As good as left-hander Aaron Bummer potentially can be — the Braves gave the White Sox five players believing they can untap his ceiling — the Sox have to feel satisfied, four games into the season, with their return on general manager Chris Getz’ first trade.
Michael Soroka was the Sox’ Day 2 starter, Nicky Lopez is their starting second baseman and Braden Shewmake made an encouraging showing in the season opening series against the Tigers.
“Bummer was a weapon for us out of the bullpen. He had some really good years here, and he has good stuff,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said.
“We got some guys that we feel are impacting this club, as well. That was, in my opinion, a good, old-fashioned baseball trade. They got what they needed, we got what we needed at the times we needed it. We’ll see how it plays out.”
Bummer has appeared in two games, finishing a blowout win on Opening Day and blowing a save opportunity in a Braves loss to the Phillies Sunday.
Last season played out miserably for the 61-101 Sox and Bummer, who posted a 6.79 ERA despite his tough to square up sinker and slider. He hopes the change of scenery does him well.
“It gave me an opportunity to look myself in the mirror, too, decide to be the pitcher I wanted to be and way I wanted to work and who I can be moving forward,” Bummer said. “I had a lot of great years in Chicago but I always knew there were a lot of things to work on, there were things to improve.”
As for what went wrong, it would take more than a paragraph to explain.
“If we could have put a finger on it we could have gotten it fixed,” Bummer said. “It was a combination of a lot of things that unfortunately we weren’t able to stop the snowball from running down the hill.
“Was it injuries, health, chemistry, was it any of these things? If we knew the answer we wouldn’t have been in the position we were.”
Another old friend
Reynaldo Lopez and Chris Sale are in the Braves’ rotation, bolstering the National League East favorite’s ex-Sox appeal. Lopez is Tuesday’s scheduled starter.
“A lot of emotions,” said Lopez, who returns to starting duty when he faces his former team, speaking through an interpreter. “Six years here. I recall a lot of fond memories and nice moments that occurred during my time here. I’m happy to be back and excited to face the team for the first time.”
Traded by the Sox to the Angels with Lucas Giolito last season, Lopez signed a three-year, $30 million deal with the Braves as a free agent during the offseason.
OK takes
Grifol said he didn’t mind the Sox’ seven called third strikes in their loss to the Tigers Sunday in light of their propensity to chase bad pitches last season.
“To be able to draw walks, you’ve got to be OK with striking out looking if you don’t think it’s a strike,” Grifol said. “The strikeouts start to add up when you don’t want to take that third strike and you start expanding the strike zone. So the way we evaluate this? Yes, we struck out seven times looking, but how many of those were strikes that were in the strike zone? And if they weren’t in the strike zone, then we’re good with it, because we’re teaching and practicing and preaching plate discipline.”
