Halfway through a four-year deal he signed with the Giants on the premise he would start, Jordan Hicks was traded to the White Sox. They're his third team since that contract began, have come of three straight 100-loss seasons, and they're preparing him as a reliever.
He could not be more on board, Hicks professes.
"I didn't really know what to expect coming, but I like that it feels like we're here to win and we all have the same mission. I feel like that's important," Hicks said. "If you go somewhere that hasn't been winning as much and help turn that around, that can be really good for the team, really good for the city and really fun."
The initial Zoom call that Hicks received from Chris Getz on the day of the trade wasn't really a recruiting call, as he was already contractually bound, but it and the White Sox clubhouse seems to have charmed him all the same, and he makes reference to settling in and preparing to spend the next two years in Chicago. But Hicks' optimistic mood seems to have begun earlier in the offseason, when a mid-winter decision to train at PUSH Performance and Next Era, both in Arizona, led to a mechanical overhaul that has him "feeling pretty good" physically, and sitting 100 mph with his sinker in his second spring outing, in a way he wasn't last season.
"I know my shit is there when my stuff [moves] late; my offspeed is late, my sinker is late, and last year it was pretty flat and if I threw a sweeper you knew the whole time it was a sweeper coming out of my hand," said Hicks, who threw sweepers on four of the six homers he allowed last year. "It's about how my arm comes through my throwing motion because I'm moving the right way, versus protecting something on my body because it hurts, subconsciously because of bad mechanics."
With a 6.95 ERA in 67⅓ innings last year, Hicks feels 2025 was his first season where he truly struggled, and looking through his career history, it certainly stands out for a level of getting hit that was previously foreign to him. That seems to play a role in his acceptance of a bullpen role as part of his back to basics approach, but Hicks doesn't view it as a last resort, either.
"I'm trusting myself, I'm trusting the people around me and I trust that I'm going to have a really good year," Hicks said. "I got two more years here. I'd rather focus on one or focus on the other [relieving or starting]. I don't want to be in limbo anymore, it's time to make a decision. Right now I feel like I want to put up zeroes, and whatever happens, happens."
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It can seem like a sort of tall tale that White Sox player development types claim when they say prospect infielder Sam Antonacci plays so hard that it annoys his opponents. But then you watch him very intentionally identify an opportunity to collide with a infielder and get rewarded with an obstruction call -- in the ninth inning of a Cactus League game Wednesday where his team trailed by two runs -- and understand how this profound level of commitment to the bit might have rankled some prospects cruising through a postseason assignment in the Arizona Fall League.
"Especially in that situation it meant absolutely nothing, but I knew I had a free bag, so I was gonna take it," Antonacci said. "Honestly I don't really care if I go 4-for-4 or 0-for-4, my goal is to have either the fans or the other team be like 'Why the hell is he going that hard?' Sometimes it's for no reason, sometimes the chances of getting an extra base are less than 1 percent, but I don't want to not go hard.
"In a 162-game season, a passed ball from a catcher thrown back to the pitcher, that might happen once the whole year, but I'm looking to get that extra base every time, even though it's tedious, even though it's never going to happen usually. I'm looking for that one time it can change a game."
"If he does have a sense of urgency, I’m not sure how that’s going to change how he goes about his business," said Will Venable when asked if thought Antonacci was pushing extra hard to try to make the roster out of camp. "He’s pretty special in that regard. Love to see it. When you think about what you want in a White Sox player and the identity we’re trying to create, he does all those things naturally. I thought [the obstruction call] was a great play [Wednesday]. Right along the lines of a smart baseball player that plays hard."
Antonacci is probably the one player whose description of their offseason training doesn't sound otherworldly -- he looks quite cut, but only thinks he put on five pounds -- but it's counterbalanced by him having antipathy for the concept of physical self-preservation, be it in his approach to absorbing hit-by-pitches or the violence that helter-skelter baserunning can wreak.
"Right now I can't see me ever taking a play off, but maybe if I'm blessed to still be playing this game when I'm like a 35-year-old, I'll probably pick my spots and listen to my body," Antonacci said. "But the way I see it, if I take a play off, I hope my teammates and coaches let me hear it."
Antonacci generally has a positive association with coaches letting him hear it. He hit eight home runs in 135 games last year and regularly draws below-average power projections both for his size and exit velocity numbers, and his contact-oriented style of hitting. But an authoritative pull-side bomb hit at 109.5 mph in the Cactus League opener underscores a popular Sox player development theory that a hitter with Antonacci's feel for opposing pitching will soon suss out his opportunities to unleash A-swings more frequently.
Conversely, the player himself frames it as a byproduct of actually engaging scouting reports more, and feeling his way through at-bats a little less.
"When I first got into pro ball, I might've been a little more passive, just trying not to strike out," Antonacci said. "But that's not the case anymore. I have a better feel for the zone and what I'm seeing on a daily basis. Right now I'm really honing in on how to read scouting reports on the pitchers. I think I struggled with a little bit and haven't had a plan going up there, rather just been swinging. Coaches have been really helpful with me on that, and been really hard on me about getting that stuff is and how important it is."
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Andrew Benintendi was scratched from Friday's game with right side soreness. While hamate fractures have been the spring training injury du jour for hitters around the league, the White Sox camp bugaboo seems to be oblique issues. Everson Pereira is a week removed from experiencing discomfort in his right oblique while training on the Trajekt and hasn't been able to swing yet.
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Veteran 32-year-old left-hander Sean Newcomb enjoyed Kyle Teel getting a little spicy with his mound visit feedback early in his two-inning debut Thursday, as he makes a bid for the Sox rotation.
"I expected him to be like 'How you feeling?' type of thing and he was like ‘Get in your legs! Let’s go!’ That kind of fired me up," Newcomb said. "Teel, I love working with him back there, he’s a real competitor back there, you can see it in his eyes."
While Teel is older and the superior framer, Edgar Quero actually has more reps behind the plate in his life and gets more plaudits for his pitcher-handling out of the two. But the primary feedback younger catchers get is to be more assertive and vocal, and this burst was well-received for both its energy and accuracy.
"He knew exactly what I was feeling," Newcomb said. "I got some butterflies, first time competing in a few months and he was exactly right, I wasn’t in my legs."
