In a morning press release, the White Sox announced they placed left-handed pitcher Dallas Keuchel on the 10-day injured, and recalled right-hander Reynaldo Lopez from the Schaumburg training facility.
Naturally, fans shared their frustrations as nobody wants to see the No. 2 starter go down. Before we all go into a complete panic over the roster moves, let’s take a collective deep breath and analyze the situation.
In Sunday’s outing against the Kansas City Royals, Keuchel was abruptly pulled prior to the 6th inning after not feeling right during warm-ups. The team later announced that he left the game with “lower back stiffness” and was “day-to-day.”
Now, let’s fastforward to yesterday’s press conference. Manager Rick Renteria said they will be skipping Dallas Keuchel’s start this Saturday against the Tigers “out of an abundance of caution.” Keuchel, himself, told the skipper that he is already feeling better, and the two don’t expect the lefty to miss any additional time.
There’s also one other important note that’s easy to miss. If you read the above press release, you’ll notice it says the move is retroactive to September 7th. Do the math and that gives Keuchel the opportunity to return and still pitch at the back end of next week’s Twins series. Assuming things go as expected, this is the rotation we should be seeing:
- Friday vs. Tigers: Lucas Giolito
- Saturday vs. Tigers: Reynaldo Lopez
- Sunday vs. Tigers: Bullpen day?
- Monday vs. Twins: Dylan Cease
- Tuesday vs. Twins: Dane Dunning
- Wednesday vs. Twins: Lucas Giolito
- Thursday vs. Twins: Dallas Keuchel
Overall, this move is a very unsurprising one given the upcoming schedule and bigger picture. The focus for Keuchel should absolutely be getting back up to full strength in time for what will be crucial games the rest of the way. Obviously, nobody is especially excited about Reynaldo Lopez coming back and making another appearance but it shouldn’t be reason to freak out. One start against the Tigers (hopefully) won’t hurt us and/or make us lose our sanity as a fanbase.
Let’s all just hunker down, deal with it, and focus on the more important series coming up.
Follow us on social media @SoxOn35th for more updates!
Featured Photo: White Sox/Twitter
