After breakthrough 2026, White Sox look to avoid a letdown in 2027

LAS VEGAS — Will Venable received an award for the 2026 season this week, but he started thinking about 2027 weeks ago. The post mortem of how the White Sox fell short in the American League Division Series immediately bled into how it could be made better next year.

“There’s likely a lockout, we’re not going to be able to communicate with our players, so very quickly the focus begins on how to get better,” Venable said. “These guys were very disappointed that things ended the way that they did. They're very driven, very motivated already, but now they have more fuel to go out and have a really, really good offseason.”

A funny thing happened between the Houston Astros cracking the playoffs in 2015 with a young core of Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and George Springer, and their streak of seven-straight ALCS appearances that began in 2017 — their patchwork pitching staff scuffled and they missed the playoffs with an 84-78 record in 2016.

If a successful rebuilding journey to perennial contention can take backwards steps, why would the White Sox be immune, least of all as they too try to upgrade their patchwork pitching staff? Maybe there won’t be 11 walk-off victories next season, maybe the right-handed platoon bat they pick up won’t lead MLB in slugging against lefties again, maybe the AL won’t be weak again in 2027.

“Is it possible? Sure,” said general manager Chris Getz. “Injuries happen. It’s the major leagues. It's very competitive. You got other teams that are making improvements and adding to their club.”

The White Sox intend to do their part in that regard with their starting pitching pursuit. The rotation is the roster’s weak point and the strongest area of the free-agent crop, and the most efficient way to use their available, but still-limited provided budget compared to other major-market teams.

“It's the greatest need in our game, but there's opportunities out there, there's opportunities in this free agent class, there's going to be opportunities in trades,” Getz said. “There definitely could be opportunities that we go for a lengthier contract for a pitcher. It hasn't made sense for us to do that. Is now the time? Perhaps.”

This approach puts less pressure on the likes of Noah Schultz and David Sandlin to make big leaps forward to give the Sox a playoff-caliber rotation. But it comes alongside the hope that internal development can do the heavy lifting of the lesser task of filling out the bullpen around Hagen Smith, who has the best chance of ascending to a 2026 Grant Taylor-like relief role.

Getz alluded to the bullpen being how they retain out-of-options pitchers, which could enable major-league roles for Jonathan Cannon and Chris Murphy. Bryan Hudson and Anthony Kay also are out of options. Inevitably some arms will arrive in spring–whenever that is–stretching out for a starting role, but will settle into multi-inning relief, which feels like a reasonable projection for hard-throwing righties Tanner McDougal and Shane Smith after rocky 2026 campaigns. The Sox lack pitching depth between the majors and their most recent draft crop, but Pierce George and Matthias LaCombe are relief prospects who could help by midseason, and lefty trade acquisition Jaden Woods was briefly considered as a call-up late last year, and could be protected on the 40-man roster next week.

Contact wizard infielder William Bergolla Jr. is the other expected 40-man addition by Tuesday’s deadline, having completed his running progression after a right fibular stress fracture that ended his 2026 season. After 40 homers across the minors and the Arizona Fall League, Caleb Bonemer and Bergolla represent the team’s clearest sources of internal upgrades on the position side.

But avoiding a step back, balancing out their offense’s contact issues and deepening their pitching options still largely rests upon how the arms sidelined from the postseason pitching plan respond, how Braden Montgomery works to tap into his still unrealized potential, how Colson Montgomery responds to a second half slide.

“He’s hungry right now,” Getz said of his shortstop. “We look forward to seeing how this plays out.”