Chicago White Sox

How many hitting prospects have come up and been productive for the Sox? And how many scrap free agent signings have worked out in the past? No one is calling them “geniuses”, but it’s remarkable improvement from where the org was and I’m shocked that people aren’t willing to admit it.

You just accused me of being in a cult. A moderator said this after I proved him wrong using numbers. Me saying you refuse to acknowledge when you’re wrong isn’t “name calling”. I’m not some snowflake and don’t really care about the bizarre cult comment…just shocked that a moderator is allowed to talk this way to posters.

Eh…does it sound ridiculous? Sure. Does it suck that our cheap owner created a financial situation where $1.5M signings could even be considered priorities? No doubt about it. But at the end of the day, why do I care what Getz says to players as part of his selling process? Making a free agent feel wanted is part of his job.

What exactly are we arguing here? Yes, they sucked in the first half when a lot of the young guys weren’t up (or struggling) and instead they played a bunch of AAAA guys. Go look at where the offense performed in the second half as young guys further developed. I’m not giving out credit because I’m some homer…the front office actually put together a competent offense together July forward.

I have never in my entire life met someone who is incapable of admitting they are wrong about something as much as you. It’s actually comical at this point. And then making bizarre “cult” accusations? Like what in the f*** are we even doing here? When are the other mods going to step in and stop this nonsense? Read the damn post. Very clearly stated what he we signed him up to do which is hit LHP. Him being forced to play against RHP was a function of injury and lacking minor league depth. There is a reason he cost us $600k over the league minimum in free agency and then commanded a top 20 org prospect at the deadline. You can try to spin this all you want, but the facts don’t lie. The Sox returned him to his previous form against LHP and were able to turn him a solid prospect. But keep being purposefully dense in a Hail Mary swing at winning the internet for the day.

No idea which player you are referring to and what the basis of median projections would be in your mind, but let’s look at how some the players performed vs. 2025 ZiPs in terms of OPS last year (Actuals vs. Projection): Montgomery: .840 vs. .625 (+.215) Teel: .786 vs. .668 (+.118) Tauchman: .756 vs. .727 (+.029) Thaiss: .676 vs. .640 (+.036) Vargas: .717 vs. .723 (-.006) Slater: .859 vs. .734 (+.125) Sosa: .727 vs. .666 (+.061) Quero: .689 vs. .675 (+.014) Baldwin: .697 vs. .670 (+0.27) Meidroth: .649 vs. .701 (-.052) There is a clear depiction of over performance here. For those of who watched the actual games, it was clear that the addition of Fuller, improved coaching, better pro scouting, and a strategy of acquiring more disciplined hitters paid off. At-bats were generally more competitive and led to better outcomes, moreso than ZiPS expected. Now, if you were referring to Vargas, then yes he was basically on his projection. I think that’s ignoring all context of his 2024 season and the headspace he was in at the time. I would 100% give the Sox some credit for righting the ship and turning him to a league average hitter after accounting immense struggles the year before. Regardless, it’s doesn’t change the broader narrative of our hitting successes last year.

Guys - We have officially reached the point where people are so bitter about the org that they use data in an unfair way to spin a story to their needs. Austin Slater was signed to be a short-side platoon bat. As such, let’s lay out the facts here in terms of his production wRC+ against LHP: 2017-23: 131 2024: 66 2025: 137 w/ White Sox Slater was an elite hitter against LHP through 2023. He was legit terrible against them in 2024. The White Sox proactively signed him in free agency for a cheap $1.5M, which SoxTalk mocked the org for claiming he was their “#1 target”. After signing with us, he quickly returned to his previous form. He was so good against LHP that despite being a rental and just a platoon guy, he was able to command a top 20 org prospect at the deadline. The signing was a no doubt home run. Anyone arguing we didn’t “fix” him is either being purposely dishonest or simply so uninformed about the player that they don’t understand his role to begin with.

