On January 2, 2020, Jeff Passan posted on Twitter a list of twelve members of the Chicago White Sox who were under team control for multiple seasons, saying, “If everything falls right, this has a chance to be a sustained run for the Chicago White Sox.” At the time, this was a normal, rather uncontroversial statement; although they had won only 72 games in 2019, their farm system was considered one of the best in the game, and that farm system was all reaching The Show at the same time. Two years later, that squad won 93 games, losing in the ALDS to the Houston Astros, and looked to all the world to be the next team to rule the American League Central.
Oh, how the baseball gods are merciless. That 2021 team would prove to be the entire extent of the window. Chicago went just .500 in 2022, lost 100 games in 2023, and then set the Major League record for losses in a season with 121 in 2024. Of the twelve players Passan listed in his now-infamous tweet, none of them remain with the organization, and several of them — including Tim Anderson, Dallas Keuchel, and Yasmani Grandal — are currently out of baseball. At the moment, only one thing has gone right for the White Sox in recent years, and that is the fact that Pope Leo XIV, is a diehard White Sox fan.
In his ZiPS projections back in November, Dan Szymborski of FanGraphs summed up the 2025 White Sox in the best way possible: “The 2025 White Sox performed the very weird dual feat of being one of baseball’s most improved teams compared to 2024 and losing more than a 100 games.” It is important to keep that in mind when looking ahead to 2026, because though the names have changed — e.g., gone is Luis Robert Jr., who Chicago finally found a buyer for in the New York Mets — the expectations remain the same. FanGraphs’ Depth Chart projections have the White Sox at 93 losses, and honestly, that might be a tad optimistic.
Despite the low expectations, however, Chicago did have a fairly good offseason. In addition to trading Robert, and getting an actual prospect in Luisangel Acuña as the return, they made a flurry of moves bringing in players on short-term contracts both in free agency and via the trade market, with the headline of course being Japanese corner infielder Munetaka Murakami.
This is exactly the type of offseason a team like the White Sox should be having. On paper, they are a better team than last year. Are they going to be a contender? Probably not. After all, FanGraphs has just one projected starter with a wRC+ above 105 (Murakami, at 120), and their starting rotation is headed by a trio of pitchers under the age of 30 with barely a year experience apiece (Shane Smith, Davis Martin, Sean Burke) — not exactly a recipe for success. But at this stage of the rebuild, being able to put a team that looks remotely competitive on the diamond day in and day out, with the possibility of flipping some players on short-term deals to contenders at the deadline for prospects to restock a farm system that ranks among the league’s bottom-third.
But hey, at least they have the pope on their side.
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