DETROIT — Wait, there are positives?
To this catastrophe of a season, a modern day record 121 losses?
The White Sox have to mine them from somewhere to keep their sanity, to maintain glimmers of hope for the future as they process what just happened as they go through the offseason to cleanse themselves from the stink and believe that things will somehow be better in 2025.
“This offseason and probably the rest of our careers we’re going to be asked about it,” right-hander Cannon said of breaking the 1962 Mets’ modern-day record for defeats. “And it is what it is.”
Freaking brutal is what it was.
But Cannon, a third-round Sox draft pick in 2022 who makes his final start Sunday in the Sox’ final game of this historic season, is one of the things to emerge. He was slated to take a 4-10 record and 4.23 ERA into his 23rd start in the season finale Sunday at Detroit, where on June 23, he got ambushed for eight runs (five earned) while recording just three outs in an 11-2 Sox loss.
“There are positive to be pulled away and that’s what you have to look at,” Cannon said. “For me. I was able to come up here and learn a lot in my first season, taste some success, have some bad ones and learn from them.
“From the perspective of a rookie there were bumps in the road. But that’s part of the learning experience. You come up here and get roughed up a little and you have to learn from it and get back on the mound in five days, making adjustments on the fly. The mistake is not learning from them instead of just forgetting about them. Like the last time I was here, it was ‘what happened?’ Not let one bad start turn to two and two to three and the next thing you’ve had a horrible month and your season numbers are ruined.”
Cannon ranks third on the Sox in Baseball Reference wins above replacement at 1.9, behind pitchers Erick Fedde and Garrett Crochet. So that’s a nice achievement for a rookie. When pitchers and catchers reported last February, Cannon was just one of countless newer faces in camp, his 6-5 frame and blond, beach boy looks standing tall in the clubhouse.
“That feels like two full seasons ago,” Cannon said. “It’s been a huge learning experience, the grind of it especially after the All-Star break, I looked up at 22 or 23 starts [including eight at Triple-A Charlotte] and still had eight more. Part of it was learning to keep my body in shape and staying healthy for the whole season and I’m proud that I made every start on how many days rest they gave me, whether it was four, five, six or even seven days rest.”
From the mental standpoint, Cannon learned quickly not to dwell on his numbers, a must-do while navigating a six-month season.
“You can’t start thinking about your line and your ERA and ‘all I need is two more and my ERA is down to this for the season,’ ’’ Cannon said. “You have to look at a pitch by pitch basis and execute pitches.”