Slater had a 137 wRC+ against LHP with the White Sox (the role we signed him for) and commanded a prospect in return that was an org top 20 guy. Suggesting he was anything but a success is 100% not reality. Vaughn was supposedly unwilling to listen to coaching while with us. Most of the other guys you listed aren’t really major leaguers so not sure what that proves. You conveniently left out all the young guys who performed well or improved like Montgomery, Sosa, Vargas, Teel, Baldwin, etc.

Candidly speaking, most guys did pretty well last year, even the scrap heap signings like Tauchman, Slater, and the catcher I’m forgetting. And most of the young guys saw significant jumps vs. PY or in the 2H.

Versus playing other spots in the field or not DHing? I assume the former.

Are all three expected to go on the 60 day DL? Based on that last update, feels like Berroa could be ready well before June.

Going to be a fun camp. Let’s just hope for better injury luck than last year.

Will be interesting to see the price here. My guess is it will be for about $1.5M with some incentives. Anything over $2.5M would be insane to me.

Fedde better come out of the gate running or he will lose that rotation slot fairly quickly. Just a fuckton of young arms who will be pushing for starts soon enough.

Rotation Depth Chart: Major League: Shane Smith (R) Davis Martin (R) Anthony Kay (L) Sean Burke (R) Erick Fedde (R) Mike Vasil (R) Sean Newcomb (L) Jedidson Paez (R) Minor League: Jonathan Cannon (R) David Sandlin (R) Tanner McDougal (R) Duncan Davitt (R) Noah Schultz (L) Drew Thorpe (R) Mason Adams (R) Ky Bush (L) Chris Murphy (L) Tyler Schweitzer (L) Riley Gowens (R) Hagen Smith (L)

Most likely yes.

I’m optimist about Smith & Burke. Think Thorpe, Sandlin, & McDougal push for spots pretty quickly. The group could get significantly better by mid season, at least on a talent basis. Obviously hard to say what rookie pitchers will give you right out of the gate.

As long as he comes dirt cheap, I’m totally fine with this. Overall stuff appears to be mostly the same as 2024, so his issues appear to be mostly command related. Given our past success with him, got to think Bannister has some tweaks in mind to get back on track. If not, he (hopefully) is a cheap placeholder that can be cut when a young arm is ready and pushes Newcomb to the bullpen ahead of OD.

Fucking A…just fixed it.

As I look where the projected OD roster stands right now, the biggest immediate “need” would be the rotation. Shane Smith is the only guy who is arguably a long-term rotation staple. Looking at his performance last year and assuming some improvement, I think he has the potential to be a #3 SP on a championship level team. For 2026, he’s the automatic #1 and should last the season in the rotation. After Smith things get dicey real fast. Martin has been very mediocre in his major league career and his strikeout stuff regressed significantly last year. If he can’t find an out pitch, his longevity in the rotation could be short lived. Kay is semi interesting, but also a complete wild card. He should be able to provide innings, but will they be any good? If not, he could see himself in the bullpen by the 2H. As for the last two spots, I think one of the jobs is Burke’s to lose. I think it’s very important to remind people that this kid god better as the season progressed and was able to be fairly productive by the end of the season despite hit slider going completely backwards last year. If that one pitch returns to form and we see the guy who flashed at the end of 2024, I think we’re talking a guy with #3 potential. So to circle back to the original point, the #5 spot right now is a massive hole. If we really want to give ourselves the best chance to surprise next year, we should go out and add a veteran SP. There are plenty of free agents who will only get one or two year deals that could potentially work for us. That being said, is signing a vet the right move to make with a long-term vision in mind? IMO, I think there is a case to be made to stick with what we have. I 100% get the adage you can never have enough pitching and I’d certainly feel differently if this team was one hole away from being serious contenders. And I’m sure the baseball gods will curse us with multiple injuries in camp for posting this. However, I simply like the young arms we have and want to ensure there is ample runway for them. What’s changed my tune here a bit is Vasil. I always felt that he should be a guy to open the season in the rotation and be given a short-term audition. If he fails, he goes back to a bulk reliever role and another young arm takes his spot. The other addition that changes the calculus some is Sandlin. They clearly like the kid given the financial risk they assumed to get him. I assume he’ll start the year in AAA for some seasoning, but think he could be ready by May to replace the weakest link. But beyond just those two is a sizable list of pitching. People rip the Cease trade and rightly so, but the centerpiece of that trade is still alive & hopefully kicking for the Sox soon enough. This is a kid that was Minor League Pitcher of the Year back in 2023 with a minors leading 186 strikeouts. He was a consensus top 70 prospect in the game and pitched well for us in the minors prior to TJS despite stuff backing up some. If this kid’s velocity picks up a tick, he has a chance to be a legit #3. No idea when he’ll be ready and he probably gets some seasoning in AAA when that time comes, but he’s a guy we’ll need to make room for at some point. And then you have the three top 100 prospects in Schultz, Smith, & McDougal who all could or should arrive this year. Starting with Schultz, who reached AAA last year and has as high of a ceiling as any LHP prospect in baseball. If can get past his knee issues and fix some mechanical stuff, he could be pushing for a spot very quickly. Smith wasn’t perfect last year, but made 20 starts at AA and followed that up with a great AFL stint. If the command can be harnessed, he will pushing for a job by the 2H of the year. Finally, you got McDougal who pitched 113 innings and was very fucking good in AA. I’d argue he may be the most major league ready of the three if his AA command is here to stay and I see a non zero chance he could force his way into an OD rotation spot.

