One Thing the White Sox Must Avoid at All Costs This Offseason

There’s plenty of uncertainty surrounding a baseball offseason. That’s true even for young teams like the Chicago White Sox, who made the playoffs in 2026, have a promising young core in place and appear to have a bright future ahead of them.

No matter who you are or what you accomplished in 2026, success in 2027 isn’t guaranteed. Repeating that success is a lot easier said than done.

There are plenty of questions facing the White Sox front office this winter that will need to be thoroughly answered. But there’s also one major mistake I believe Chicago needs to avoid at all costs.

The White Sox cannot afford to be complacent with their young talent or bank on continued development.

As we saw in 2026, impact players can emerge seemingly out of nowhere. But they can fade just as quickly.

After Shane Smith posted a 3.81 ERA during his rookie season in 2025, earned American League All-Star honors and was named Chicago’s Opening Day starter for 2026, the White Sox were banking on Smith to anchor their starting rotation.

Instead, he made just three starts, posted a 10.80 ERA and spent the rest of the season in the minor leagues.

During the last iteration of the White Sox rebuild, Chicago was similarly banking on several top prospects to take a leap forward that never came.

Andrew Vaughn never developed into the middle-of-the-order bat Chicago drafted him to be. Luis Robert Jr. could never consistently stay on the field long enough to reach his MVP potential.

In 2023, the White Sox were hoping for a bounce-back season following an underwhelming 2022 campaign. Chicago handed the starting right field job to outfield prospect Oscar Colás, who proceeded to hit .216 with five home runs and a .571 OPS that season.

It became painfully clear that counting on production from young, inexperienced talent wasn’t a winning formula for a team with playoff aspirations.

And all of those same lessons apply to the White Sox this winter.

Chicago has plenty of young pitching talent in the organization. Noah Schultz, David Sandlin, Drew Thorpe and Tanner McDougal are all promising arms with considerable upside. But that doesn’t mean the White Sox starting rotation in 2027 should be built around those young players.

You add proven veteran talent through free agency and make the young guys earn their opportunities.

That’s how well-run organizations do business. That’s how you build a perennial contender. And that’s why the White Sox front office needs to keep its foot on the gas.

Chicago also has one of the best prospects in baseball approaching the major leagues in Caleb Bonemer. Whether his future is in the infield or the outfield remains to be seen, but his arrival could give the White Sox another exciting young piece to build around.

Then there’s Braden Montgomery, who has plenty of tools and showed flashes of his potential throughout 2026. But he still has a long way to go before becoming a consistently dangerous hitter against major league pitching.

Neither of those players should dissuade Chicago from making a major splash in free agency to improve the outfield.

The same goes for Tristan Peters, who earned American League All-Star honors in 2026. As impressive as that accomplishment was, I still believe Peters needs to prove himself for another season before I’d feel confident penciling him in as the everyday center fielder for the foreseeable future.

The White Sox have every reason to be excited about their young talent. But there’s a significant difference between giving young players opportunities to develop and depending on them to carry a team with legitimate postseason aspirations.

Perhaps it’s the years of underwhelming offseasons in a row, but White Sox fans can already anticipate what general manager Chris Getz will say. 

The Sox believe in the young talent they have. They believe in development. They trust their young pitching. They want to give the young players on this roster a runway to establish themselves at the major league level.

You’ve heard it all before. But if the White Sox are serious about capitalizing on their momentum from 2026 and becoming a legitimate contender in 2027, that would be the wrong philosophy.

There’s nothing wrong with believing in your young talent. But that belief cannot become an excuse for failing to make meaningful improvements to the roster.

Complacency is a recipe for disaster, and it’s something the White Sox organization needs to avoid at all costs this offseason.