Chicago

White Sox

Both teams met with agent Scott Boras during the general manager’s meetings to discuss the 26-year-old hurler. The Padres are also known to have expressed interest in his services. With the potential lockout looming, it doesn’t sound like Nippon Professional Baseball is going to change the posting rules at all, so any player that has been posted for MLB teams will need to sign before the lockout or return to their clubs in Japan. Expect the interest to really heat up here in the coming days.

Bonemer is fresh off hitting .286/.364/.633 in 13 Arizona Fall League games with three home runs and 12 RBI. While he played mostly infield during the regular season, Bonemer was working in the outfield in the AFL to increase his chances of debuting with the White Sox. The 43rd overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft hit .251/.380/.550 with 37 home runs, 92 RBI, and 17 steals across two levels this season, ending the year with 71 games at Double-A. If he gets off to a good start in Triple-A, he could be with the White Sox before the summer.

After taking a one-year deal with a mutual option from the Cardinals last winter, May seems in better position to command a two- or three-year pact this time around. He certainly wasn’t great in posting a 4.70 ERA for the Brewers and Cardinals, but he was able to stay healthy and make 31 starts and his velocity and strikeout rate both ticked up.

Zero surprise here. Venable received 15 first-place votes while Kevin Cash received 12 and Chad Tracy the other three. Venable helped the White Sox to an improbable playoff run after winning just 60 games in 2025 and took the club to within a game of the ALCS. If you weren’t expected to be good and outperform expectations, there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to win Manager of the Year.

There had been some hope that Smith, who was a starter in the minors, would get a chance to move into the rotation in 2027, but that spot appears to be going to Grant Taylor. Smith was electric out of the bullpen for the White Sox after getting called up, posting a 1.29 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, and 41/16 K/BB ratio in 28 innings. Obviously, remaining in the bullpen puts a damper on his fantasy value, but he is going to pitch lots of innings out of the White Sox bullpen and could produce similar value to what Didier Fuentes did last season or perhaps similar value to Grant Taylor, if the White Sox mix in some save opportunities for Smith as well.

The White Sox had always expressed a belief that Taylor, who was a starter in the minors, could return to the rotation. That was part of the reason he was used in multi-inning stints so much this season. In 84 innings, he posted a 2.25 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, and 106/30 K/BB ratio. He has the pitch mix to succeed as a starter but hasn’t been a regular one since early in the 2025 season. With this news, Taylor should immediately become a top-50 starting pitcher in 2027 rankings and has the potential to be a true breakout star in fantasy. There just remains some risk because it’s a role we haven’t seen him in for a while.

The 28-year-old Marsh had a 4.96 ERA in 33 starts and 10 relief appearances for the Royals between 2023 and ’24, but he hasn’t pitched in a game since.

He is coming off Oct. 2025 surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder, and the Royals never really had anything to say about his progress last season before taking him off their 40-man roster last month. Once healthy, he’ll probably spend time in Triple-A trying to work his way back to the majors.

Acuña has been a star in Venezuela the last two years, posting a .914 OPS in 2024 and a .939 OPS with eight homers and 12 steals in 39 games last year. Of course, it hasn’t really translated to the majors yet, and he probably would have been better off spending last season in Triple-A than being stuck in a bench role for the White Sox while being out of options. There’s still hope for Acuña as a potential regular or at least a frequently used super utilityman; he’s a legitimate center fielder and middle infielder, he shows league-average bat speed and he’s struck out only 19 percent of the time as a major leaguer. But he needs to play, and now that the White Sox are contenders, he’s probably not going to get that opportunity in Chicago.

He considered playing winter ball after missing the season, but since he and his wife have a baby due in December, he’s going to stay home. Baldwin should have a decent chance of winning a spot on the White Sox next spring, but it wouldn’t initially come with the playing time he figured to get if not for the injury last season. The switch-hitting 26-year-old has thus far batted .232/.279/.382 with 13 homers and nine steals in 136 big-league games.

There’s a pretty compelling case to be made for Cash after the Rays put together a remarkable 98-win season to capture the AL East division title. However, Venable should be in the conversation after helping lead the White Sox to a remarkable turnaround as they went from losing 102 games to making the postseason. Tracy took over as Boston’s interim manager in late April and managed to spark their unexpected turnaround.