Oh baby. I would have linked this, giving Bartolo’s Colonoscopy full credit, but Word Press is acting a fool and is not allowing me to do such things. Let me tell you, when I read this tweet (thanks for tagging me boys) I nearly made wood. Imagining a White Sox team with a Rock Falls player on it made me extremely happy. So goddamn happy. Rock Falls, while rivals with my hometown Sterling, is just across the Rock River. Having a local kid on my favorite team would be fantastic.

Jakob Junis was drafted by the Royals in 2011, one of only two MLB players EVER to come from Rock Falls Township High School. The other was Gary Kolb. Jakob posts a career WAR of 8.8 in his 8 seasons, which ain’t too shabby. He’s been placed in starting roles, relief roles and with more teams trowing “bullpen games” guys like Jake are becoming more valuable. Here’s 5 reasons why the White Sox should sign him.

He’s A Banny Guy

In 2022 the Giants, under the leadership of Brian Bannister and Andrew Bailey, moved Jake from a starting pitcher to a relief-only role and really reaped the benefits. He pitched 112 innings, using his slider more and more. From Metsmerizedonline.com –

He threw his slider often for good reason; it was graded as one of the best in the game. The pitch had a Stuff+ of 117, and Pitching Bot graded it as a 61 (on a 20-80 scouting scale); both marks were among the top 20 in the game.

It’s time to get Jake back with Brian to continue their work. He finished the year strong in Cincy, throwing 67 innings in 2024. #KIM

He’s settling into this new role great.

This is from last year (stolen from FishOnFirst) –

Reduced responsibilities has really helped Jake. I would think more specialized help from the guy who took a risk on him in SF would keep these numbers trending upwards. Not listed – his flow is 80 grade.

He throws strikes.

In 2024 (with a minimum of 50 innings pitched) Jake had the third-fewest walks per nine in baseball at 1.07. Guess what team walked the most batters? That’s right…THEE Chicago White Sox with 643. Trowing more strikes, with (hopefully) a better defense in the field, should really help the Sox improve. Also, in 2023 he gave up only 12HR in 86 innings pitched and struck out 96. In 2024, in 67 innings pitched, he gave up 8HR and struck out 51. Could we use that production? Of course we can.

Watch this!

He’s Only 32.

He’s 32 but has 8 MLB seasons under his belt. It’s looking like we’ll have a bunch of young guys on the pitching staff in ’25. While I think his starting days are done (injury prone), long relief is gonna be a need when those guys have an off night. Jake would fit right into that role. Also, he’s been grinding for years and keeps making changes to his approach to stay in the bigs. That’s a great example for our young guys to see. Plus he has a TON of sweet tattoos.

He Bet On Himself.

Jake declined an $8M mutual option in favor of a $3M buyout to become a free agent. He gave up a guaranteed $5M contract. I don’t know about you, but I might have stayed one more year to get that bag. But Jake isn’t happy being complacent and that might pay off big for him. The White Sox are are gonna have plenty of room on payroll to float my guy a few bucks.

BONUS REASON – It would make me so happy.

My number one ask EVERY YEAR is for our good friend (and my wife’s cousin) TJ McFarland to be signed by our White Sox. After leading the MLB in appearances in 2024, The MLB Athletics of Sacramento signed him immediately the off-season started. It was well deserved and well earned by our guy. So the next best thing the White Sox can do for me is to sign Jake.

2024 was a long, painful and disappointing year. But I still showed up. One thing that would help ease the pain of losing the most games in modern MLB history is signing a guy from my hometown area. Plus, I think the guy can actually help us lose less baseball games. So help a brother out Getzy.

-MSS