After injuries delayed his start to 2026, David Sandlin returned to the mound with two scoreless innings in his rehab debut, flashing the velocity and upside that made him a key piece in the White Sox offseason trade with Boston.
One of my favorite moves the Chicago White Sox made this past offseason was their trade with the Boston Red Sox.
It’s the deal that brought right-handed pitcher Jordan Hicks to Chicago. And while Hicks was immediately inserted into the White Sox bullpen, he wasn’t the headliner for fans to get excited about.
The White Sox actually took on Hicks’ contract, paying him $8.5 million in 2026 and another $8.5 million in 2027, in order to facilitate a deal for pitching prospect David Sandlin.
In doing so, the White Sox upgraded from Gage Ziehl to Sandlin, a 25-year-old starting pitcher who touches 100 mph with his fastball and is knocking on the door of the big leagues.
Sandlin reached Triple-A in the Red Sox organization in 2025, and Boston added him to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft in December. Now with the White Sox, Sandlin remains on the 40-man roster and shouldn’t be far away from contributing at the MLB level. If the White Sox get his development right, there’s plenty of upside here for this to become a home run trade.
Unfortunately, we haven’t really gotten a chance to see what Sandlin can do yet. He dealt with a back issue early in spring training, and after recovering, experienced elbow soreness that kept him from pitching during camp.
The White Sox took a cautious approach with his return, getting him back on a throwing program and avoiding any rush ahead of the regular season.
Last week, Sandlin teased some positive news on social media, and it was later announced that he had been cleared to begin a rehab assignment.
Sandlin made his first rehab start with the Winston-Salem Dash on Tuesday morning, and he looked about as good as you could hope. He threw two scoreless innings, allowing two hits and one walk while recording four strikeouts on 41 pitches.
Sandlin's fastball had reportedly been sitting around 95 mph and topping out at 99 leading up to the outing, and both his velocity and off-speed stuff passed the eye test on Tuesday.
It shouldn’t be long before Sandlin gets a chance to test his stuff at the upper levels of the minor leagues. And if everything continues trending in the right direction, there’s a real chance we see him in Chicago at some point in 2026.
At the very least, the fact that he’s back on the mound and looking healthy is a major positive development for the White Sox organization.