What would turn out to be this front office's last trade deadline would turn out to be a pretty good deadline on paper. The Sox trimmed the fat off the roster by unloading expiring contracts and players who were not performing up to their standards. Perhaps the most notable move is acquiring Edgar Quero from the Angels, as he looks like he will be the catcher of the future.
Some questionable moves were also made, like the Jake Burger trade. Time will tell, as the White Sox mainly received prospects who are a year or so away, so we won't be able to judge these moves for a few years. But, the most alarming is the performance of the players they traded away, mainly Lance Lynn.
What Changed?
Since the trade, it seems that Lance Lynn has turned back the clock. He has looked very good minus his most recent start with the team. Here are some of his stats before his rough start against Boston:
These are the numbers that most White Sox fans expected from him this year. This is night and day from when he was with the White Sox. How could a player turn it around so quickly when he is traded away? Was he just happy to get out of the toxic White Sox environment? Was it a coaching issue? A combination of the two?
While it is likely a combination, it doesn't look good on the coaches that they couldn't unlock this version of Lance Lynn this season.
It seems the coaches were overlooking a pretty key part of the game for Lynn, pitch selection.
This shows the Dodgers coaches clearly had a plan for him. They saw what pitches were working for Lynn and what pitches weren't. Lynn clearly didn't do this himself, otherwise, he would have done it on the Sox. This is not a good look for pitching coach Ethan Katz, if he can't figure out something as simple as pitch mix for one of his pitchers, he won't be around long.
Katz has done a nice job with some pitchers, as he has gotten the most out of Gregory Santos and Dylan Cease was one of the best pitchers in baseball last year. But, now Cease has regressed significantly and most pitchers are doing much better off the Sox.
Everyone Is Doing Better
It's not just Lynn who is doing much better since being traded. Take a look at this list that someone was able to compile:
This perfectly encapsulates how much better most of the pitchers are doing off the team. Heck even Jake Burger has managed to be significantly better on the Marlins, as he is taking more walks and having better at-bats. This makes me sick to my stomach.
As you can see, every single pitcher is doing better except Lucas Giolito. Even Brett Honeywell got worse when he arrived in Chicago.
This definitely does not reflect well on Ethan Katz, if most players leave your team and are suddenly better, that doesn't reflect too well on you. When you combine this with the regression of Dylan Cease to his rookie year levels and the regression of Michael Kopech, I'm not sure how safe Katz's job is or should be for that matter.
We will see what happens in terms of changes this offseason, but they definitely need to evaluate their pitching coach position, as they have a lot of data to look at.
