While the rest of the American Central trended up last year, the Chicago White Sox were the punching bag for the rest of the division, setting the wrong MLB records in the process.

Rebuilding is part of the organizational cycle, but new manager Will Venable has his work cut out for him in 2025 from repeating a disastrous 2024 campaign.

I promise I won’t completely belittle the White Sox in this article, but facts are facts. Chicago finished 41-121 last season, setting a modern major league record for losses in a single season.

Doing some research, it was hard to find an offensive team statistic that they didn’t rank last in. Home runs, runs per game, batting average, OPS, walks – all last. Pitching was a little better, though, but that was largely due to the performance of Garrett Crochet, a name I’ll touch on shortly.

Chicago was honestly in trouble from the beginning after getting out to a 3-22 record, as well as losing their best hitter, Luis Robert Jr., less than 10 games into the season with a hip injury. Furthermore, 3B Yoán Moncada, a potential rebound candidate for the White Sox, also hit the injured list on April 10th with a left adductor strain. All in all, Moncada logged action in only 12 games last season.

They stayed somewhat competitive offensively behind a mini-career resurgence from SS Paul DeJong, OF Tommy Pham hitting for a decent average of .266, and LF Andrew Benintendi tying his career high in homers with 20. Obviously out of the playoff race by the trade deadline, the White Sox would trade DeJong and Pham to the Royals and Cardinals, respectively, although Pham would conclude his season with the Royals after being released by St. Louis a month after the trade.

The highlight of Chicago’s season was the performance of Crochet, who moved into the starting rotation for the first time in his career. Crochet made 32 starts last season, owning a 3.58 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 12.9 K/9, and a 2.0 BB/9. Given that his 146 innings pitched almost tripled his previous career-high for a season, the White Sox monitored and limited his pitch count during the second half of the season. Crochet amassed six outings with 10+ strikeouts; that number and his K/9 might’ve been even greater had he completed a full-season workload.

The White Sox also got a bang for the two-year, $15 million deal they paid fellow starter Erick Fedde following a successful one-year stint in Korea. Fedde logged 21 starts for Chicago, pitching to a 3.11 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, and 8.0 K/9. He was a part of the same trade that sent Tommy Pham to St. Louis, and he’s in line to be in the Cardinals’ rotation this season.

The White Sox also parted ways with RP Michael Kopech and OF/DH Eloy Jiménez at the trade deadline, two pieces from their previous rebuild in the late 2010s. Starting his career as a starter, Kopech restructured his value last season as a reliever and pitched several high-leverage innings for the Dodgers to conclude last season.

With playing time open, Chicago got initial looks at some of their younger pitchers such as Jonathan Cannon, Sean Burke, Davis Martin, Nick Nastrini, and Drew Thorpe. Burke held a 1.42 ERA and 10.4 K/9 through 4 games (3 starts) last season, enough to earn him the Opening Day nod for 2025.

Part of going through a rebuild is trading off assets, and the White Sox dealt their most valuable one Garrett Crochet to the Boston Red Sox in December. The White Sox received four prospects in return for Crochet; C Kyle Teel, OF Braden Montgomery, 3B Chase Miedroth, and SP Wikelman Gonzalez.

Teel joins Edgar Quero as the two highly-touted catching prospects in Chicago’s system. Last season between double-A and triple-A, Teel slashed .288/.386/.433 with 13 home runs, 78 RBIs, and 23 doubles. With a good likelihood that he’ll be in the majors this season, Teel posted an impressive 1.119 OPS through 14 Spring Training games.

Miedroth and Gonzalez could also be called up this season, but Montgomery still has a few seasons to go given he was drafted last summer. Regardless, he has still vaulted into top prospect status after hitting .322 with an impressive 1.187 OPS last season during 61 games at Texas A&M. The switch-hitter also pitched in college, but it doesn’t appear Chicago will use him in that area. Montgomery has seen action in eight spring training games, hitting .333 with a .889 OPS.

