After signing a minor league deal this spring, veteran reliever Lucas Sims is quietly putting together one of the most intriguing bullpen cases in White Sox camp.
The competition for the final spot in the Chicago White Sox bullpen to begin the 2026 regular season remains completely unsettled with just a couple of weeks left in spring training.
For much of the spring, it seemed likely that at least one of the White Sox's two selections from the December Rule 5 Draft would break camp with the team. But given the inexperience of both Jedixson Paez and Alexander Alberto — and how poorly both have fared during Cactus League action thus far — that outcome now appears far less certain, if not outright unlikely.
To me, it's a wide-open competition. And there's a good chance it's one of the non-roster invitees who ends up breaking through. It's hard to imagine an Opening Day roster that doesn't include at least one non-roster invitee somewhere.
Someone I'd encourage White Sox fans to keep in mind is right-handed pitcher Lucas Sims.
Sims is a 31-year-old righty who was drafted in the first round of the 2012 MLB Draft by the Atlanta Braves. He made his debut with Atlanta as a starting pitcher back in 2017 and is now entering his 10th MLB season, building a long but volatile career as a reliever. Sims spent the majority of his career with the Cincinnati Reds, an organization he was with for seven seasons, where he owns a 3.94 ERA across 210 appearances.
After a nightmare season with the Washington Nationals in 2025 (13.86 ERA), Sims agreed to a minor league deal with the White Sox in February. And while it's been a very small sample size of just three appearances, what I've seen from him in spring training so far has really caught my attention.
Sims has thrown three clean innings, allowing just two hits and one walk while striking out five. Across the 11 batters he has faced, he's been dominant.
According to the Stuff+ metric by TJStats, Sims has five different pitches that grade out above average. His best offering is a sweeper that sits in the mid-80s with 14 inches of horizontal break. His fastball sits in the mid-90s, and he also mixes in a curveball and a splitter that can completely dive out of the zone.
Among every pitcher in baseball during spring training, Sims sits in the 90th percentile or better in expected xwOBA, K-rate, barrel rate, hard-hit rate, and swinging strike rate.
He has not allowed a single barrel or hard-hit ball to this point, and the average exit velocity on balls in play against him is just 83 MPH.
Having five serviceable pitches, along with the ability to generate both swings and misses and induce soft contact when he's around the strike zone, makes Sims a pretty compelling bullpen candidate.
Now, the deck may be stacked against him if the White Sox feel strongly about keeping a third left-hander in the bullpen. But if they were planning on keeping Paez or Alberto anyway, perhaps Chicago is comfortable opening the season with Sean Newcomb and Tyler Gilbert/Chris Murphy as the two lefties.
If you put Sims on the roster and it doesn't work out, it's easy to cut him loose. But if he hits the ground running at the start of the regular season and turns into a productive reliever, he's the perfect asset to flip at the trade deadline.
The Reds did exactly this in 2024 when Sims carried a 3.57 ERA into July. And as recently as 2023, we saw Sims go 7–3 with a 3.10 ERA across 67 appearances.
The White Sox might have something here, especially if Sims can close out the final two weeks of spring training strong.