Chicago White Sox News & Rumors

The White Sox surprisingly landed a slugger out of Japan and won the draft lottery.  The also finally found a trade match for Luis Robert Jr. and added a half-dozen veterans on shorter-term deals.

Major League Signings

• Munetaka Murakami, 1B: two years, $34MM
• Seranthony Dominguez, RP: two years, $20MM.  Includes $12MM mutual option for 2028 with a $2MM buyout
• Anthony Kay, SP: two years, $12MM.  Includes $10MM mutual option with a $2MM buyout
• Austin Hays, OF: one year, $6MM.  Includes $8MM mutual option with a $1MM buyout
• Sean Newcomb, RP/SP: one year, $4.5MM
• Erick Fedde, SP: one year, $1.5MM

Option Decisions

• Team exercised $20MM club option on CF Luis Robert Jr., rather than $2MM buyout
• SP Martin Perez declined his end of $10MM mutual option, receiving $1.5MM buyout

Trades and Claims

• Acquired RP Chris Murphy from Red Sox for C Ronny Hernandez
• Acquired OF Everson Pereira and IF Tanner Murray from Rays for RP Steven Wilson and P Yoendrys Gomez
• Took SP Jedixson Paez from Red Sox in Rule 5 draft
• Took RP Alexander Alberto from Rays in Rule 5 draft
• Claimed RP Ryan Rolison off waivers from Braves (later lost to a waiver claim by the Cubs)
• Acquired OF Tristan Peters from Rays for cash or a player to be named later
• Claimed C Drew Romo off waivers from Mets (later cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A)
• Acquired 2B/SS/CF Luisangel Acuña and P Truman Pauley from Mets for CF Luis Robert Jr.
• Acquired RP Jordan Hicks, P David Sandlin, $8MM, and two players to be named later from the Red Sox for SP Gage Ziehl and a player to be named later
• Acquired cash considerations from Orioles for 3B Bryan Ramos
• Acquired cash considerations from Mets for RP Bryan Hudson

Notable Minor League Signings

• Jarred Kelenic, LaMonte Wade Jr., Lucas Sims, Oliver Dunn, Tim Elko, Dustin Harris, Ryan Borucki, Austin Voth

Extensions

• None

Notable Losses

• Luis Robert Jr., Mike Tauchman, Gage Ziehl, Martin Perez, Steven Wilson, Yoendrys Gomez, Bryan Ramos, Cam Booser, Bryse Wilson, Ronny Hernandez, Jacob Amaya, Mike Clevinger, Joshua Palacios, Will Robertson, Dominic Fletcher, Corey Julks, Peyton Pallette, Ryan Rolison, Ben Cowles, Michael A. Taylor

Last year’s White Sox offseason was marked by the Will Venable managerial hire and the franchise-altering Garrett Crochet trade, against the backdrop of owner Jerry Reinsdorf showing some willingness to sell the team.  During the summer we gained clarity on the ownership situation, with a plan in place to transfer ownership to Justin Ishbia at some point from 2029-34.

So executive vice president and general manager Chris Getz was operating from a somewhat more stable place this winter, his third offseason in the big chair.  It was an active one, with the Sox adding larger contracts than which we’ve been accustomed to under Getz.

A day after the 2025 regular season ended, the White Sox announced that pitching coach Ethan Katz and hitting coach Marcus Thames would not be returning, among others.  Katz was initially hired back in the Rick Hahn era, and Thames was an early Getz addition.  With a year under his belt as manager, Venable was able to provide input leading to the early November hires of Zach Bove as pitching coach and Derek Shomon as hitting coach.

Bove had a winding path to the job, and his last position with the Royals was “heavy on analytics, especially pitch design,” according to Anne Rogers of MLB.com.  Shomon, a native of the Chicago suburbs, has an unconventional background as well.  His previous job was with the Marlins, known as an analytical club, and Shomon is often linked to Kyle Stowers‘ success last year.

In a reminder that plans change and GMs don’t always tip their hand, Getz kicked off the winter by downplaying his desire to do multiyear free agent deals and saying the club was planning on center fielder Luis Robert Jr. staying put.

