Though plenty of fans might be disappointed the Chicago White Sox didn't make the kinds of pre-lockout splashes that other teams around the league did in a flurry of free-agent activity at the end of November, it's hard to be disappointed with Rick Hahn's biggest addition so far this offseason.
Kendall Graveman was excellent in 2021, pitching in a variety of roles for the Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros, recording 10 saves to go along with a pencil-thin 0.82 ERA before a midseason intra-division trade and logging 11 innings in the postseason — including finishing three World Series games — after it.
He earned the multi-year contract he got from the White Sox, who needed to add some heft to the back end of their bullpen following an exodus from the relief corps: Michael Kopech moving to the rotation, Ryan Tepera hitting the free-agent market, Craig Kimbrel seemingly likely to be traded. Even Garrett Crochet's role was up in the air heading into the winter.
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So not only was Graveman a positive addition, he was a necessary one for these White Sox, who can now count him as part of a two-headed setup monster, along with Aaron Bummer, in front of Liam Hendriks, arguably the best closer in the game today.
While it's easy to come to the conclusion that Graveman was acquired to fill the eighth-inning role Kimbrel struggled in after his acquisition at last summer's trade deadline, the pitcher himself is far less concerned about when he pitches than he is with how he pitches — or rather, that how he pitches contributes to his team's success.
"I told the White Sox when they were taking to me — and I told Houston and I told Seattle — that I am trying to get three outs, or four outs or five outs, whenever my name is called," Graveman said in November. "I have no ego in this game. I couldn't care less about personal stats. I want to help a baseball team win.
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"Honestly, that's who I am. If I throw the eighth, if I throw the seventh, if there's a big situation in the sixth and Tony needs me, I'll be available. I'll be ready. ... I have no ego. You're not going to offend me one way or the other. When you put the ball in my hand, my job is to go get outs."
That's a great attitude to have, of course, helpful in Tony La Russa's bullpen usage. Graveman sounded a lot like Hendriks in that regard, and to be fair, Kimbrel said all those right things, too, when he came aboard last summer.
But if results are more important than role to Graveman, let's talk about results, something that's awful hard to project when it comes to the majority of relief pitchers from one year to the next.
Graveman's own major league history has been dotted with good and bad numbers, not to mention injury issues. Before his sensational 2021, which he finished with a combined 1.77 ERA in 57 appearances between the Mariners and Astros, he posted a far uglier 5.79 ERA in 11 outings for the Mariners during the shortened 2020 season. That was his first big league action since 2018, when he had a 7.60 ERA in seven starts during his final year with the Oakland Athletics. From 2015 to 2018, Graveman had been nothing but a starting pitcher, and he had a 4.38 ERA in 78 starts for the A's.
And so Graveman comes to the South Side without a lengthy track record of relief success. There's plenty to be said for things finally clicking as a bullpen arm last year, and that's what his three-year contract was built on. That, and Graveman's reputation as a great teammate, proven last year when his trade to a division rival caused tears in the Mariners' clubhouse.
In shouldering a positive load for a pair of playoff contenders, one of which went all the way to Game 7 of the World Series, Graveman has given the White Sox reason to be confident that his 2021 success can continue. But Hahn is often the first to talk of volatile relief pitching, a reminder that there are no guarantees. Outside of the typically Hendriks, perhaps.
Whether because of his stated willingness or La Russa's bullpen-management methods, we can expect to see Graveman at a variety of times throughout the game. But we can also expect to see him pitch the eighth plenty of times, too, as the team's investment in the back end of the bullpen is hoped to yield the positive results in front of Hendriks that last summer's Kimbrel trade only rarely did.
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