A programming note: This is the first of two joint bylines this week, because once we complete the White Sox affiliate reviews with the Charlotte recap, we will then look back at our preseason top prospect lists and flagellate ourselves for what we didn't see coming.
Now, in order to break up the monotony of monitoring the minors, let's answer some questions from Sox Machine subscribers. To send us questions or topics for future P.O. Sox mailbags or posts, sign up at our 10 WAR tier (or higher!).
My question as we enter the offseason centers around the effectiveness of the minor league development staff in getting prospects ready for the major leagues. It seemed to me that in 2025 the rookies hit the ground running better than they have in the past years. I felt that there was always an adjustment period for prospects (Gordon Beckham, Dylan Cease, etc) that was much more severe than we saw for the likes of Montgomery, Teel, Meidroth, and Taylor. Is this the direct result of Getz updating the organization or just a talented group of rookies? And do the numbers bear out what my eyes told me about these rookies and their preparedness?
– Zach F.
James: Beckham’s rookie adjustment period went pretty all right in my view. I don’t know if there’s a broad trend to hone in on all these individual stories. Montgomery had a torturously long stretch in Triple-A that he won’t miss, but it also means a much uglier portion of his development was mostly hidden from view. The first element that comes to mind with that is given his hype and seemingly precocious nature of his low minors success, is that he barely missed getting the Oscar Colás treatment if the Sox had been closer to contention. Meidroth had basically played a full and very successful Triple-A season for the Red Sox in 2024, so he was more than ready. How much Teel’s bat played right away is probably the most surprising victory of the group, but that’s mostly a credit to him as he hasn’t changed much. Taylor has a sharp pitching mind, and his stuff is so undeniable that it essentially rocketed him to the majors, so until we see his kick change come into play, he reads first as a bigger victory for the amateur scouting department’s practice of searching for high-ceiling arms that missed their draft year with TJ.
That’s not to discredit player development, because the more good outcomes that happen in-house, the more it is a credit to the operation. I just don’t have a specific example of a specific PD policy that suddenly turned the tables. Unless of course, Sox researchers prescribing a torpedo bat transformed Colson Montgomery from a mercurial raw power threat with too much swing-and-miss to a 40-homer machine over the All-Star break.
Jim: I think Teel benefited from being a left-handed catcher, which allowed the necessary days off to be strategically deployed. Nearly five-sixths of his plate appearances came against righties, so the .290/.388/.448 line he posted against them wasn't watered down much by his weakness. The same can be said about Montgomery, albeit to a lesser extent because he saw more lefties and fared better against them, but it can't hurt to have the handedness advantage in most of your plate appearances when you're learning the league, even if somebody like Colás couldn't take advantage of that.
Also, let's not forget that Meidroth took a popup to the forehead, and Teel and Shane Smith collided in front of home plate. They had their moments.
What would your priority list be by position for player acquisitions this winter? Do you think there will be any "Ishbia effect" at all in regards to the payroll for next year? Could Getz surprise everybody and have a modest splurge in free agency? Do you anticipate any future stadium updates in 2026? Thanks as always for your insight and interaction,
–cmansoxfan
James: Debt servicing sounds boring until you really need it, or so I’m told, but for the time being the person with the biggest impact on the 2026 payroll wasn’t mentioned here and the White Sox are signaling another winter of supplemental veteran adds around their growing young core rather than a surge in spending.
They need to add at least one sure thing to the starting rotation and at least another candidate for it, and since those are the most expensive things to get, it’s also the top priority. Similar things could be said of their corner outfield picture, where they could just literally or figuratively recreate the Mike Tauchman/Austin Slater pairing of a veteran platoon of small one-year signings. Both of these spots would be a great place to land another post-hype former prospect in the Miguel Vargas/Curtis Mead mold if they voyage into the trade market. If any of their out of options corner infielders (four at last count) could learn the outfield, that would also help, but I wouldn’t hold my breath at this point.
Even with picking up Luis Robert Jr.’s option, the payroll is light enough that they should be handing out a bonafide major league contract to a major league reliever this year. On the topic of signing first basemen, Getz gave an answer that suggested he understands well that such signings are usually dumb, and so any investment they made there would probably come with an angle in mind.
Jim: The White Sox made their first series of offseason roster reductions on Monday, outrighting Dominic Fletcher, Corey Julks, Elvis Peguero and Owen White while losing Will Robertson to a Pittsburgh waiver claim, which knocks down the 40-man roster to 35, or 38 if you account for the players who will have to be reinstated from the 60-day injured list. With two players hitting free agency, Michael A. Taylor retiring, and the White Sox possibly non-tendering all three of their arb-eligible players, you could see the White Sox have a half-dozen vacancies on the 40-man roster, even after they protect all necessary prospects from the Rule 5 draft.
Some of those spots will be used on real MLB talent, even if only on one- or two-year deals, but they have a lot of room to indulge any and all curiosities on the waiver wire this winter without any zero-sum concerns.
One of Getz’s key decisions heading into 2026 is what to do with Quero and Teel. Carrying three catchers (Lee/Teel/Quero) isn’t viable, and with Lee out of options and Teel clearly the best of the group, Quero becomes the question mark.
