Following a historic start to the season, the White Sox starting rotation has crashed back to Earth over the past few weeks. Regression was inevitable. Injuries and inexperience have been a central theme among the White Sox pitching staff this year, and the team’s current starting pitchers face much more pressure than they could have anticipated.

As a result, manager Will Venable and the rest of the coaching staff are in a difficult position. They must maximize the abilities of the starting rotation and avoid taxing the bullpen as they have often done in recent weeks. It appears they may have found a solution. In the last three games, the White Sox have used a reliever to open the game instead of a conventional starting pitcher.

History Of The Opener

The White Sox are not the first team to utilize the opener strategy. The Tampa Bay Rays and San Francisco Giants popularized this movement in recent years as an unconventional way to navigate a game. This strategy consists of a reliever facing the top of the opposing team’s batting order in the first inning, with the traditional starting pitcher replacing them in the second inning and pitching the bulk of the game.

Strategic Benefits

There are several benefits to using this strategy. For one, the manager can choose an opener whose skills best align with getting the top of the opposing team’s lineup out. Assuming the opener does their job in the first inning, the conventional starting pitcher can settle into the flow of the game better without getting ambushed by the best hitters on the opposing team immediately. Using an opener also likely means that the starter will only have to deal with the top of the opponent’s lineup twice instead of three times like they would have to under normal circumstances. An opener makes logical sense for a rotation as inexperienced and unproven as the White Sox.

Instantly Successful Formula

Sure enough, the opener strategy paid off this weekend. Tyler Gilbert and Brandon Eisert, the openers over the last three games, allowed just one run in three innings combined. Meanwhile, Sean Burke, Jonathan Cannon, and Davis Martin, the conventional starting pitchers who worked as the bulk pitchers in this series, allowed just six runs over 19 combined innings. Cannon and Martin, in particular, had some of their best performances of the season coming into the game after the opener. All three bulk pitchers went deep into the game, keeping the White Sox competitive without overworking the bullpen.

The White Sox lost two of three games to the A’s in the series, but both losses were competitive. White Sox play-by-play announcer John Schriffen mentioned on Saturday’s broadcast that using an opener has been a topic of discussion for the White Sox for several weeks now. The pitchers were on board with the idea and thrived in a small sample using this strategy.

Potential Solution For White Sox?

It is unclear if the White Sox will continue using the opener strategy moving forward or if this idea was just a short-term experiment. In any case, Venable and the rest of the coaching staff deserve credit for thinking outside the box and getting the most out of their starting pitchers over the past few days.