Chris Getz Maintains Belief In Demoted White Sox Pitchers Sean Burke, Jonathan Cannon

CHICAGO –– In his second full season as White Sox general manager, Chris Getz has been notably proactive.

Instead of letting players continue to struggle in their current situation, at a certain point he believes a change of scenery and a plan can be the better solution –– even if it's initially viewed as unorthodox or drastic.

Colson Montgomery is perhaps the best example. After a woeful start in Triple-A, the team sent him to Arizona to work with director of hitting Ryan Fuller. For first-round pick and the team's top prospect from 2022-24, needing that type of a reset wasn't necessarily encouraging in the moment.

But fast forward to Wednesday, and the rookie shortstop tied for second in MLB with 14 home runs and fourth with 31 RBIs since July 22.

"I do believe that we've got the right systems in place, the right people and the willingness and confidence to put a plan together and getting player buy-in to go out there to hopefully execute, which we've had some success," Getz said Wednesday. "I think there's so many different ways to develop players. Sometimes guys make their big jump in the offseason, therefore you see it in the following season. Sometimes it's an in-season adjustment, and sometimes you just get them out of competition in-season."

"And we've shown that a couple times and some players have taken steps forward. So it's definitely baked into our development model, and it's almost a little surprising that more teams aren't as proactive on it. But we've got the willingness, we've got the people to go out there and put the plan together and the players can go out there and execute in a better fashion."

The situation is a bit different, but Getz and the White Sox are applying a somewhat similar approach to starting pitchers Sean Burke and Jonathan Cannon. After allowing 18 earned runs across three starts, Cannon was optioned to Triple-A on Aug. 8, and Burke joined him on Aug. 18, following two of his shortest outings of the season.

Cannon allowed nine earned runs across 10 innings in his first two Minor League starts, but he bounced back well on Saturday with a 6.1-inning outing with just one earned run. It shouldn't be long until he's on a Major League mound again.

"Jonathan, his most recent outing he was pounding the zone," Getz said. "It's as many strikes as he's thrown in a while. So that was good to see, and that was one of our bigger focal points and just getting ahead and attacking the zone."

"There's some other things in regards to a game plan against lefties and executing certain pitches. But he's in a good place and we're gonna continue to give him the ball in Triple-A. And I would anticipate opportunities and coming back to the Major League club in the near future."

Burke will likely rejoin the White Sox later than Cannon, in part by nature of his demotion coming 10 days later. In his first start in Triple-A on Friday, Burke threw 89 pitches across five innings with eight hits, four earned runs, three walks and four strikeouts.

"Sean's first outing was just okay. It was a little bit of what we had seen up here," Getz said. "Jonathan actually did something similar in his first outing and then that second outing was much better. So look forward to watching him get back out on the bump."

White Sox pitching coach Ethan Katz said part of the focus with both pitchers is improving against left-handed hitters. He wants Cannon to try to pitch more up and in to lefties, which in theory would in theory would open up his changeup and breaking balls at the bottom of the zone.

Katz noticed Burke getting too fastball-curveball heavy against lefties, so he's challenging Burke to trust his changeup and use his slider more frequently. The goal with both of them is that being able to utilize a wider range of pitches would help them provide more length.

Burke was the White Sox Opening Day starter and had a 4.28 ERA with a 1.44 WHIP across 117.2 innings in his first full season in the Major Leagues. He had been part of the White Sox starting rotation all year, along with Cannon, who recorded a 5.34 ERA and a 1.45 WHIP before being optioned to Triple-A.

Both with Burke and Cannon still just 25 years old, Getz isn't giving up on either.

"It goes without saying, but we continue to believe in these guys, and they're a big part of the future," Getz said. "This is just part of their development. We've found opportunities for players to, whether it be going to Triple-A or find different interventions to get them on track or find something to accelerate their overall development."

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