Rebuild the White Sox
How Much Would it Cost to Make the Playoffs in 2025?
As the Yankees and Dodgers proved in 2024, it’s not that hard to win in Major League Baseball. You just need lots and lots of money. The Dodgers won the World Series with $241,010,117 paid to their players (plus $68 million to pay Shohei Ohtani sometime next century. The Yankees came up just short after cutting paychecks worth $309,434,607 to their roster. The White Sox spent $133,797,547 to win… 41 games. That’s 20 games less than the next worst team. And 45 wins less than the final Wild Card spot in the AL, the 86-76 Tigers. So a 2025 playoff run seems like a big task. While their farm system is developing (they rank 4th according to Fangraphs), the current roster looks pretty bleak.
Before free agency really gets under way, the projected 2025 White Sox roster is sitting in 29th place with 24.4 WAR. In any given season, a roster that can produce over 40.0 WAR is capable of making the playoffs, so there’s a ways to go.
That roster currently sits at about $67million. So there’s room for some signings. Jerry Reinsdorf is worth $2.1billion. He’s also 88 years old. You can’t take it with you. What if he cashed in some stock and tried to buy himself the 2025 World Series? It’s been done before. The 1997 Marlins were basically mercenaries for hire. Kevin Brown, Moises Alou, Al Leiter and Gary Sheffield were all veterans on that squad. Let’s reshape the roster. In this case, I’m ignoring the draft pick compensation for qualifying offers, since that draft pick given up won’t come back to bite them until like 2030 anyways.
Also, I’m using a mix of MLB Trade Rumors, Spotrac and The Athletic for salary figures. And since, as the White Sox GM, I have to convince players to join a team that just lost 121 games, I’m going to tack on a 10% premium to these deals.
First, who do we keep? There’s only one position player projected over 2.0 WAR, and that’s center fielder Luis Robert at 2.6 for $15million. We’re also gonna have to hold on to Andrew Benintendi for $17million at 1.4 WAR. At shortstop, rookie Colson Montgomery is gonna have to have a nice campaign because he costs $800K. We just need another outfielder, 3B, 2B, 1B, DH and probably a catcher to net us about 17 WAR, since the bench is likely to be worth between 0.0 and 1.0.
For pitching, we have an ace in Garrett Crochet (4.9 WAR) who’s only costing $2.9million in 2025. We’ll need at least 2 other really good pitchers, as the rest of the roster has a bunch of starters projected for 4.50+ ERAs. And in the bullpen, it’s anyone’s guess as to what can happen there. But the current roster all ranges between -0.3 and 0.3, probably need at least 3 solid relievers there.
Here’s the 2025 World Series champion Chicago White Sox Opening Day 26-man roster:
Catchers
Edgar Quero (rookie), 1.3 WAR, $800K. A rookie who’s the White Sox #4 prospect and projected to make the big leagues in 2025.
Carson Kelly, 1.6 WAR, 1 yr/$3.85mil. A solid backup who’s projected to get a one-year deal at age 30.
First Base
Christian Walker, 2.5 WAR, 3yrs/$66mil. He’s a consistent Gold Glover for a team that badly needs defensive help and has some good power, averaging 31 home runs the last 3 years. Plus, he’s been in the World Series before.
Andrew Vaughn, bench, $4.4mil. For a full season, he’s rated for 1.7 WAR, but he’ll be on the bench as insurance against injury and a pinch hitter. Although it’s not a guarantee he stays.
Second Base
Gleyber Torres, 2.9 WAR, 2yrs/$39.6mil. He’s only 28 and already a 7-year veteran with 20+ homers in 4 of those seasons.
Lenyn Sosa, bench, $800k.
Third Base
Alex Bregman, 4.1 WAR, 7yrs/$200mil. This is the only long-term deal I had to use, and at $28.6mil/yr it’s a lot. But there’s not many other infielders out there besides Willy Adames, who will also be expensive. And the current 3B is listed as Miguel Vargas so it’s a hole.
