Though he's been on the South Side for a few days, his jersey hanging in his locker in the home clubhouse, Ervin Santana didn't officially become a member of the White Sox until Tuesday morning, when the team officially put him on the active roster.
But despite official word from the team still pending, his arrival was well anticipated. The White Sox started the season with only four pitchers in their starting rotation, Santana the obvious choice to make it a full five whenever the schedule necessitated. That day came Tuesday, and the "TBA" that stood as the team's probable pitcher for its second game of a three-game set with the Tampa Bay Rays was merely code for Santana.
Well, now the 36-year-old is here in every capacity. So what can he bring?
Santana should be a recognizable name to White Sox fans, an American League pitcher for all but one of the past 14 years (he pitched for the Atlanta Braves in 2014) and an AL Central foe for each of the previous four seasons with the Minnesota Twins. Santana has had a solid major league career, with a couple All-Star appearances and a couple top-10 Cy Young finishes on his resume.
Arguably the finest season of that career came just two years ago with the Twins, when he finished the 2017 campaign with a 3.28 ERA and 167 strikeouts in 211.1 innings. He won 16 games and led baseball with five complete games that season, three of which were shutouts. White Sox fans should remember it well, as he went 4-0 with a 2.67 ERA and 33 strikeouts in five starts against the South Siders.
Santana couldn't follow that up with much of anything, however, as he missed most of the 2018 season with a finger injury. He made just five starts, and between his advancing age, his recent injury and the general tumbleweed nature of this winter's free-agent market, Santana ended up taking a minor league deal with the White Sox.
"He had a finger issue that everybody was monitoring during the spring. He was already resolved," manager Rick Renteria said Tuesday. "We made sure that as the camp was evolving he was not feeling anything that was limiting what he could do. And it didn't. We're fully convinced that he's healthy and ready to go.
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"He's going to be who he is. He's got the experience and the confidence to know to work with what he has. I think he'll do fine."
While acquired late in the offseason, it wouldn't be surprising to see the White Sox attempt to lean on Santana in a similar way to how they leaned on James Shields last season. Obviously, Ivan Nova was the bigger name acquired with the intent of filling that role, but Santana fits many of the same criteria: a veteran pitcher who has eaten up innings in the past and could be a resource of sorts for the young guys on the staff.
"Between him and Ivan, two guys with a ton of experience," fellow starting pitcher Lucas Giolito said Tuesday. "I've already been talking with Nova a bunch since spring training, since the season started. I'm looking forward to seeing Ervin today and looking forward to picking his brain just like I pick the brain of any other veteran pitcher that's ever in the rotation that I can learn from.
"It's cool because they know, whether they have a good game or a bad game, they know what they need to do to be successful. They're not searching for anything. They have everything pretty set for what they need, what they need to work on, et cetera. It's interesting to kind of get that perspective as a younger guy who's still trying to learn and still trying to figure things out."
White Sox fans, meanwhile, are simply hoping Santana can provide a bit of consistency and do his part to improve a pitching staff that has been knocked around in the early going this season. Entering play Tuesday, the White Sox owned the largest ERA in the AL at 6.35. Only the Cubs' 6.70 mark was worse among the 30 major league teams. The White Sox ranked in the bottom five in the league in innings pitched among their starting pitchers. Their 45.1 innings from starters averaged out to just about five innings a game, a contributing factor to the bullpen's woes. The relief corps' 6.61 ERA ranked 25th out of 30 on Tuesday morning.
It would be mighty wishful thinking to assume that Santana could help turn those numbers around all by himself. He's not the major acquisition fans were clamoring for this winter. And some Twitter-using South Side baseball fans are making known their desires that the team finds a way to bring in the still-jobless Dallas Keuchel, the 2015 AL Cy Young winner.
But Santana has his value, and the White Sox are hoping it starts to pay off Tuesday.
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