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White Sox’s GM Chris Getz Discusses Free Agency, Luis Robert

By Anthony Franco | November 4, 2025 at 11:46pm CDT

The White Sox remain amidst a full rebuild on the heels of their third straight 100-plus loss season. Unsurprisingly, they don’t seem to be in for an exciting winter.

General manager Chris Getz downplayed the possibility of making any multi-year free agent pickups. “Free agency is an avenue to bring in players to help in the win total, but to go beyond this upcoming season I think would be a little premature considering the state of our club right now,” the GM told Scott Merkin of MLB.com. The Sox gave out one multi-year free agent contract over Getz’s first two offseasons — the two-year, $15MM deal to bring Erick Fedde back from Korea in 2023.

Chicago handed out six major league free agent contracts last winter. They were all one-year deals worth no more than $5MM. The long-term books are wide open. Their only commitments for 2027 are a $14.5MM salary for Andrew Benintendi to close his five-year deal and a $2MM buyout on a $20MM club option to Luis Robert Jr. The White Sox could afford to make multi-year commitments even if they’re obviously not going to be in the Kyle Tucker bidding. It appears they’re content to essentially sit out mid-tier free agency yet again.

Perhaps the Sox will find another situation like the Fedde one that leads them to at least consider a modest two-year offer. Cody Ponce, Anthony Kay and Foster Griffin all pitched in Asia this past season but could explore a return to MLB. Ponce would seemingly have the best chance of that group to land a two-year contract. A rehabbing injured pitcher like Jordan Montgomery, Griffin Canning or Nestor Cortes could pull a cheap, backloaded two-year deal.

Merkin writes in a separate column that the White Sox will keep an eye on the market for a veteran starter who can take a few innings off the plate of their in-house arms. That could simply be on a one-year deal. The Sox tried that route with a $5MM signing of Martín Pérez last winter. It didn’t really work, as Pérez was limited to 10 starts by forearm and shoulder injuries. He pitched well — probably better than the Sox expected — but wasn’t able to eat many innings or net them a lottery ticket prospect at the deadline. Candidates for that kind of contract this winter include Tyler Anderson, Patrick Corbin, Michael Lorenzen and old friend Jose Quintana.

It seems likely to be a quiet winter on the trade front as well. Getz made the biggest move of his GM tenure when he shipped out Garrett Crochet for four prospects last offseason. They don’t have anyone close to that on the trade block now. Robert is their most notable veteran player, but he’s unlikely to move until closer to the deadline. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams explored when the Sox exercised their option this morning, other teams are unlikely to meet Chicago’s high asking price on the center fielder coming off another inconsistent and injury-plagued season.

Robert showed enough in the second half for the White Sox to roll the dice on a $20MM salary. Getz said this evening that while the front office won’t close the door on any trade opportunities, they’re expecting him to be on the team going into next season. “We’re planning on (Robert) being in a White Sox uniform,” Getz told reporters (via Merkin). “What he did in the second half was very indicative of what he’s capable of doing and how that can impact our team. … If there are opportunities for us to strengthen the organization, we’ll have those conversations. But as it stands today, we’re very much preparing for having Luis Robert play center field.”

If not Robert, there probably won’t be any headline-grabbing White Sox trades. They have an uphill battle finding any interest in Benintendi, who is owed $31MM over the next two seasons. They could find a modest return for veteran corner outfielder Mike Tauchman, utility infielder Lenyn Sosa or third catcher Korey Lee.

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Chicago White Sox Luis Robert

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White Sox Name Zach Bove Pitching Coach; Derek Shomon To Be Hitting Coach

By Darragh McDonald | November 4, 2025 at 6:19pm CDT

The White Sox have made two notable additions to their coaching staff. James Fegan of Sox Machine reports that Derek Shomon will be the new hitting coach and Zach Bove the new pitching coach. The Sox have already announced Bove’s hiring. It was announced back in September that the Sox would be making multiple coaching changes, with pitching coach Ethan Katz and hitting coach Marcus Thames among those not coming back.

Bove has spent the past three seasons as an assistant pitching coach for the Royals. It’s always tough to determine how much credit one coach gets for the performance of several individual players, but for what it’s worth, the Royals pitched better during his tenure.

The club was rebuilding when he was hired and had a team-wide 4.72 earned run average in 2022, better than just three other clubs. There wasn’t a step forward in his first season. Kansas City had a collective 5.17 ERA, better than just two clubs, in 2023. But in 2024, they were tied for seventh with a 3.76 ERA. In 2025, they were sixth with a 3.73 ERA.

