All the offseason and spring training debate about which role Chris Sale would fill for the White Sox has mostly been forgotten, as he’s remained in the bullpen all season while throwing 51 innings with a 2.81 ERA and 53/19 K/BB ratio.
Not quite as unhittable as he was as a rookie, but Sale has pretty clearly established that he can be a shutdown late-inning option, which is why manager Ozzie Guillen told Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune that he’d like to keep Sale as a reliever.
However, while a role change is unlikely this season Guillen also revealed that general manager Ken Williams still “wants him to be a starter next year.”
Gonzales notes that Sale’s role may depend on whether impending free agent Mark Buehrle leaves the White Sox this offseason, in which case the 22-year-old lefty filling the rotation spot of the departing 32-year-old lefty would seem like an obvious fit. Guillen sounds open to that idea as well, but points out that the White Sox would need to “prepare him in spring training and the offseason” because he’s used Sale for more than 35 pitches just twice all year.