Quero’s defense has been a major liability — his -15 fielding run value is the worst in MLB across all positions in 2025. Combine that with a light bat, undersized frame, and poor speed, and his value hinges entirely on singles and walks. If that slips, he’s pretty much unplayable. While he’s better than Lee, his ceiling looks like a backup catcher. He’s not a DH or utility option without a significant offensive leap.
So the question is: Should the White Sox trade Quero now while his value is still “interesting”? Keep him as a backup? Or wait and risk further decline in value?
– As Cirensica
James: Objection! Leading the witness!
Quero doesn’t have the tools of Teel, but I’m not nearly this dour on his age-22 performance in the majors, where for much of the season he was the youngest catcher in the league. He posted league-average offense for a catcher while dealing with a significant mechanical issue in his left-handed swing, and staggered to the finish to get there. His framing graded out surprisingly bad and his size doesn’t give him a ton of upside there, but I don’t think worst-in-the-league performance is an annual given. He doesn’t have 20-homer pop, but isn’t a Rikuu Nishida-style slash-and-dash hitter either and drove the baseball throughout his minor league trek.
That said, I think this situation eventually ends in a trade and Teel, both the superior performer at this juncture and the guy that the current front office traded Garrett Crochet for, is the one who would stay put. But because I see better seasons in the future for Quero, I don’t think there’s a need to cash out this offseason.
You can't have a 100+ loss season without things not going right. Thankfully many fans are optimistic for next year that we won't under-perform on the field.
"Using one word, what are you most hopeful for to see more of from the White Sox next year to help them improve their performance?"
– Justin D.
James: Defense? The White Sox have sunk to such depths in their fundamentals, such chicanery in their efforts to wedge ill-fitting bats into a rigidly built roster, that we know they’ve gotten better. Even just their drafts and minor league signings give a view to an organization that has more of an emphasis on defensive versatility than they used to wield.
But they’re still…bad. Statcast rated them the third-worst defense in MLB in terms of Fielding Run Value, DRS had them as seventh-worst, and they committed the third-most errors. Despite Colson Montgomery and Chase Meidroth’s nice defensive ratings, their infield performance was poor. Despite Kyle Teel’s late-season upturn and a tighter emphasis on it organizationally, they didn’t frame well.
Not to say that being an elite defensive team is even remotely easy, but it’s supposed to be cheaper, which is why this Getz regime quickly pointed to it as an area they planned to attack. It’s a lot easier to balance the equation of how the low budget White Sox get good if they show the potential to field an above-average defensive unit. It’s pretty much impossible to figure how they’ll get there if they can’t stop being one of the league’s worst.
Jim: I'll go with "velocity," because it can be applied to both sides of the ball. Josh just talked about the importance of swing speed in last week's podcast episode with Travis Sawchik, and while the White Sox tried to assemble a bullpen full of guys with different looks to get around paying the price for high-octane arms with an idea of the strike zone, when the dust settled, their only two trustworthy arms in leverage were Grant Taylor and Jordan Leasure, who were also easily the hardest throwers. Improving the defense would go a long way to support a bullpen that's short on power, but a shortage of bat-missing relief talent is something that exacerbates the less-than-stellar glovework.
Outside of player acquisitions and bust outs, Getz seems to be upgrading the organization as a whole. If you agree with this premise, what would be the three most impactful moves he's made behind the scenes that are already paying dividends to this team?
– John G.
James: I don’t disagree with your premise because it’s sort of the GM’s job to always be upgrading the organization as a whole. Stopping at any point runs the risk of piling up a record number of losses or something.
It’d be very easy to say something like “hiring Brian Bannister” and there are plenty of wins to pin to that addition. I think just adding the structure of having more overarching directors of both their hitting and pitching operations that can tie all their lanes of player acquisition (draft, trade, free agency, making a zillion waiver claims) to what their player development operation specializes in, feels like the sort of advance they needed to make in streamlining their process to fulfill their goal of trying to be the Milwaukee Brewers. Also it allows me to lump Bannister and Ryan Fuller together.
It sounds boring, but this organization’s ability to talk to itself and have the knowledge of different departments accessible to others. I wrote about Getz’s previous efforts to empower staff biomechanists in his time as the farm director, but those efforts didn’t see such research bubble to the surface with easily appreciated adjustments like Vargas’ batting stance change. That reality sounds like it was the work of conscious efforts to un-silo the organization.
If you’re a sicko for unofficial agreements with Dominican amateurs who haven’t completed high school, overhauling the international scouting operation and breaking ground on a new DR facility is already paying dividends. If you think tracking those deals is exclusively for sickos, the wait time to see a David Keller signing in the majors is indeed, probably quite far away. The benefits of seeing an increased level of talent flowing into the bottom of the farm system will probably be visible sooner, providing both more trade capital and fewer organizational gaps filled by minor league free agents.
I’m curious what more is in the offing internationally as the new DR facility comes closer to the completion. The Sox made the surprising move in September to not renew Erin Santana, who played a vital role in upgrading their education and acculturation operation for Latin American players; an effort that was a source of pride and goodwill in Getz’s run heading up player development. Much as they did with Sergio Santos, the Sox spoke well of Santana on her way out and indicated that they have no intentions of scaling back their efforts in that sphere. So in lieu of reporting on Kyle Tucker’s free agent market, we have that to monitor.