Update after latest moves / news: Lineup: 1B: Murakami (L) 2B: Meidroth (R) SS: C. Montgomery (L) 3B: Vargas (R) LF: Baldwin (S) CF: Acuña (R) RF: Hays (R) DH: Quero (S) CA: Teel (L) Bench: BC: Lee (R) IF: Sosa (R) OF: Pereira (R) OF: Benintendi (L) Rotation: Smith (R) Martin (R) Kay (L) Burke (R) Vasil (R) Bullpen: CL: Dominguez (R) SU: Taylor (R) SU: Leasure (R) MR: Hicks (R) MR: Newcomb (L) MR: Gonzalez (R) MR: Gilbert (L) LR: Paez (R) DFA’d or Returned: IF: Mead (R) OF: Hill (R) RP: Alberto (R) 40 Man Roster Depth: IF: Murray (R) OF: Peters (L) SP: Sandlin (R) SP: Cannon (R) SP: Davitt (R) SP: Thorpe (R) SP: Bush (L) SP: McDougal (R) SP: Murphy (L) RP: Eisert (L) RP: Berroa (R) Non 40 Reinforcements: CA: Romo (R) IF: Antonacci (L) IF: Bergolla (L) OF: Montgomery (L) OF: Kelenic (L) SP: Schultz (L) SP: Smith (L) SP: Adams (R) RP: Franklin (R) RP: Davis (R) RP: Coffey (R) RP: Peoples (R) RP: Borucki (L) RP: Schweitzer (L)

I’d love to see Vasil as the #5 to open the season and put Newcomb in the bullpen where he belongs. Best internal alignment for the broader pitching staff IMO.

You basically listed out a 90th percentile outcome for every player and said this is what you think will happen. I’m not looking to poop on anyone’s parade, but all of that happening is way too unrealistic. You essentially have a 60 win team jumping 20 to 25 games as your base case assumption. Beyond that, you think a team coming off triple digit losses should rush prospects that aren’t fully developed to fill major league needs. I’m all for optimism, but we aren’t even remotely close enough ready to start sacrificing our future to win a couple extra games now.

Didn’t catch that…makes much more sense now.

Fantastic news on both accounts. I was confident that Iriarte would make it through waivers due to his stuff (and results) going backwards, but was uncertain if Romo would as well. Glad we’ll have him in AAA and gives us more flexibility to make a Lee trade if we so choose now.