After a historically awful season, can the White Sox start to climb?

PHOENIX — One February morning, as thousands of fans clung to fences at Los Angeles Dodgers camp a few yards away, the other team that calls Camelback Ranch home held a base running meeting in the weight room. When it was over, a gaggle of young men in the first half of their 20s emerged, their faces largely indistinguishable from each other to anyone who has not studied MLB prospect charts carefully in recent years.

This, a herd of young talent and long talks about fundamentals, is what a clean slate looks like. These Chicago White Sox sorely need one. They lost 121 games last year, more than any team in modern baseball history. That season should be the nadir of what White Sox management once promised would be a swift rebuilding process. But that rebuild has yet to yield any forward progress, so no one can say for sure.

But if optimism must precede headway, there is plenty of that here. That mass of baseball humanity includes five current and several former members of Baseball America’s top 100 prospects list. And General Manager Chris Getz, a holdover from the last White Sox administration who nevertheless is tasked with changing everything, said he believes the infrastructure is in place to develop those prospects in ways this organization did not manage to do in years past.

“Obviously, at the end of the day, the major league level is the most important,” Getz said. “But we do feel like so many processes have improved and they’re in a good place that it’s going to show up at the major league level. We hope that happens soon.”

Even after 2024, the White Sox were still able to recruit top managerial prospect Will Venable from Bruce Bochy’s loaded Texas Rangers staff. Venable, a former major league outfielder, has a reputation for levelheaded collaboration and has worked for and played with some of the sport’s most highly regarded managers.

Some candidates would be reluctant to start their managerial career with the worst team in modern baseball history, concerned that an inherited mess might reflect on their future. But Venable — again, a man widely regarded as having a deeply sane baseball mind — saw something worth the risk.

“To understand (Getz’s) vision for this club, to see the things he’s accomplished this year and learn about more of the people, it was really a no-brainer,” Venable said.

That vision, at least this spring, includes deliberately not setting numerical expectations. Losing just 100 games in 2025 would require a 21-game improvement from a roster that saw almost every member of its once-promising previous generation depart via trade over the past two years. The only one left, outfielder Luis Robert, could be on the move soon. This spring, Robert was conspicuous in the clubhouse for his longevity: He has a tattoo of his name and number on a White Sox jersey on his calf. Dozens of his teammates were not even in the clubhouse with him this time last year.

Instead, the 2025 spring training room is filled with young, unproven faces, many of whom were acquired for discarded White Sox stars in the hopes that stockpiling enough young talent would ensure the outline of a new core would emerge.

Entering the third season of this painful process, that outline is still blurry. Catcher Korey Lee suffered through last year’s debacle with a .591 OPS in 125 games and seems likely to be Chicago’s starter behind the plate. But catchers Edgar Quero and Kyle Teel, the latter acquired in the deal that sent ace left-hander Garrett Crochet to the Boston Red Sox in the offseason, are both top-100 talents. With any injury to Lee or veteran signee Matt Thaiss, the latter seems likely to depart to make room for Quero or Teel.

In the infield, 25-year-old Lenyn Sosa is out of options but has flashed potential. Miguel Vargas, the prize of the deal that sent right-hander Michael Kopech to the Dodgers last summer, added visible strength to his frame after struggling in the months after the trade. Colson Montgomery, a 22-year-old who was Chicago’s first-round draft pick in 2021, had a tough season in Class AAA last year but could make his major league debut soon. Josh Rojas and Brandon Drury will hold space in the meantime. When young players are ready, veterans with something to prove will have to do so elsewhere.

The outfield is full of veterans, too. Austin Slater, Michael A. Taylor, Mike Tauchmann and Joey Gallo signed here knowing exactly what they were getting into — 121 losses and all — understanding their role would be to help provide enough experienced at-bats to stave off a similar showing.

“Last year, I was with the Nationals and we were in the same process of rebuilding. A lot of young guys coming up, and me being an older veteran guy just trying to help those guys when they get up here,” said Gallo, who is relatively ancient for the White Sox at 31.

“Real old,” said Taylor, 33, chiming in from his locker a few feet away. In some clubhouses, Gallo and Taylor and others would be complementary pieces. In this one, by virtue of having substantial major league experience, they will qualify as leaders.

Martín Pérez will do the same for a rotation that looks as solid as any of Chicago’s evolving units. Behind him, in a sign of the White Sox’s current situation, 24-year-old Jonathan Cannon earned the No. 2 spot with a 4.49 ERA in 21 starts as a rookie in 2024.

Behind him, Davis Martin established himself as a middle-of-the-rotation option last year. Bryse Wilson, designated for assignment by the Milwaukee Brewers after posting a 4.04 ERA as a swingman last year, should jump straight into the Chicago rotation, too. The bullpen is wide open, and the entire pitching staff will soon feature any number of prospects who are close to ready.

Such is life with the White Sox, who are patching together the present while betting their farm system can do something it hasn’t for quite some time, including during several years under Getz’s eye: turn top young talent into major league stars.

“Where things were when I started as a farm director to where things are now, I don’t think someone that experienced it seven years ago would recognize how it operates now. I think more than anything we’re more synced up as an organization,” said Getz, who was promoted to general manager after years heading the franchise’s player development. “ … You look at the pitching and hitting and infrastructure we have now, it’s just much different than what we had. I think we’re getting better results in quicker fashion.”

Quicker, of course, does not mean immediate. And even if the White Sox improve dramatically from 2024, they could still be one of baseball’s worst teams in 2025. But last year’s White Sox were uniquely sloppy, frustrating because the basics betrayed them as much as their talent.

So here, yards away from where the World Series champions’ star-studded roster readies for perfection, the White Sox merely hope for better than the worst — however far from playoff-ready that might leave them by year’s end.

“Essentially, [areas such as base running, defense and pitch-framing are] going to be the focus, and that’s going to really, I hope, speak to the infrastructure we have around the club to go out there and execute,” Getz said. “Those type of approaches and prioritizing those areas, if you stack up wins in those areas — wins in the way of just improvement — we think it’s going to show up in the wins and loss record.”