Like the Royals a few years ago, the Sox are now rebuilding and have a big collection of young and fairly inexperienced pitchers on the roster. Bove will now be tasked with helping manager Will Venable develop the staff as the Sox look to climb of their rebuild.

Shomon has been an assistant hitting coach in the big leagues for the past three years, the first two with the Twins before spending 2025 with the Marlins. The Twins had a top ten offense by wRC+ in 2022, before Shomon was there, and that continued during his two seasons in Minnesota. The Marlins had an 87 wRC+ in 2024, ahead of only three clubs. This year, they improved to a 96 wRC+, just behind middle of the pack.

Like Bove on the pitching side, Shomon will be dealing mostly with young and developing players for the time being. The Sox have lost 100 games in three straight seasons. They will want to come out of the rebuild at some point but no one will be expecting immediate contention.

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin, Oncea-Imagn Images

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Martín Pérez Declines Mutual Option With White Sox

By Darragh McDonald | November 4, 2025 at 4:30pm CDT

The White Sox announced that left-hander Martín Pérez has declined his end of a $10MM mutual option for 2026. He will take a $1.5MM buyout and return to free agency. The Sox also announced that they triggered their club option on outfielder Luis Robert Jr., a decision that was previously reported.

Pérez, 35 in April, is coming off a mostly lost season. He signed with the Sox in January, a $5MM guarantee in the form of a $3.5MM salary for 2025 plus the aforementioned buyout on the mutual option. He made just four starts before elbow inflammation put him on the injured list. He was diagnosed with a flexor strain and didn’t return to the club until August. He finished the year with a 3.54 earned run average in 56 innings.

Given that he’s now one year older and is coming off a less impressive walk year, he should have less earning power compared to last offseason. That makes it somewhat surprising that he is turning down his end of the option. Perhaps he figured the club was going to turn him down anyway, so he proactively walked away and therefore avoided the awkward situation in which he would trigger his end but then be rejected by the team.

He will now return to free agency and look for his next opportunity. His 19.3% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate in 2025 weren’t especially impressive but he’s never been a huge strikeout guy. He at least finished the season healthy and could get another deal to serve as a veteran back-end guy in 2026.

The White Sox currently project to have a fairly inexperienced rotation. Shane Smith, Davis Martin, Sean Burke, Grant Taylor, Yoendrys Gómez and Jonathan Cannon are some of the best options currently on the roster but no one in that group has more than 256 big league innings. Perhaps the Sox and Pérez could reunite but both parties will now be able to explore alternatives.

Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images

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White Sox Exercise Club Option On Luis Robert Jr.

By Steve Adams | November 4, 2025 at 8:10am CDT

The White Sox are bringing Luis Robert Jr. back into the fold for 2026. Jesse Rogers of ESPN reports that the team is exercising its club option over the center fielder. Robert will make $20MM in 2026, rather being paid a $2MM buyout and heading into free agency. The White Sox hold an additional $20MM club option over him for the 2027 season.

This was always the expected course of action once the White Sox opted not to trade Robert at the trade deadline. General manager Chris Getz has only reinforced that thinking in the months since, stating on multiple occasions that he expects the oft-injured center fielder to be a part of his club moving forward.

Two years ago, when the South Siders were in the earlier stages of their rebuild, Robert seemed like a potential big-ticket trade chip. His 2023 campaign was excellent. Robert made the All-Star team, garnered down-the-ballot MVP votes and won a Silver Slugger after raking at a .264/.315/.542 clip with 38 home runs. He also swiped 20 bags in 24 tries and played plus defense in center field.

At that point, the Sox had two guaranteed years remaining on Robert’s $50MM extension, plus a pair of club options. They didn’t deem any offers that offseason sufficient, and Robert was retained heading into the 2024 campaign. The next two years proved to be something of a worst-case scenario. Robert slashed a combined .223/.288/.372 in 856 plate appearances over the past two seasons and endured multiple trips to the injured list, missing time with a hip flexor strain and a pair of hamstring strains.

The hope heading into 2025 was that a healthier season would build trade value for Robert ahead of the deadline. He had perhaps the worst stretch of his career for the season’s first two-plus months but caught fire in early June. That sparked some trade interest, but not to the point that interested teams were willing to part with top-tier prospect talent. The Sox, not wanting to sell low on a player with All-Star, borderline MVP upside, held onto Robert. He posted middling offensive numbers in August before a hamstring strain late in the month ended his season.