Getz’s first signing was indeed for two years for Anthony Kay, but at a modest $12MM total.  Kay, a southpaw who turns 31 soon, is a former Mets’ first rounder who was dealt to Toronto at the 2019 trade deadline in the Marcus Stroman deal.  He failed to stick in the Majors, bouncing around on waivers before heading to NPB and the Yokohama BayStars for the 2024-25 seasons.  Kay had a nice run for the BayStars, particularly his 1.74 ERA last year.

Kay developed a sinker in Japan, leading to groundball-centric success.  That might not match up well with the current White Sox infield outside of Colson Montgomery.  Still, 150 innings of 4.50 ball would suffice at this price, as $12MM doesn’t usually buy you one year of a decent fourth starter.  Kay seems unlikely to match Erick Fedde’s initial run with the White Sox (3.11 ERA in 21 starts), which stands as a clear win for Getz given that it netted the team’s starting third baseman in Miguel Vargas plus a couple of infield prospects.

A day after the Kay signing, the White Sox had a monumental win: their 27.73% chance of landing the first overall pick in 2026 came through.  These things can change, but at present the clear favorite to go 1-1 is UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky.  Last September, Carlos Collazo of Baseball America called Cholowsky “the most impressive college shortstop prospect in the last 10 years,” naming top draft picks Dansby Swanson and Alex Bregman “reasonable benchmarks.”  Though the White Sox are flush with infield talent hoping to join Montgomery, that presumably won’t stop them from taking Cholowsky if he’s atop their board on July 11th.

Winning the top pick was not the most likely outcome for the White Sox, but we knew the exact odds of it happening.  If you’d asked me back in October to assess their chances of signing Yakult Swallows slugger Munetaka Murakami, I’d have put the odds lower than 28%.  I liked the idea, suggesting as much in my Offseason Outlook as a means of the White Sox planting a flag in the Japanese market after sitting it out for roughly 20 years.  But at the time I expected the 26-year-old to secure $100MM+ and did not think Jerry Reinsdorf would approve that, given that the club has never guaranteed more to a player than Andrew Benintendi‘s disastrous $75MM deal.

It’s unknown what other offers Murakami received, but the White Sox were able to beat out the Red Sox and get it done for just two years and $34MM, plus a $6.575MM posting fee paid to the Swallows.  Murakami didn’t offer much insight as to why he chose Chicago, but it’s safe to assume his market didn’t materialize as expected.

In signing with the White Sox, Murakami enters a low-pressure environment and maintains the ability to re-enter free agency (post-lockout) still a few months shy of his 28th birthday.  He brings 70-grade power with a 40-grade hit tool, with strikeout rates even in NPB approaching 30%.  He also crushed 39 home runs per 650 plate appearances over his last three seasons, and that doesn’t include his 56 homer 2022 campaign (an NPB record for a Japanese-born player).  Murakami “struggles with offspeed and spin,” per Baseball America, but they think he has the bat speed to catch up with the high-velocity fastballs he rarely saw in NPB.

70-grade power is rare, though.  Five years ago, prospects landing that grade by BA included Pete Alonso, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Nolan Gorman, Wander Franco, Jo Adell, and Eloy Jimenez.  Alonso’s hit tool was 45 and Gorman’s was 50, for reference.  There will be plenty of swing and miss with Murakami, but if he can manage a .330 on-base percentage with 30 home runs anyway, it won’t matter.  This is an excellent opportunistic addition by the White Sox, and Murakami adds to the growing excitement around the team that began with Montgomery’s instant success last July.  Even if Murakami goes bust, it will have been a risk worth taking for a team still running the third-lowest cash payroll in the game at $82.17MM (according to Ethan Hullihen).

Just before the holidays, the White Sox added a solid and affordable upgrade to the pitching staff with the signing of 32-year-old southpaw Sean Newcomb for $4.5MM.  Like many pitchers, Newcomb would like to get back to starting if possible, not having done so in any significant capacity since his time with the 2018 Braves.  Newcomb pitched quite well out of the A’s bullpen following a May trade, but he did go 60+ pitches eight times last year and features six different pitches.  Newcomb seems likely to begin the year in the bullpen and is pretty easily the club’s best lefty reliever, but it’s not hard to see a starting opportunity emerge for him.

