Gio González activated, back to his Swiss army role

UPDATE: Per Brett’s tweets after Ricky and Gio spoke to the media today, González is not in fact going to be starting, or at least counted on for a starter’s load, in the near term. Dane Dunning is confirmed as Wednesday’s starter, and Dallas Keuchel is still tentatively in line to take his regular turn on Saturday.

In short, it is too early, in Ricky’s mind, to start with any rotation maneuvering for the postseason. That seems like an oversight, but then, if plans were in action, Renteria wouldn’t be giving away the gameplan anyhow.

On Tuesday, the White Sox activated Gio González off of the IL and sent Zack Burdi back to Schaumburg:

The White Sox need to insert two starts into the rotation between now and the end of the season to have Lucas Giolito start the first game of the playoffs, and Dallas Keuchel the second. Activating Gio likely means he will start on Wednesday, pushing Dane Dunning to the weekend Tigers series and perhaps setting in motion a six-man rotation that will provide the necessary buffer to get Lucas lined up for the start of the playoffs.

Another option will be to simply push Giolito back to Sunday, plug someone like Schaumburg’s Clayton Richard in on Friday or Saturday, which would give Dallas Keuchel extra rest and line Giolito up for the finale vs. Detroit, plus playoff tuneups vs. the Reds and Cleveland before the playoffs.

These aren’t bad problems to have, are they?