Bleak as Robert’s overall season numbers were, he did post a solid .274/.335/.458 batting line (118 wRC+) with nine home runs, a 19.7% strikeout rate and a 7.6% walk rate in his final 198 trips to the plate. That’s a ways off his 2023 peak, but if Robert could manage that level of performance moving forward, he’d be a fine value at his $20MM price tag. Of course, that’s a colossal “if,” given both his frequent trips to the injured list and the awful 658 plate appearances he logged from Opening Day 2024 through early June 2025.

Robert’s name could well come back up in offseason trade chatter, but it’s hard to imagine the Sox moving him after hanging onto him at the deadline. Offers in July apparently weren’t appealing enough to make a move, and Robert’s .256/.287/.409 post-deadline production and subsequent season-ending hamstring strain didn’t do anything to boost his value.

Assuming Robert indeed heads to spring training as the center fielder for the ChiSox, he currently projects to be flanked by veterans Andrew Benintendi and Mike Tauchman. The Sox would love to find a way to move on from the final two years of Benintendi’s ill-fated five-year, $75MM contract, but that’s not likely unless they simply release him. Tauchman, like Robert, wasn’t moved at the deadline — but he’s a 34-year-old veteran coming off a solid enough season that an offseason trade is possible.

If Robert can turn in a big first half next year, it’s feasible that he could still command a notable trade return. There will always be injury concerns, but few center fielders possess such a dynamic set of raw tools. Center field upgrades are in short supply at any point of the calendar, and a $20MM price tag on both his 2026 season and 2027 option will look plenty reasonable if he’s healthy and productive next summer. There are a lot of ifs, and it’s certainly a risk to pick up his option, but the White Sox have virtually no money on the books and can afford to once again roll the dice on him bouncing back, even if it’s arguable that they should’ve taken the best return available in July and moved on entirely.

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Chicago White Sox Newsstand Transactions Luis Robert

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Tim Elko Undergoes Surgery To Fix Torn ACL

By Mark Polishuk | October 29, 2025 at 9:35am CDT

The White Sox announced that first baseman Tim Elko underwent surgery Tuesday to address a torn right ACL.  Elko’s projected recovery time is eight months, so he’ll miss at least half of the 2026 season.  (MLB.com’s Scott Merkin was one of the Sox beat writers who passed on the news.)

It’s a rough setback for Elko, who made his Major League debut in the form of 23 games for the White Sox this season.  Elko also spent just under four weeks on Chicago’s 10-day injured list with a right knee sprain, so it seems likely that his ACL tear came in the aftermath of that knee issue, or perhaps Elko was trying to play through a tear.

This is the second right ACL tear for Elko, as he suffered the same injury in 2021 while playing college ball for Ole Miss.  Rather than get immediate surgery, Elko took roughly a month off and then returned to play 21 more games for the team.  Elko had played some third base and outfield as well as first base in college, but in the aftermath of his ACL tear, he has stuck just to first base and DH in pro ball.

Chicago selected Elko in the tenth round of the 2022 draft, and he worked his way up the minor league ladder with increasingly strong numbers (including a .291/.359/.525 slash line and 35 homers over 633 Triple-A plate appearances).  This was enough for the White Sox to select Elko’s contract to the big league roster this year, but he was shuttled back and forth to Triple-A after making little impact in the Show.  Elko hit only .134/.194/.328 with four homers in his first 72 MLB plate appearances.

The door was open for Elko (who turns 27 in December) to put himself in Chicago’s first base picture after Andrew Vaughn was traded to the Brewers in June, but Elko’s lack of production and subsequent knee issues scuttled his chances.  Elko now faces a long road back with the second ACL rehab of his career, and the hope is that he can heal up in time to get another decent-sized look on the White Sox roster before the 2026 season is over.

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Sherman Johnson, Tommy Joseph Won’t Return To Orioles’ Coaching Staff

By Darragh McDonald | October 28, 2025 at 5:05pm CDT

Orioles assistant hitting coach Sherman Johnson is moving to the White Sox as a minor league hitting coordinator, reports Andy Kostka of The Baltimore Banner. Kostka also reports that Tommy Joseph, another assistant hitting coach, won’t be returning to the O’s next year. Those may not be the only changes for the Baltimore coaching staff, as Andy Martino of SNY reports that first base coach Anthony Sanders has been given permission to talk to other clubs.