The White Sox’ next couple moves were minor league signings: outfielder Jarred Kelenic and lefty reliever Ryan Borucki.  Given Getz’s highlighting of these pickups, both seem likely to make the team.  Kelenic, 26, was drafted sixth overall by the Mets in 2018 and was key to the club getting Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz six months later.  Regarded as a top-five prospect in baseball prior to 2021, Kelenic had modest success in Seattle in ’23 and was effectively purchased by the Braves.  The signing might not amount to much, but this is definitely the outfield to join for a former hotshot seeking an opportunity.

A bad White Sox outfield got even worse in mid-January, as Robert’s time with the club came to an unceremonious end with a trade to the Mets.  Robert peaked in 2023, his only season topping last year’s 110 games.  That club won 61 games and fired Hahn for Getz in August.  I wrote in March of 2024, “Luis Robert may be at peak value coming off a healthy 5-WAR season, and he’s controlled through 2027. A case could be made that if his performance is largely irrelevant on bad teams in ’24 and ’25, and the team might just be turning the corner in ’26, the optimal move is to cash him in now for the maximum return. But the White Sox probably don’t see their timeline that way, and keeping Robert simply as a reason to watch the team is defensible.”

So I wasn’t beating Getz up at the time for holding on to his star, but in hindsight keeping Robert all these years was the wrong move.  The main piece of the Mets trade is Luisangel Acuña, younger brother of Ronald and a former top-75 prospect.  Acuña’s star has dimmed considerably, as he’s struggled to hit Triple-A pitching.  He’s out of minor league options and seems ticketed for a long runway trying to replace Robert in center, and otherwise a utility role.  We don’t know what Getz turned down in his two-plus years of fielding offers for Robert, but it had to have been better than the return he ultimately received.

Some might say that within the bounds of this offseason, picking up Robert’s option and swapping him for Acuña and a lottery ticket arm in Truman Pauley was a modest win.  But since the team’s current payroll actually sits lower than it was at the end of the 2025 season, ditching Robert’s $20MM (and his $2MM buyout for 2027) seemed unnecessary if the return was Acuña.  The decision doesn’t line up well with the choice to bring in Murakami on roughly the same terms Robert would’ve had if his ’27 option was picked up.  If you’re moving toward being an interesting and watchable team, why not just keep Robert?

I know fans may say Robert was hardly watchable these last couple years, but he clearly has value as a Major Leaguer if the Mets were willing to take on his entire salary and pay a 110% tax on it.  I wonder if the Mets would’ve surrendered something better had the White Sox eaten money.  All that said, it’s hard to find major beef with moving on from a player who was worth 1.8 WAR over the last two years.

So Robert’s salary was duly unloaded, and Getz promised to spend the savings on a bunch of cool stuff.  Seranthony Dominguez was signed for $20MM, effectively consuming the entire savings but over two years.  Dominguez, 31, averages nearly 98 miles per hour on his heater and punched out over 30% of batters faced in 62 2/3 innings last year.  That came with a 13.8% walk rate, sixth-worst in MLB for relievers with at least 50 innings pitched.  Dominguez pitched another 11 1/3 in the postseason for Toronto, issuing free passes to 22% of batters faced and beaning one too.

This was Getz’s first multiyear deal for a free agent reliever; the club had taken about four years off from giving those out.  The White Sox sometimes overspent in this area under Hahn.  In Getz’s case, the Dominguez deal was fairly harmless, in that the club is still below last year’s payroll.  There are only so many places to spend money if you’re a rebuilding team.

More bullpen money was spent on Jordan Hicks, though the White Sox absorbed $16MM of his $24MM over the next two years more as a means of purchasing a 50-grade MLB-ready arm from Boston in the person of David Sandlin.  The White Sox sent back a lesser pitching prospect, Gage Ziehl, in the deal.  Sandlin will start the season in the minors.  I don’t recall this type of trade from the White Sox previously, so props to Getz for using financial flexibility to bolster the farm system.  A change of scenery and full bullpen commitment to Hicks could pay dividends as a cherry on top.  With Dominguez, Hicks, and Grant Taylor, the White Sox have a trio of upper-90s righties in their bullpen, and Jordan Leasure has above-average velocity as well.

