The jury is still out on whether Reynaldo Lopez is the new Jose Quintana from a run-support perspective. But from a "one of the best pitchers in the American League" standpoint, yeah, maybe Lopez is on to something.
It's obviously very early, but through the season's first three weeks, Lopez — despite the fact that he's yet to win a game — has been one of the Junior Circuit's best starting pitchers.
After Monday night's performance in Oakland, an ugly game for the White Sox in which he was the lone bright spot, Lopez has a 1.42 ERA and 21 strikeouts, numbers that rank 11th and 16th, respectively, among AL starters. Only seven pitchers rank in the top 16 in both categories: Justin Verlander, Charlie Morton, Gerrit Cole, Chris Sale, Corey Kluber, Dylan Bundy and Lopez. That's pretty fantastic company to be in for 24-year-old whose most recent start was just the 17th of his major league career.
Monday, Lopez issued four walks and allowed a season-high two runs, but he struck out 10 batters (also a season-high) while keeping the offensively challenged White Sox in a position to come back and win the game. They didn't, committing four errors and almost getting shut out. But Lopez added a third strong start in three tries to his 2018 season.
Lopez has flashed plenty of strikeout stuff in his brief big league career. His career high is 11 Ks, recorded in his fourth career start with the Washington Nationals in 2016. His major league debut featured nine strikeouts. And last season in his eight starts with the White Sox, he had four games of six or more strikeouts.
Of course, and this is where the ol' Quintana luck comes in, the White Sox are 0-3 in the three games Lopez has started this year. They've scored a total of three runs in those games and just one while Lopez has been pitching. Of the pitchers mentioned with Lopez above, only Bundy can claim similar bad luck: He's 0-2 in his four starts.
Lopez has easily been the best starting pitcher on this White Sox team in the early going. He's also been one of the best starting pitchers in the league.