The Orioles will have a new manager in 2026. Brandon Hyde was fired during the 2025 season. Third base coach Tony Mansolino took over as interim manager for the remainder of the campaign. It was announced yesterday that Craig Albernaz will now skipper the club. It’s common for managerial hirings to lead to coaching staff shake-ups, as the new bench boss will sometimes bring in his own guys or simply just have different ideas about the best way to move forward.

Johnson, 35, was just hired in November of last year. The 2025 season was his first on a big league staff. He had a brief playing career, with ten big league games for the Angels back in 2018. He played in the minors and independent ball through 2022 before transitioning into coaching. The O’s hired him to work as hitting coach for Double-A Bowie in 2023. He was a minor league hitting coordinator in 2024 before getting bumped up to the big leagues. He’ll now return to the minors in a role with the White Sox.

Joseph, 34, played for the Phillies in 2016 and 2017. He then transitioned to coaching, working in the minors with the Mets and Giants. He got a big league job with the Mariners in 2024, getting hired as an assistant hitting coach. He was hired away by the Orioles for the 2025 season but will be moving on after just one season in Baltimore.

Sanders, 51, played in the majors from 1999 to 2001. He later transitioned to coaching, working with the Rockies in the minor leagues. He worked his way up to the majors and then jumped to the Orioles as first base coach for the 2020 season. It’s not a foregone conclusion that he’ll be leaving the O’s but it seems he is at least exploring the possibility.

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images

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Poll: Will The White Sox Trade Andrew Benintendi This Winter?

By Nick Deeds | October 23, 2025 at 5:23pm CDT

After winning 19 more times in 2025 than they did last season, the White Sox are showing some signs of life for the first time in a while. The beginnings of a young core centered around top prospects Colson Montgomery and Kyle Teel, both of whom impressed in their MLB debuts this year, as well as Rule 5 pick Shane Smith, appear to be forming. Controllable pieces like Miguel Vargas, Davis Martin, Sean Burke, and Wikelman Gonzalez have the look of what could be a solid supporting cast, as well.

Even with those steps forward acknowledged, however, it must be understood that the White Sox remain a long way from contention. Even with all of that improvement over a historically disastrous 2024 campaign, they still lost more than 100 games for the third consecutive season. They finished the season a whopping 28 games back of the Guardians for the division lead and a 2-2 record in March is the only thing preventing them from having lost more games than they won in every month of this year’s campaign. A 28-37 record after the All-Star break was certainly an improvement over a 32-65 first half, but even that second half record was a 92-loss pace. They allowed the 10th most runs in the majors this year while scoring the fourth fewest.

In other words, contention in 2026 remains a pipe dream on the south side of Chicago even after this season’s improvements. That surely means another year of prioritizing a farm system that has fallen into the middle of the pack on both ESPN and MLB Pipeline’s farm system rankings after the graduations of Montgomery, Teel, and Edgar Quero. Unfortunately for the White Sox, they’re running out of tradable assets. A Luis Robert Jr. trade has been speculated upon for years now, but appears to be just as much of a non-starter now as it was over the summer. Mike Tauchman’s impressive 2025 campaign could make him an attractive target for a team in need of outfield help on the cheap, but no journeyman outfielder headed into his age-35 season should be expected to bring back a big return. Players like Vargas and Lenyn Sosa won’t be free agents until after the 2029 season, a point by which the Sox are surely hoping to be back in contention.

With so few resources through which they can upgrade their farm system on the trade market, might outfielder Andrew Benintendi actually prove to be their best asset on the trade market? Benintendi is coming off his best season in a White Sox uniform, though that bar is quite low. He hit .240/.307/.431 (103 wRC+) in 116 games this year with 20 home runs, an 8.5% walk rate, and a 17.4% strikeout rate. Poor defense in left field limited Benintendi’s overall value, but he was still worth 1.0 bWAR in less than a full season of work. Heading into his age-31 season, it’s not completely impossible to imagine Benintendi building on last year’s performance and getting back into the 110 wRC+ range he sat comfortably in for his career prior to arriving in Chicago.

If Benintendi were a free agent this winter, an outfield-needy team without much money to spend surely would have interest in his services for 2025. The problem, then, is Benintendi’s contract. $31MM guaranteed over the next two seasons is hardly the most onerous contract out there, but it’s still far more money than the veteran’s production has been worth, and no team is likely to be eager to take that deal of Chicago’s hands, much less surrender significant prospect talent for it.