The rest of the Robert savings went to Austin Hays, who jumped at the chance to secure regular at-bats for the first time since 2023.  Hays has destroyed lefties for the last couple of years, but has just a 78 wRC+ against righties.  He adds a veneer of credibility to what still projects to be the worst outfield in baseball.  Andrew Benintendi, Acuña, Derek Hill, and Everson Pereira figure to round out the group.  Outfielder Mike Tauchman, the team’s third-best hitter last year, was non-tendered and went to the Mets on a minor league deal.

Unloading Benintendi and some portion of the $31MM owed to him over the next couple years would certainly be fine.  But according to James Fegan of Sox Machine, Getz said in February, “In regards to interest from other clubs, we haven’t had too many conversations about Andrew, so we anticipate he’s going to be on this club come opening day.”  Benintendi has been below replacement level in his three years with the White Sox, and may yet finish his contract in another uniform, but there’s little trade value to be mined here.

The White Sox capped off their offseason by bringing back Erick Fedde on a cheap one-year deal.  Fedde seems to have leapfrogged Newcomb for a rotation job despite being one of the worst regular starters in the game last year.  I assume this is based on the 21 solid starts Fedde gave the White Sox in 2024.  I don’t expect much here, but at $1.5MM it’ll be easy to cut bait if necessary.  Newcomb, Sandlin, Tanner McDougal, Jonathan Cannon, Austin Voth, and others will be on hand to join the rotation as needed.  Drew Thorpe, key to the Dylan Cease deal two years ago, should be back from Tommy John surgery around the All-Star break.

The White Sox may have found something interesting in former Rule 5 pick Shane Smith, who pitched well enough last year to represent them in the All-Star Game and will take the ball against his old team in Milwaukee on Opening Day.  Smith came on particularly strong with a 27.6 K% over his final dozen starts.  The rotation is thin otherwise as the Sox wait to see if top lefty pitching prospects Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith will bounce back from off-years.  Out of the gates, the starting five is likely to be Smith, Davis Martin, Sean Burke, Kay, and Fedde.  As it stands, the White Sox have one of the worst rotations in baseball.

When I see an $82MM payroll and a guy like Fedde filling out the rotation, I wonder why the White Sox couldn’t have found someone more compelling.  The problem is that good free agents generally don’t want to join 60-win teams unless they vastly overpay.  For example, Cody Ponce is more interesting than Anthony Kay, but how much over the Blue Jays’ $30MM offer would the Sox have had to go to lure him away from the defending AL champs?  Lucas Giolito‘s best years came in a White Sox uniform, and he remains unsigned, but the Fedde signing suggests the Sox don’t want to commit decent money to this rotation spot.

The White Sox’s catching depth is worth a mention.  Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero took most of the team’s innings behind the plate in 2025, and both have six years of control remaining.  Teel’s 125 wRC+ ranked sixth in baseball among catchers with at least 250 plate appearances.  Teel seems to be ahead of Quero defensively, though the latter’s struggles with pitch framing may be muted by the implementation of the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System this year.  Quero managed to hold his own at the plate with a 95 wRC+.

This depth led to some rumored trade inquiries during the offseason, but nothing came of it and the young pair can certainly coexist on the White Sox.  Korey Lee, who is out of minor league options, may wind up traded.  However, Teel’s unfortunate hamstring strain in Italy’s victory over Team USA in the World Baseball Classic should buy Lee some time.

The White Sox haven’t played .500 ball since doing exactly that in 2022, and that streak is likely to extend to four years in ’26.  Their farm system seems to sit middle of the pack or worse, but part of that is due to graduations of quality players.  The team’s core is coming along nicely, and will get a big boost with the first overall pick in July.

Core pieces are emerging in the Majors on the South Side, mainly Montgomery, Teel, and Smith.  The next phase figures to be locking some of these guys up, even if Hahn’s 2019-20 series of extensions didn’t really work out.  All three could make sense in the immediate future.  None are fully proven in the Majors, but the price will go up if they establish themselves.

Though Murakami may end up more of a short-term win, the White Sox franchise is making long-term progress.  They’re looking solid at catcher and shortstop, they’ve got six top-100 prospects, and a plan is in place for better ownership.  Can a team projected to win fewer than 70 games make any kind of noise this year?  Once in a while, a team with this kind of projection flirts with a .500 record, and that’s probably the best case scenario for the 2026 White Sox.

How would you grade the White Sox’ offseason?