Ervin Santana wasn't getting the job done, and that's why he got designated for assignment Friday.
It wasn't that difficult to figure out for anyone who even glanced at the stat lines in his three starts as a member of the White Sox rotation. He gave up 14 runs and six home runs in 13.1 innings — that made for a 9.45 ERA — and lasted 3.2, five and 4.2 innings in his three outings, respectively.
The White Sox didn't put a whole lot of risk into their acquisition of Santana in February, bringing him aboard on a minor league deal. And though in the thick of a rebuild poor results don't matter as much as some things, Santana's inability to eat up innings wasn't helping anyone, specifically those pitchers in the bullpen who could be parts of the team's long-term plan.
As general manager Rick Hahn explained ahead of Friday's game against the visiting Detroit Tigers, the White Sox didn't see any signs that things were going to get better for Santana.
"He was a guy who had a very fine 2017. He had some injury issues last year, and our hope was that, for the most part, that was going to be behind him. Unfortunately, he still isn't quite performing at the level that we had hoped, back at the 2017 level," Hahn said. "He's a pro, he's a guy who we thought was going to be a positive in the clubhouse, which he was. Unfortunately, we didn't quite get that veteran innings-eater type out of him in that rotation spot."
It was simple as that, though certainly ridding themselves of Santana doesn't instantly cure the White Sox starting-pitching woes, and the reasons Santana didn't live up to what the team hoped he could do have been all too present throughout the rotation so far in the first month of the 2019 season. Ivan Nova has an 8.42 ERA and has had three rough starts to go along with a couple good ones. Reynaldo Lopez has a 7.46 ERA through his first five starts, the two most recent of which have been much better. Lucas Giolito has had some very bright spots already, but he owns a 5.30 ERA and is currently on the injured list. Carlos Rodon is pacing the staff with a 2.89 ERA and has had just one blip during an otherwise excellent beginning to his season.
Plenty goes into all those various numbers and performances, but a particularly glaring and repetitive problem has been the starting staff's inability to go deep into games. That's been part of the reason an overused bullpen has seen its own numbers balloon at points, and it's generally caused headaches for Rick Renteria. If you're looking for a way for the White Sox to right the starting-pitching ship, that'd be a good place to start.
MLB
"Certainly we want guys who are capable of giving you seven, eight, nine innings on the right day, but we are also realistic about the way the game's trending right now," Hahn said, talking of the increased emphasis on bullpens versus big workloads for starting pitchers. "When we're here right now as a team that's in a transition in terms of getting to that championship level, we're probably in a little different position than we're going to be in a couple of years. By that I mean there are certain guys who are still learning at the big league level and it's unrealistic to expect them to go seven, eight, nine innings, certainly, every time out. We're going to have to at times protect them and at times push them a little bit to give them that opportunity to show what they can do in those more challenging situations."
Fans hoping for an influx of new faces into this rotation might be left wanting. The White Sox will move Manny Banuelos from the bullpen to the rotation for the foreseeable future. He's pitched well this season and is coming off Monday's spot start for Giolito in Baltimore, the only game of that series the White Sox won. Hahn said the hope was for Giolito to return at some point during this homestand, restoring the White Sox full complement of starting pitchers. But should any other needs arise for a sixth or seventh or eighth arm in that rotation, whether it's due to another injury or simply poor performance, the depth remains where it was before the decision was made to let Santana go.
Banuelos' move to the rotation takes away all the potential starters on the major league roster, leaving Triple-A Charlotte as the lone area to draw from in a potential time of need. Dylan Cease is one of the organization's highest-rated prospects, though he seems to be on the same track he entered the season on, the one comparable to the one Michael Kopech was on last year, and that makes a big league debut in July or August more likely than one in May or June. And so there's Dylan Covey and not much else, Covey the only non-Cease name at Charlotte with decent numbers as a starting pitcher so far this season.
Again, that's probably not what fans want to hear, but it's the reality.
"I think all 30 clubs would tell you, let's get a little more starting-pitching depth around, just for safety's sake and the unexpected," Hahn said. "Covey's growing into that role down there. Some of the other young guys still need some time to take that next step forward. And some of our guys at Double-A are probably going to force themselves into that conversation at some point. You're never going to get me to say I feel comfortable with starting-pitching depth, and today's no exception.
"Nothing has changed in terms of our expectation that at some point over the course of this season Dylan Cease will get his opportunity at the big league level. He's had (four) starts. ... He's still developing. But he's got the arsenal that's going to force his way here, probably, at some point over the course of the summer.
"We try to plot out, before the passion of the season takes over, so to speak, a rational plan for each guy's development and not vary from that until the guy forces it. ... We all went through this last year in terms of Kopech. There was a lot of talk early in the year of, 'When's Michael coming? He had a good one last night.' But there were a few things we were waiting on. Putting the injury aside, we feel we waited till he absolutely peaked and accomplished everything he could at Triple-A and then brought him here for that next step."
Hahn had rave reviews for Banuelos before the season started, and the White Sox commitment to giving him an opportunity was illustrated in their willingness to trade for him as it is now in their jettisoning a more proven veteran after a couple weeks. Hahn referred to Banuelos on Friday as someone who "may well fit in for the long term," and there's no way to find out if that could be the case other than to trot him out there. If Banuelos does prove himself worthy of long-term consideration, then it will be easy to forget the short-lived Ervin Santana Era.
But Santana's departure has done nothing to remedy the brief outings from starting pitchers nor the lack of starting-pitching depth at the upper levels of the organization. There's no doubt he wasn't giving the White Sox what he needed to, and so it's near impossible to see Friday's move as anything but the right one. But whether they'll be able to get what they want out of the rest of the rotation remains to be seen.
Click here to download the new MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the White Sox easily on your device.