With that being said, the White Sox have reportedly expressed willingness as recently as this summer to pay down some of Benintendi’s salary in order to facilitate a deal. To get a meaningful return for him, the Sox would surely need to cover the vast majority of his salary for the next two years. That might not be as unreasonable as it would seem, given that RosterResource projects the club for a payroll of just $45MM next year as things stand. That figure doesn’t include the $20MM club option on Luis Robert Jr.’s services next year, but even so, the White Sox should have plenty of money to work with this winter. Essentially buying a better prospect return from a club acquiring Benintendi by paying down his salary could be the best use of those resources.

With that said, there are some obstacles to that plan. For one thing, the White Sox have shown a reluctance to sell low on their players, as shown in their handling of Robert. Another problem could be that the best fits for Benintendi might be the team’s division rivals. Small-market clubs in significant need of outfield help would be the perfect trade partners for a deal like this, but both the Royals and Guardians reside in the AL Central alongside the White Sox, and it’s unclear if the the team would be willing to pay Benintendi to play for their direct opponents for the next two seasons.

The Pirates and Rockies are two other clubs that could be at least plausible fits for a Benintendi trade, but the market would surely be much softer if Cleveland and Kansas City aren’t involved. Another option could be to simply accept little to no return for Benintendi and try to offload as much of his salary as possible, though that wouldn’t do much for the team’s long-term outlook given their existing financial flexibility.

How do MLBTR readers think the White Sox offseason will play out with regards to Benintendi? Will they be able to leverage his decent 2025 season in order to get some type of return for him this winter? Will they resort to trading him in a salary dump to get a portion of his deal off the books while they can? Or will they hold onto him and hope for improvement in 2026? Have your say in the poll below:

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Nine Players Elect Free Agency

By Darragh McDonald | October 15, 2025 at 5:17pm CDT

Now that the season is over, we’ll start seeing several players choose to become minor league free agents. Major League free agents (i.e. players with six-plus years of big league service time) will hit the open market five days after the end of the World Series, but eligible minor leaguers can already start electing free agency.

To qualify, these players must have been all outrighted off their team’s 40-man rosters during the 2025 season without being added back. These players also must have multiple career outrights on their resume, and/or at least three years of Major League service time.

We’ll offer periodic updates over the coming weeks about many other players hitting the market in this fashion. Unless otherwise credited, these free agent decisions are all listed on the official MLB.com or MILB.com transactions pages, for further reference.

Catchers

  • Eric Haase (Brewers)
  • Chad Wallach (Angels)

Outfielders

  • Akil Baddoo (Tigers)
  • Dominic Fletcher (White Sox) (per Scott Merkin of MLB.com)
  • Corey Julks (White Sox) (per Merkin)

Pitchers

  • Carl Edwards Jr. (Rangers)
  • Trevor Richards (Diamondbacks)
  • Keegan Thompson (Cubs)
  • Randy Wynne (Reds)

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Hui, Imagn Images

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2025-26 MLB Free Agents Arizona Diamondbacks Chicago Cubs Chicago White Sox Cincinnati Reds Detroit Tigers Los Angeles Angels Milwaukee Brewers Texas Rangers Transactions Akil Baddoo Carl Edwards Jr. Chad Wallach Corey Julks Dominic Fletcher Eric Haase Keegan Thompson Randy Wynne Trevor Richards

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MLBTR Podcast: Murakami To Be Posted This Offseason, Managerial Vacancies, And More!

By Darragh McDonald | October 15, 2025 at 8:48am CDT

The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

  • Munetaka Murakami to be posted for MLB clubs this offseason (2:20)
  • Ten teams will go into 2026 with a new manager, with eight of those jobs currently vacant (18:50)

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • Can the Mets get Tarik Skubal from the Tigers? (29:55)
  • Would Pete Alonso return to the Mets if they offered $150MM over five years? (38:20)
  • The White Sox have a lot of #4 or #5 starters. Which other teams might be interested in them? (40:00)
  • The Nationals have lots of outfielders, one of whom is 6’7″ tall, and no first baseman. Is it stupid to consider James Wood for first base? (44:20)
  • Will this finally be the Mariners’ year and can they keep Josh Naylor? (49:20)

Check out our past episodes!

