For the first time since 2020, the White Sox held SoxFest, a midwinter celebration of the franchise. It had once been a big event, held in convention centers in downtown Chicago, but the revamped version this year was smaller and held at the Ramova Theater in Bridgeport, just a few blocks from Rate Field.
This year’s iteration came at a time when the organization is in flux. They are coming off of a historically bad 2024 campaign and looking ahead to a future that seems much less clear than it was when the last SoxFest was held five years ago. At that time, things were looking up; the team was on the rise and headed toward competitiveness. And for a short time, what was true: They made the postseason in 2020 and 2021, but the competitive window closed quickly.
Now, with spring training a few weeks away and the 2025 season looming, there are a few questions hanging over the White Sox:
How much better will they be?
It will be very tough to do worse than last year, when they lost 121 games. The ZiPS projections on Fangraphs call for a twenty-win improvement over last season, but if you’re doing the math, that’s still a 100-loss season and would match the 61-101 2023 season. They have already lost at least 100 games in consecutive seasons for the first time in franchise history. Adding a third would put them in select company. Most recently, the Houston Astros lost at least 100 games for three straight years from 2011-2013. They ended the same decade with back-to-back-to-back triple digit win seasons, hitting at least 100 wins from 2017-2019.
Is a similar trajectory possible for the White Sox? Probably not. As Dan Szymborski said on Fangraphs earlier this month, “I have very little faith that they’ve done anywhere near enough to put themselves in a position to be a good team in the future. I almost wonder if they need another record-breaking season to really turn around how the franchise is run.”
If there’s some reason for long-term hope, Will Venable seems like a smart hire as the new manager, and the farm system is still strong. They have six prospects in the top 100, one of just seven teams with at least five players ranked that high. The scary part is the Sox have been here before — young, dynamic talent was part of the reason for optimism about the ballclub just a few years ago, but now almost all of those players are gone, having ultimately failed to live up to the projections and the hype.
In all, 2025 will almost certainly be a better season, at least on paper, if only because it took remarkable misfortune to lose as many games as they did last season.
The next prospect to reach the majors?
Shortstop Colson Montgomery is very much on Sox fans’ radar, both because he is ranked 39 in the top 100 and because his numbers at Triple-A Charlotte last year caused some reason for concern. He posted a wRC+ of just 88 last season, but general manager Chris Getz said on Thursday that he still expects Montgomery to be the Sox shortstop “at some point” in 2025.
“He’s going to get a lot of opportunity come spring training,” Getz said. “We expect to see Colson Montgomery playing shortstop for the White Sox at some point this year.”
For his part, Montgomery said he plans to approach spring training with his sights set on winning the job by Opening Day.
“Every year that has been my mindset,” he said. “If you don’t think you’re the best or you deserve it, you’re not being a competitor. I’m going to get an opportunity, but I have to go earn it.”
Getz cited Montgomery’s growth on defense as part of the reason he’ll get a shot to be the Opening Day starter, so there’s a chance that even with the low offensive output, Montgomery might be given an opportunity to be playing at The Rate on Opening Day on March 27.
Pitching…brace yourselves
The projections for the pitching staff as a whole are…rough. Not that the offense will be a whole lot better, but the bullpen in particular is expected to be a liability in 2025. Szymborski puts the rotation at just above replacement level, with Drew Thorpe as the best arm in that group.
Thorpe went 3-3 in nine starts for the White Sox last year before needing season-ending surgery on September 7 to shave down a bone spur in his throwing elbow. He received a cortisone shot on Friday, which probably means his return to the mound will be delayed.
“I’m hoping that kind of clears it up and we are good to go from here,” Thorpe said on Friday at the Ramova Theatre. “Everything structurally in my arm — I got MRIs a couple of weeks ago — everything is clean, everything is good. It’s part of the surgery process, I guess.”
He said he hopes to start playing catch again next week, but this means he will not be ready to start pitching at the start of spring training. That will leave Jonathan Cannon as the likely Opening Day starter. Cannon posted a 4.49 ERA in 23 appearances (21 starts) last season.
As for the bullpen, Szymborski said this is the worst group ZiPS has ever projected. They have two of the most exciting left-handed pitching prospects in baseball in Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith waiting in the wings, but both of them project as starting pitchers. Getting outs in the later innings is likely to be a significant challenge for Venable all season.
A new statue coming in July
This year’s SoxFest kicked off what will be a yearlong celebration of the 2005 White Sox, the last squad to win the World Series. Mark Buehrle was a key part of that team’s rotation, and just prior to SoxFest, the White Sox announced that they’ll be unveiling a statue in his honor on July 11.
Buehrle’s number was retired by the team in 2017, and his statue will be the ninth commissioned by the White Sox.
“Insane. Unbelievable. Kind of at a loss for words,” Buerhle said of the statue. “They retired my number and it’s an incredible honor. To put a statue up of me, out there, forever. I guess the number could be unretired and get taken out and put it back into play.
“But the statue, unless someone tears it down or does something to it, it’s always going to be there. I really don’t have words for it, but it’s an amazing feeling.”
Buehrle’s statue unveiling will kick off a ’05 team reunion weekend, with several of his World Series champion teammates from that season in town with him. The 2005 team celebrations might be the most exciting thing about the 2025 season, and it could be a while until the Sox have a team of ’05 caliber on the field again.
