What He Said, and What He Did

After his first bad outing this spring, White Sox right-hander Reynaldo Lopez said, “Just a couple [of] mistakes, but I felt good with all my pitches. [Sun-Times]” After his second bad outing, Lopez said, “I was able to make those adjustments from my last outing, and it was a good day. I’m on a good track. [team website].” After his third bad outing, Lopez offered it was all “something I can fix in the next couple of day [Sun-Times].” There won’t be a fourth bad outing, not with Lopez getting sent down yesterday. In four spring appearances, Lopez logged eleven innings, giving up sixteen hits and four walks to go with a 9.00 ERA and 1.82 WHIP. None of that kept pitching coach Ethan Katz from offering a strong defense of the 27-year old: “He’s getting into the right place with everything. It’s just some bad luck thrown his way, but he’s putting in the work to put himself in the best position he can be.” Really? Where, exactly, is the bad luck Katz alludes to? If anything, Lopez is lucky none of those sixteen hits went up the middle and took his head off. A few more appearances, and who knows? How happy talk benefits a player in this instance is beyond me. There’s something wrong with Lopez, who’s regressed each season since he went 7-10 with a 3.91 ERA in 2018. Either he’s injured and not telling anyone, or he’s picked up a ton of bad habits he refuses to let go of. Because the numbers don’t lie. It would be nice if someone would tell the truth here. I think Latin pitchers have it especially tough. Right now, the Sox active roster includes fifteen pitchers, two of whom are Hispanic (Carlos Rodon and Jose Ruiz). Of the thirteen position players listed, seven are Hispanic. So what? Well, for openers, more people to talk to. It’s not like Lopez can go up to Jose Abreu and discuss his curve ball. Come to think of it, who can he talk to? Oh, right, the team interpreter, but he’s not the pitching coach. So far, I haven’t heard anything about Katz being bilingual. Yes, manager Tony La Russa and catcher Yasmani Grandal are, but they’re not pitchers who’ve got that pitching vibe going on peculiar to players who toe the rubber for a living. Too bad for Lopez. He's at the point where the Sox no longer feel especially invested in him. Both Lopez and Lucas Giolito came over in the same trade from Washington. One pitcher has progressed, the other regressed. Maybe Lopez will never match Giolito’s success. OK, but I’d like to know they did everything possible to make it happen, and that includes talking to the man in the language he both understands and thinks in.