How should the 2025 White Sox be measured?

A team that is emphasizing player development and growth is one that won’t always have results that show in the obvious places. Take the three-game losing streak the White Sox had before Saturday night’s 7-3 win over the Twins. Friday’s loss to the Twins was a great example. Five guys in the Sox lineup had two hits each — Colson Montgomery’s being a home run and a double — and the offense put up seven runs. The Sox still lost, 9-7.

Or the game before that, in Atlanta, when the only run came thanks to a fielding error by Montgomery in the 4th inning and the Sox lost 1-0. Go back another day, and it was the offense scoring 10 runs only for the Sox to lose thanks to a seven-run bullpen collapse.

Saturday night was a bit of a reprieve. The Sox scored six runs in the second inning thanks to patient at-bats and a big swing from Colson Montgomery, and instead of defensive miscues or poor pitching, they put together a polished game. Davis Martin tossed five innings and allowed two runs, Tyler Alexander surrendered just one run in three innings of relief, and Jordan Leasure finished things off with a scoreless ninth inning.

But just over a month away from the end of the 2025 season, we’re nearing the time when it’s fair to ask how this Sox team should be assessed. Obviously, winning at least a few more games than last year is one part of the equation, but there’s more to it than that.

“We talked about coming into the year that we were gonna measure our progress in different ways, and certainly the most important way is gonna be wins and losses,” manager Will Venable said Saturday. “Certainly we haven’t won as many games as we’d like to. Having said that, there are a lot of things under the hood that we’re really proud of, starting with our group of players and the connections that they’ve built among themselves, the team identity that they’ve built, the way they go out there and compete every day. So a lot of good stuff to point to that we’re really proud of.”

By wins and losses, the Sox have definitely improved over last season, and Baseball Reference’s Pythagorean win/loss metric would suggest that they have suffered some bad luck; by BR’s measure, the Sox should have ten more wins than they do. And with Saturday’s win, they have now tied their win total against American League Central opponents from last year with over 30 games remaining in the season. To be fair, the 2024 season didn’t set a high bar in any regard, but it’s movement in the right direction.

“That’s a huge step of improvement,” Martin said. “We still have 4, 5, 6 series against our division, and I think that’s a huge step forward. Those are teams that you’re going to see week in and week out. And obviously it’s not where we want to be, like, we’re still underperforming in that aspect, but it’s a big step forward, and I think we just continue to build on that.”

But a largely imperfect team with only pockets of talent is going to go that way. With a little more than a month left of the 2025 season, it’s safe to say the Sox are probably trending in the right direction, but it also looks like it will be a very slow climb.

That said, the pockets of talent that are there look legit. Montgomery, who looked headed for disaster just a few months ago, has taken to the majors quite nicely so far. The rookie shortstop hit a second-inning grand slam on Saturday, his 12th homer of the season. An impressive total, given that Montgomery was called up to the big leagues on July 4.

“He’s in a really good spot where he’s seeing the baseball and slowing things down,” Venable said. “So you do see the in at-bat adjustments, seeing adjustments from day to day. He’s done a really nice job of just being in tune with himself and his swing, and I think that’s a good place to start so he can go out there and make sure he’s putting quality at-bats together regardless of how he’s being attacked.”

It surprising that Montgomery has 12 home runs in just 41 games played since his callup, but all the more so considering the most homers he has had in a professional season was the 18 he hit in Triple-A last year. This sort of newfound power Montgomery credits to knowing his body better and focusing on being short to the ball and keeping his swing from getting too big.

“It can be frustrating and aggravating,” Montgomery said of going through struggles at the plate. “You want to go up there and try to make a difference in a game. Sometimes I get pitches to do that on and I’ll admit it, I was trying to do too much. Swinging at pitches I haven’t been swinging at. You have to be patient and just assess and adjust at what they are doing and after that you go boom.”

The Sox will take these kinds of things as much as they can get them because there has still been a whole lot more bad than good in the 2025 season. They’re still almost 40 games below .500 and have a long way to go before they are realistic contenders in their division.

But for what it’s worth, there’s a drive in the Sox clubhouse to get to the point where they are thinking about the playoffs, and to do it soon.

“I think we’d all be lying if our goals and aspirations aren’t to go to a postseason,” Martin said. “We’re not doing this just to do it. We want to do it and learn, we want to be good, and we want to be really good down the stretch, and what that looks like is playing your best ball at the end of September.”