James Shields didn’t end up doing anything that’ll get him written into White Sox lore Sunday. But his importance to this rebuilding team remains high, even when fans might look at his numbers and think otherwise.

Shields entered Sunday’s game on the South Side with a 5.91 ERA in 50 appearances since coming to Chicago in a 2016 trade with the San Diego Padres. His presence on this roster is a reminder of the win-now era before Rick Hahn’s front office kickstarted the rebuild after that 2016 season. And plenty of White Sox fans lament the sting of losing Fernando Tatis Jr., now one of the highest-ranked prospects in the game, in that deal.

But Shields flashed some old magic Sunday, no-hitting the visiting Minnesota Twins through 6.1 innings. It made two straight sharp outings for the 36-year-old veteran, who prior to Sunday’s game quieted the St. Louis Cardinals to the tune of two hits over six innings.

It’s not like two good starts in May of what to this point has been a 9-23 campaign hold great meaning for the rebuild. But Shields’ ability to lead by example, to serve as a mentor to young pitchers like Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Carson Fulmer, that’s what remains a big deal for those developing players and this rebuilding organization.

“You’ve been around the block a few times, you understand there are ups and downs,” manager Rick Renteria said when asked what Shields is offering those young guys. “It’s trying to understand what’s leading you to have the successes or failures, and along the way knowing it’s such a long season that you can’t lay everything on one outing. It’s too difficult to move toward a major league season worried about what hasn’t gone well. You have to stay focused on what you have to do moving forward.

“These guys, in particular James, has made an adjustment since last season to allow him to give himself a chance to stay out there for an extended period of time, giving us solid innings of works, allowing us to possibly create some runs on the other side of the baseball. Keeping us in ballgames early, it helps.”

The White Sox starting staff has undoubtedly struggled this season, as of this writing owning the highest ERA (5.68) and the highest walk total (90) in baseball. But while Giolito, Lopez and Fulmer continue their development at the major league level, they have a guiding force in Shields, who despite the results since coming to the South Side has a pretty excellent major league track record and is a well-liked personality in the clubhouse.

You could do a lot worse than a guy who’s been to a pair of World Series as a mentor for your young arms.

Athletes so often talk about leading by example, and so when performance allows a leader to set the tone for younger players, it’s potentially a big deal. Shields has done that in his last two outings, and his teammates had a front-row seat to six innings of near-perfect baseball Sunday.

“He was calmed down today and was hitting all his spots. And then he’s been pitching pretty good,” catcher Omar Narvaez said. “I think one of the of the best outings I’ve ever seen from him.”

For Shields, his proudest accomplishment Sunday — after he lost the no-no, he gave up three runs in what ended as a 5-3 loss for the home team — was working deep into the game. It was his longest outing of the season, and he’s now gone at least six innings in the last three starts. That’s the example he’s hoping to set for the other guys in the rotation.

“Right now, we just need to go as deep as we possibly can as a starting staff,” he said. “That's what our goal has been over the last two or three starts. We taxed the bullpen early in the season and we're trying to play catch-up right now as far as the bullpen goes. I think we've done a lot better job as a whole of going deeper into games. I think we need to continue to do that to have success.”

There is, of course, another way Shields can help this rebuilding effort and that’s by continuing to pitch well and potentially attracting the interest of other teams. That might sound like a stretch at first blush, considering he’s only three starts removed from giving up seven runs and watching his ERA balloon to 6.17. But Shields has strung together plenty of good stretches in the past, and if he could again, he could fetch a prospect or a package of prospects from a team looking to upgrade its rotation at the deadline.

That’s a good ways down the road, though. For now, Shields remains valuable to this rebuilding effort as a mentor for the pitchers who will make up the rotation of the future. If they can build off the example he set Sunday, then they’ll be moving in a very positive direction.