White Sox common supervisor Chris Getz spoke with reporters on Thursday upfront of this weekend’s SoxFest. The second-year baseball operations chief indicated the staff was unlikely to make any vital strikes for the rest of the offseason.
“For essentially the most half, we really feel like we’ve acquired our roster. Yeah, it’s only a matter of attending to Spring Coaching and prepping for Opening Day,” Getz mentioned (hyperlink by way of MLB.com’s Scott Merkin). Whereas he left open the likelihood for “an addition right here and there,” it doesn’t appear the Sox anticipate to do a lot else earlier than the season will get underway.
That’s to be anticipated. The White Sox are coming off the worst season in fashionable baseball historical past. They actually weren’t going to be main gamers in free company. They’ve considerably surprisingly signed 5 MLB free agent offers this winter, although none goes past this 12 months. Martín Pérez ($5MM), Josh Rojas ($3.5MM), Mike Tauchman ($2MM), Austin Slater ($1.8MM) and Bryse Wilson ($1.1MM) are assured a mixed $13.4MM. They’ve added backup catcher Matt Thaiss and lefty reliever Cam Booser by way of minor trades.
Whereas the Sox absolutely hope they’ll be capable of flip a few of their free agent acquisitions on the deadline, nobody from that group goes to web greater than a marginal return even when they play nicely within the first half. Chicago’s greatest selections have been tabbing Will Venable as supervisor and sending Garrett Crochet to the Crimson Sox for a four-player prospect return headlined by Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery. Crochet was simply the Sox’s high remaining commerce chip.
That title now falls to Luis Robert Jr. The star middle fielder is coming off the worst season of his profession. Robert hit .224/.278/.379 by 425 plate appearances. Few gamers had a sharper drop-off relative to their 2023 manufacturing. Robert completed twelfth in AL MVP balloting two years in the past. He performed elite protection and hit .264/.315/.542 with 38 homers and 20 stolen bases.
Robert is the one participant on the Sox roster who has the ceiling to web them a franchise-changing commerce return. That very doubtless wouldn’t be on the desk this winter, although, so it’s logical for Chicago to carry him till the deadline. Whereas Getz didn’t firmly shut the door on buying and selling Robert earlier than Opening Day, he didn’t sound desperate to deal the 27-year-old.
“We’re open minded, we’re not trying to transfer anybody,” the GM mentioned (hyperlink by way of Andrew Seligman of The Related Press). “With that being mentioned, there are different groups which are working by the free agent course of maybe and there could possibly be some alternatives to have dialogue. We do really feel like the vast majority of our strikes have been made. However with that being mentioned, we’re not fairly there but and I sit up for getting this group collectively out in Arizona.”
Robert would be the Sox’s most essential participant within the season’s first few months. He’s taking part in on a $15MM wage within the remaining assured season of his pre-debut contract extension. He’s assured at the least a $2MM buyout on $20MM membership choices masking the 2026-27 campaigns. If Robert finds something close to his ’23 kind, Chicago would market two and a half seasons of membership management over a star outfielder. If he performs like he did final season, they’d be middling returns on a participant who would possibly get purchased out on the finish of the season. The Sox have already seen the latter state of affairs play out with Tim Anderson and Eloy Jiménez, every of whom struggled sufficient to get purchased out of what initially gave the impression to be very team-friendly contracts.
In both case, it’s onerous to examine Robert remaining on the White Sox into the 2026 season. By that time, Colson Montgomery could possibly be the brand new face of the franchise. The lefty-hitting shortstop was one of many sport’s high 15 prospects at the moment final 12 months. Montgomery underperformed in his first crack at Triple-A. He hit .214/.329/.381 whereas hanging out at a 28.6% clip throughout his age-22 season. That has dinged his prospect worth to some extent, although he nonetheless ranks amongst Baseball America’s Prime 50 minor league abilities.
The White Sox added Montgomery to their 40-man roster in November. That was a formality to maintain him out of the Rule 5 draft. They’d be justified in beginning him again in Triple-A, however Getz left the door open for the previous first-round decide to take the shortstop job out of camp. “He’s going to get plenty of alternative come Spring Coaching,” Getz mentioned (by way of Merkin). “We anticipate to see Colson Montgomery taking part in shortstop for the White Sox this 12 months in some unspecified time in the future. … He’s going to get a shot to make the membership. Now, we’ve acquired different gamers on the roster which are going to compete for shortstop alternatives.”
Brooks Baldwin, who began 9 video games at shortstop final 12 months, is the one returning participant who logged any time at that place. Rojas has been their solely main league infield acquisition this winter. He had a little bit of run at shortstop early in his profession with Arizona however hasn’t performed there in 4 years. Chase Meidroth, whom the White Sox acquired within the Crochet deal, is coming off a .293/.437/.400 displaying with Boston’s Triple-A membership. His bat appears huge league prepared, however most scouting reviews recommend he’s a greater defensive match at second or third base who can play shortstop now and again. Meidroth shouldn’t be but on the 40-man roster, but it surely stands to cause that Chicago will give him an MLB look in some unspecified time in the future this 12 months.
