White Sox Trade With Cubs: Ryan Tepera, Swing On Down To The South Side
This is EXACTLY what the White Sox needed. Heading into the season, I thought the White Sox pen was loaded. I was incorrect there.... sorta. It was easy to see why anyone would think that. They just inked the best closer in baseball, Kopech was set for lift off, Bummer was a freak, and Heuer/Foster/Marshall all came out of nowhere in 2020 and looked REALLY good. I truly thought their pen would be one of the best in the game. On paper, I wasn't totally wrong. The talent is there, especially with Heuer's velocity and Bummer/Marshall's pure shit.
Then... 2021 happened. The only sure things have been Hendriks and Kopech. Aside from a few too many long balls from Hendriks, both have been unhittable. The rest? Yeah, they haven't been good. Heuer has gotten hit around in spite of his shit, Bummer's command has been shaky at best for a lot of the year, Marshall has been hurt, Foster has been bad, and Crochet has been... I don't know. His usage has been weird. Regardless, it was clear that they needed a sure thing.
In steps Ryan Tepera from the Cubs. He's been REALLY good this year in middle relief:
And like Carl mentioned on Red Line Radio yesterday, he's been equally good against both RH hitters and LH hitters:
Top row is vs. LHH, bottom row against RHH
Actually, I take that back… he's been BETTER against LH hitters than he has been against RH hitters. That plays all day long, especially in the age of the 3 batter minimum rule. This is EXACTLY what the White Sox have been lacking. Like Hernandez, he's not a sexy name, but he's a good, solid, quality big league arm.
The White Sox didn't NEED to swing for the fences (though we all would have loved them too) but they haven't tapped into any farm depth of importance at all. We should all love that. They've improved a good amount today without sacrificing depth or worse from other parts of the organization.
Let's get one more Tepera-like arm for the pen and call it a day. Like I said in the Hernandez blog, the White Sox will go Rodon-Gio-Lynn in whatever order to start game 1 of a post season series. They needed someone reliable to bridge the gap between the starters and then Kopech/Hendriks. That's Tepera and I have a good feeling one more is coming.
Let's fucking gooooo!!!! I'm loving everything about this right now. EVERYTHING. You should too. Hahn did it again!!!