5:00 p.m. CT on Tuesday marked the deadline. Major League Baseball teams were required to add eligible players to their 40-man roster in order to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft.

The Chicago White Sox had a series of tough calls to make.

With their 40-man roster sitting at 35, the Sox had only five open spots to allocate to prospects—unless a veteran was going to be designated for assignment.

Five spots. And seven Top 30 prospects eligible for the Rule 5 Draft - RHP Tanner McDougal (No. 7), RHP Mason Adams (No. 13), RHP Peyton Pallette (No. 14), RHP Juan Carela (No. 24), RHP Aldrin Batista (No. 26), OF Samuel Zavala (No. 28), and LHP Tyler Schweitzer (No. 29).

And that doesn’t even account for lefty Shane Murphy, who posted a 1.66 ERA in the minors last season and finished the year in Triple-A. Or right-handers Ben Peoples and Duncan Davitt, the two arms the White Sox acquired from Tampa Bay at the 2025 deadline.

Peoples and Davitt came over in the Adrian Houser deal and both logged innings in Triple-A down the stretch. Major-league-ready arms are always a risk to be selected in the Rule 5—especially when teams can move them to the bullpen for a full season

Take White Sox long reliever Mike Vasil, who was a Rule 5 pick by the Phillies before landing in Chicago, as proof.

That’s 10 players who warranted consideration. Chicago only had half that many roster spots.

The deadline has come and gone. The White Sox have made their decisions.

White Sox Roster Decisions

The White Sox selected the contracts of Duncan Davitt and Tanner McDougal on Tuesday, adding both right-handers to the 40-man roster.

Chicago also used a spot on LHP Chris Murphy, acquired earlier in the day from the Boston Red Sox.

The Sox opened one spot by trading Yoendrys Gómez to the Tampa Bay Rays, and another became available when left-handed reliever Fraser Ellard unexpectedly retired. Despite that flexibility, it appears the White Sox are choosing not to use the additional room.

The rest of the Rule 5–eligible players will be left unprotected. Peyton Pallette, Mason Adams, and Shane Murphy headline the group.

It’s highly unlikely the White Sox lose Adams. He has thrown just 17 innings above Double-A in his minor-league career and struggled in that brief Charlotte stint with a 5.82 ERA back in 2024. Adams hasn’t pitched since undergoing Tommy John surgery, and it’s hard to imagine a team selecting him, stashing him on the IL, and then tossing him straight into an MLB bullpen without a minor-league tune-up.

The Sox are probably in the clear there.

Leaving Shane Murphy exposed, however, could prove costly. Murphy led all minor-league pitchers in WHIP (0.89) and ERA (1.66) last season while holding opponents to a .199 average over 135.1 innings across three levels. He doesn’t have loud stuff, but he’s efficient, polished, and big-league ready. Any smart organization would jump at the chance to grab him. The Sox are taking a gamble — one I think they’ll regret.

Pallette going unprotected is also surprising. He was a candidate for a call-up throughout 2025 but never got the final promotion from Charlotte. His 4.06 ERA in 52 minor-league outings doesn’t tell the full story — the 12.0 K/9 absolutely does. The 24-year-old former second-rounder has an electric arsenal, and it’s shocking Chicago would risk losing him without extracting any value from his arm in the major-league bullpen.

Maybe I’m too close to this as someone who has followed these young pitchers for years. Maybe the rest of MLB doesn’t value them the same way, and they’ll slip through the Rule 5 untouched. But if the White Sox lose both Murphy and Pallette — especially when they had the 40-man space to protect them — fans everywhere will be left wondering what Chris Getz and the front office were thinking.