Shortstop
Colson Montgomery, 0.8 WAR, $800k. Fangraphs only has him at 0.8 WAR and slashing .203/.290/.332 next season, but like another top rookie in Chicago, it’s gonna be sink or swim time next season. He’s the White Sox top position player prospect and 37th overall. He didn’t light up the minors last season, but he did hit 18 homers. He’s 22 years old, 6’3”, 225 pounds so he can hold up for the year and hide in the bottom of the lineup.
Outfield
Luis Robert, 2.6 WAR, $15mil. Already signed for $15million next season, he’s got a ton of power if he stays healthy. In 2023 he hit 38 homers and produced 4.9 WAR, so there’s potential for a guy who’s only going to be 27 next year.
Andrew Benintendi, 1.4 WAR, $17.1mil. Well we’re stuck with him after he signed the largest free agent contract in team history a couple years ago. But he did hit .263 with 13 homers in the 2nd half last year, and maybe being the 4th highest paid player in this lineup will take some pressure off.
Anthony Santander, 2.6 WAR, $4yrs/$88mil. He just hit 44 home runs, he’s been a power-hitting switch hitter for years now and feels like the perfect guy to have keep this lineup from ever slumping.
Austin Slater, bench. They just signed him today so we have to keep him.
Designated Hitter
Joc Pederson, 1.8 WAR, 2yrs/$26.4mil. He slugged .531 in 407 PA’s against righties last season for the Diamondbacks. He can just hangout and be the revival of Adam Dunn. Andrew Vaughn slugged .445 against lefties so it might make a decent platoon.
OFFENSE: 13 players, 21.7 WAR, $150,150,000
Starting Pitchers
Garrett Crochet, 4.9 WAR, $2.9mil. As Crochet goes, so go the White Sox. Projected at 4.9 WAR, that’s about 1/8th of what we need to make the playoffs right there.
Jonathan Cannon, 1.1 WAR, $800,000.
Davis Martin, 1.3 WAR, $800,000. Two back of the rotation pitchers. Anything close to 2 WAR out of this slot is good.
Max Fried, 3.2 WAR, 6yrs/$171mil. The big pitching signing, he’s been good as a Brave and now gets to team up with Crochet to bring the AL Central home.
Nathan Eovaldi, 2.7 WAR, 2yrs/$48.4mil. I know he’s getting older and hurt more, but I just need one great year out of him. We’ve already seen what he can do in the World Series with the Red Sox and Rangers.
Relievers (combined 3.0 WAR)
Justin Anderson, $800k
Ron Marinaccio, $800k
Enyel De Los Santos, $1.85mil
Penn Murfee, $800k
Lou Trivino, $1.5mil
Jake Diekman, $1.5mil
Tanner Scott, 4yrs/$61.6mil. Signed as the closer after a great season last year for the Marlins and Padres, we need someone to shut the door.
I honestly have no clue how to build a bullpen now. Isn’t it just find a bunch of guys who throw 100mph with 92mph sliders and hope for the best?
PITCHING: 13 pitchers, 15.1 WAR, $81,000,000
TOTAL: 36.8 WAR, $231,150,000.00
Well I’m a little short of the 40 WAR I set out to get. And at $231 million, my 2025 payroll will be in the top 10, but not in the top 5. Is that enough to win the AL Central? A division that hates spending money? The White Sox actually spent the most on salaries in 2024 in the division, while the 3 lowest teams all made the playoffs. Hmmm. I guess the best choice would be to find a better reliver or another 3-4 WAR pitcher. And if Colson Montgomery provides any value that basically gets the team to the 40 WAR threshold.
You can do all this for about twice the payroll as last season, and not even the most expensive. That’s even with a 10% bad team tax added on. I know saying to go spend another $100 million of money that’s not mine is easy to do, but that’s just how it’s played these days. You can try to be like the budget teams like the Rays, Orioles and Royals, where painful rebuilds are the norm. But after the last few seasons, the White Sox need to buy some happiness and they owe the fans something. Especially if they want a fancy new stadium.
Let’s see how MLB The Show 24 thinks this roster will do:
Okay, but it is a 35 win improvement!