consistently down the stretch, they won’t have a problem using him this often.

The offense was able to score 11 runs following the 3-0 deficit. They ended up winning 11-4 and Cueto was a big part of it. Now, they have a chance to win the series with Michael Kopech on the mound thanks to this great performance by Cueto.