Weak AL provides opportunity, but Getz vows to keep White Sox focused on future

One good weekend is all it would take to put the White Sox in playoff position.

While the Sox were counting on modest improvements this year after three straight 100-loss seasons, the rest of the American League met them in the middle, so to speak.

It's only early May, but heading into Friday's action, the Sox were just two games out of the AL Central lead and the No. 2 playoff seed.

The next good weekend may not be this one, however. Seattle's Luke Raley piled up 7 RBI on 2 home runs and the Mariners beat the Sox 12-8 at Rate Field.

The night got off to a great start for the Sox as Munetaka Murakami delivered his 15th home run of the season to left field in the first inning. He became the first player in MLB history to homer in the first game of eight consecutive series.

White Sox starter Sean Burke extended his scoreless streak to 15 innings by retiring the side in the opening inning. But the shutout pitching ended in the second, with a bases-loaded hit by pitch, then Raley dropped a two-out grand slam into the Mariners bullpen in the third.

Colson Montgomery's 3-run double in the bottom of the third tied the score 5-5, but Julio Rodriguez homered off Burke, then Raley and Josh Naylor tacked on 3-run blasts in the seventh and eighth innings to stretch the lead. Randal Grichuk hit his first Sox homer in the ninth.

So that's three straight losses after the Sox missed a chance to reach .500 and climb into first place last Tuesday in Anaheim. Speaking to reporters Friday, general manager Chris Getz said he doesn't see playoff contention changing the team's long-range plans.

“It's never been about 2026,” Getz said. “I can assure you, we're not going to lose sight of the big picture. We knew going into 2026 we were going to make a meaningful step in the right direction.

“We wanted to really feel it by year's end. There's a way to do that without making significant moves at a trade deadline.”

No one really expects the Sox to start offering young players in trades and try to make a big splash at the deadline. If all goes well, the Sox should have two more notable MLB debuts in the next few months — outfielder Braden Montgomery and pitcher Hagen Smith. If pitcher Tanner McDougal gets healthy in Charlotte, he could be the third.

The White Sox are also eagerly awaiting the return of catcher Kyle Teel from the hamstring strain suffered in the World Baseball Classic. Getz said Teel will run the bases this weekend and if the hamstring holds up, he could head for a rehab assignment as soon as Tuesday.

“We're not losing sight of what we're building toward here,” Getz said. “We just want to continue to play quality baseball, compete. We feel like we have a chance to win. In the past you almost needed to be perfect.

“Now the lineup is deeper, the rotation is deeper, we've got some weapons in the bullpen that allow us to finish off games, the defense is improved. We just want to stay at it. We'll see where things go.”

Burke was the key to the White Sox staying competitive Friday. He lowered his season ERA to 2.72 after throwing 6 shutout innings in San Diego last week. But this was his worst outing of 2026, with 6 earned runs allowed in 4⅓ innings.

“I just didn't think I did a very good job of executing pitches,” Burke said. “Being in the zone in general, and then command within the zone was just bad. So just leaving some stuff too middle, and then having the misses be too big.

“Especially on a night when the offense was putting up runs against good arms, it's frustrating to waste a night like that.”