Chicago inked a pair of outfielders to identical one-year, $1.95 million contracts in Michael A. Taylor and Mike Tauchman, who could both be rental acquisitions at this year’s trade deadline. Since concluding his seven-year tenure with the Nationals in 2020, Chicago will be the fourth team that Taylor has played for. Last season with the Pirates, he slashed .193/.253/.290 with a .543 OPS, 5 homers, 21 RBIs, and 9 doubles in 113 games. He was DFA’d and ultimately released on September 25th, but he had just been one season removed from hitting a career-high 21 home runs with the Minnesota Twins.

Tauchman won’t have to move too far from his previous MLB home, as he spent his previous two seasons with the Cubs. Last year, he hit .248/.357/.366 with a .723 OPS, 7 homers, 29 RBIs, and 12 doubles. During spring training, the White Sox have had Tauchman split time between leading off and hitting third. With a third of his starts coming at the leadoff position last year, he’ll probably receive a fair share of playing time at that spot. Unfortunately, Tauchman is dealing with a hamstring issue, and his status for Opening Day is up in the air.

Speaking of rental acquisitions, the White Sox obtained another one of those candidates in SP Martín Pérez. Pérez made 26 starts last season between Pittsburgh and San Diego, pitching to a 4.53 ERA, 1.48 WHIP, and 7.1 K/9. Moving into his 14th career season, Pérez has struggled against AL Central competition throughout his time in the majors, not owning a career ERA less than 4.50 against any of the other four teams. With a load of young pitchers in the organization, though, it never hurts to have a veteran innings-eater with the club.

To complete the slew of one-year moves that the White Sox handed out, they issued a pair to SP/RP Bryse Wilson and UTIL Josh Rojas. The former figures to start in the bullpen and potentially pitch in a hybrid role, something he has done before in his career. Last season with the Brewers, Wilson had a 4.04 ERA and 1.27 WHIP across 34 total games and 104.2 innings.

Rojas logged time at five different positions defensively last season in Seattle. Unfortunately, the bat has been inconsistent, though. After having a solid season at the plate following a trade to Seattle in the second half of the 2023 season, Rojas slashed a poor .225/.304/.336 with 8 homers and 31 RBIs. He had a good Spring Training with a .313 batting average, but he may not be ready for Opening Day after suffering a hairline fracture in his right big toe.

Chicago added three major league pieces via trade as well, acquiring C Matt Thaiss in exchange for cash, and RPs Cam Booser and Tyler Gilbert from the Red Sox and Phillies, respectively. They also claimed RP Penn Murfee off of waivers from the Houston Astros, a reliever who posted great numbers with the Mariners in 2022 and 2023 but missed all of last season after needing right elbow surgery.

The White Sox issued several minor league deals to former major leaguers, including OF Cal Mitchell (Pirates), 1B Bobby Dalbec (Red Sox), INF Nick Maton (Phillies, Tigers, Orioles), RP James Karinchak (Guardians), Travis Jankowski (six teams, most recently the Rangers), and SP Mike Clevinger (Guardians, Padres). Serving as a starter for the first eight years of his career, the White Sox intend on using Clevinger in high leverage this season, and that may include closing games.

Let me talk to the Blue Jays fans for a second. Do we remember 2019? Sure, there were lots of losses, but there were no expectations. It was all about the kids. While I’m not comparing the two situations, the concept of sitting back and letting the kids play is what I think the White Sox can take out of this season.

Unfortunately, a few of those youngsters will need to sit out this season and beyond due to Tommy John surgery, including Thorpe and flame-throwing reliever Prelander Berroa.

Aside from developing the players they have in-house, the White Sox should be locked in on obtaining assets, whether that be pieces to help them win in the future, or cheap, short-term players that they can flip at the trade deadline for more depth.

These kids are going up against four other playoff-worthy contenders within their division. If you’re a White Sox fan, there are going to be a lot of losses. But just sit back, relax, and root for the growth of this group.