  • Rockies’ Front Office Changes, Skip Schumaker, And ABS Talk – listen here
  • Mike Elias On The State Of The Orioles – listen here
  • The Tigers And Astros Try To Hang On, And Brewers’ Rotation Issues – listen here

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images

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Offseason Outlook: Chicago White Sox

By Tim Dierkes | October 13, 2025 at 7:46pm CDT

The Reinsdorf era may be drawing to a close.  With clean books and many unsettled positions, do the White Sox have any bold offseason moves up their sleeve?

Guaranteed Contracts

  • Andrew Benintendi, LF: $31MM through 2027

Option Decisions

  • Luis Robert Jr., CF: $20MM club option ($2MM buyout); deal includes $20MM club option for 2027
  • Martin Perez, SP: $10MM mutual option ($1.5MM buyout)

Total 2026 commitments (if Robert's option is exercised): $38MM
Total long-term commitments (if Robert's option is exercised): $52.5MM through 2027

Arbitration-Eligible Players (service time in parentheses; salary projections via Matt Swartz)

  • Mike Tauchman (5.143): $3.4MM
  • Steven Wilson (3.166): $1.5MM
  • Derek Hill (3.040): $1MM

Non-tender candidates: Wilson, Hill

Free Agents

  • Tyler Alexander, Michael A. Taylor (retired)

In last year's Offseason Outlook, we briefly touched on the bigger-picture questions of who will own the White Sox long-term and where they will play in 2030.  One of those questions has likely been answered.  In June of this year, the team announced that "Jerry Reinsdorf and Justin Ishbia have reached a long-term investment agreement that establishes a framework for Ishbia to obtain a future controlling interest in the White Sox," adding that "Ishbia will make capital infusions into the White Sox as a limited partner in 2025 and 2026 that will be used to pay down existing debt and support ongoing team operations."

That's the headline, but the details are crucial:

"The agreement provides that, from 2029–33, Reinsdorf will have the option to sell the controlling interest to Ishbia. After the 2034 season, Ishbia will have the option to acquire the controlling interest. In the event of any such future transaction, all limited partners of the Sox would have the opportunity to sell to Ishbia at that time. In addition to Justin Ishbia, his brother Mat Ishbia, and father Jeff Ishbia will also be significant investors. There is no assurance that any such future transaction will occur, and in no event will such a transaction take place before 2029."

If you've got 20 minutes to spare, check out this discussion between Alex Maragos of NBC 5 Chicago and Jon Greenberg of The Athletic, who has done a lot of reporting on this planned transfer of ownership.  You'll hear the word "transformative" thrown around, but there's no reason to expect a significant player payroll increase in the near future.  White Sox fans have a new sense of hope about the future of the franchise, but for the 2025-26 offseason, we don't expect much of an Ishbia effect.

The 2025 White Sox were just normal bad, rather than historically bad.  It was the team's third consecutive 100-loss season, with a 60-102 record.  The White Sox ranked 14th in the AL with 3.99 runs scored per game.  The starting rotation ranked 11th with a 4.39 ERA, while the bullpen checked in at 10th with a 4.16 mark.  The defense seemed to be bottom-five in the league.

Despite that, positives are emerging.  The White Sox have established a Kyle Teel-Edgar Quero job-share at catcher.  Teel came up in June and posted 1.9 fWAR in 78 games, including a 125 wRC+ at the plate that ranked sixth among all catchers.  Shortstop Colson Montgomery came up in July and slugged at a level well beyond anything he'd done at Triple-A: a 129 wRC+ with 21 home runs in just 284 plate appearances.

On the pitching side, GM Chris Getz snagged Shane Smith from the Brewers in the Rule 5 draft last winter, and he remarkably became the team's All-Star representative.  The righty, 26 in April, faltered in the middle of the summer but posted a 3.09 ERA and 27.1 K% over his final ten starts.

First base was a bit of a black eye.  The White Sox justifiably gave up on former third overall pick Andrew Vaughn, optioning him to Triple-A in May and sending him to the Brewers for pitcher Aaron Civale in mid-June.  The Brewers brought Vaughn up a few weeks later and he put up a surprising and robust 142 wRC+ in 254 plate appearances, plus a couple of key home runs in the Division Series against the Cubs.

The White Sox never really settled on a first baseman after moving on from Vaughn, with guys like Tim Elko, Ryan Noda, and trade deadline pickup Curtis Mead getting looks.  The majority of starts went to Miguel Vargas, who also played a bunch of third base.  Vargas flashed signs of life in May and August, but overall his 101 wRC+ doesn't really play for a starter at an infield corner.  So what can be done?

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2025-26 Offseason Outlook Chicago White Sox Front Office Originals

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