SAN DIEGO -- As one of the busiest teams in the offseason and the champions of the winter meetings so far, the question surrounding the Chicago White Sox now is whether or not their big offseason splashes have been enough.
Specifically, have the additions of left-hander Zach Duke and pending acquisition of right-hander David Robertson, made the White Sox a better-than-average bullpen?
Two pitchers do not a bullpen make, but the Kansas City Royals did some pretty serious damage to American League foes with setup man Wade Davis and closer Greg Holland.
Matching Davis and Holland will be a tall order for Duke and Robertson, so the early reviews are that the White Sox are going to have to add even more just to be considered the best bullpen in the American League Central.
"Well, you continue to try to improve; I think that's the biggest thing about being here," manager Robin Ventura said. "And you're able to talk with different teams and see what they're trying to do. But you are improving to a point, and you see what's there, what Detroit's done the last few years, and Kansas City going to the World Series, Cleveland's been a good club for the last couple of years. You're either going to try to improve or you're not. I think we're improving to be in that discussion."
General manager Rick Hahn, while saying his spending wiggle room is starting to get a "little tight," has promised to do even more this winter, although he might or might not have been talking about the bullpen in particular.
"Even putting aside what we hope to announce later in the week [Robertson's signing], we still have other areas we need to improve, and we're hopeful that, over the coming days -- and if not the coming days, over the coming weeks -- we'll be able to fill a couple more voids on our roster," Hahn said. "As soon as we're done doing this [news conference] we'll be back upstairs and talking about some alternatives."
Considering that injuries and poor performance put the White Sox's bullpen among the worst in baseball last year, Hahn has to be considering more relief help. But a better rotation, thanks to Samardzija's presence, would help take some of the weight off the relievers.
How much can the club's internal options make a difference? Last year's first-round pick, Carlos Rodon, would be a logical left-handed complement to Duke, but the White Sox haven't committed to that plan yet.
"We view Carlos long term as a part of the rotation," Hahn said Tuesday. "When that date arrives it's not clear just yet. It's possible he comes along through the bullpen as we did with [Mark] Buehrle and [Jon] Garland and Chris Sale. Or it's possible he's just in the minors making starts and comes up once he's truly ready. Long term he's in the rotation. How he gets there is still to be determined."
Other White Sox relief options include Jake Petricka, Zach Putnam, Daniel Webb, Javy Guerra and Maikel Cleto. Nate Jones isn't expected to return from Tommy John surgery until July.
Managing his bullpen was clearly Ventura's toughest responsibility this past season, and he said the club's new additions, including Robertson, make everybody better. It can't get any worse for the bullpen.
"Yeah, it's usually the hardest thing, anyway," Ventura said. "I think with the amount of youth that we had out there, and guys trying to be put in different positions, in different roles and things that they weren't necessarily comfortable with at first, everybody tried it. We tried plenty of guys in different spots.
"It's just a tough [situation]. It's a tough thing to do, especially with guys that are young, and I think when they fail it's different when a veteran fails. They can bounce back easier."
At the very least, the White Sox have some of those veterans now who can rebound quickly when things don't go as planned. The question remains: Do they have enough of those guys?
