David Robertson brings big relief to White Sox bullpen

SAN DIEGO — Manager Robin Ventura’s biggest challenge was mixing, matching and patching the White Sox’ beleaguered bullpen last season.

With David Robertson locking down the ninth inning as a proven closer, Ventura can use Jake Petricka and Zach Putnam, to name two, in roles better suited in the seventh and eighth innings. He’ll also have a left-hander in free agent Zach Duke, a commodity he didn’t have for a stretch in 2014.

‘‘We’ve had issues of being able to close out games, and if you can get somebody like David, it makes you better,’’ Ventura said. ‘‘It pushes everybody down a bit, and for us, that’s a good thing.’’

Ventura played in New York, so he knows what Robertson was up against replacing Mariano Rivera last season.

‘‘He’s a competitor and has closed in the toughest place there is to close in and done it very well,’’ Ventura said.

Sox fever

The Sox’ signing of Robertson and trade for Jeff Samardzjia made for a ‘‘very busy day’’ around the office of Brooks Boyer, the Sox’ vice president and chief marketing officer.

‘‘It’s 4:20 p.m. and the phones are still ringing,’’ Boyer said Tuesday afternoon.

Boyer didn’t know yet if there was a bump in ticket interest, ‘‘but we’ve had very positive reactions from our season-ticket holders. It’s certainly a huge momentum swing for us in marketing. A very fun time.’’

Oddsmakers in Vegas also reacted. Bovada improved the Sox’ odds of winning the World Series from 50-1 to 25-1.

A prospect, too

Getting 6-7 right-hander Michael Ynoa, 23, along with Samardzija from the Oakland Athletics could give the Sox something worthwhile to last in their pocket should they have Samardzija for only one year.

Ynoa spent the entire 2014 season with Class A Stockton, going 4-2 with a 5.52 ERA and 64 strikeouts over 31 relief appearances. He entered 2014 ranked the No. 4 prospect in the A’s system by Baseball America.

‘‘It’s a big arm with a plus fastball and plus slider and a guy who, if he continues to progress the way he did in ’14 in that new role, that we can see him helping the back end of the bullpen in the not-too-distant future,’’ general manager Rick Hahn said.