Here are your pitching matchups for the first series of the season at Rate Field, as the White Sox prepare to face the defending American League champion Toronto Blue Jays:
(Sox starter listed first)
Friday, 1:10 p.m.
Sean Burke (0-1, 6.75 ERA) vs. Dylan Cease (0-0, 1.69 ERA)
Saturday, 1:10 p.m.
Anthony Kay (0-0, 3.86 ERA) vs. Eric Lauer (1-0, 3.38 ERA)
Sunday, 1:10 p.m.
Davis Martin (1-0, 5.40 ERA) vs. TBD
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| Rate Field (Photo by Jason Bauman) |
Somewhat fittingly after the team's 1-5 disaster of a road trip to start the year, the game was postponed until Friday because of the forecast of inclement weather.
When it rains, it pours.
For the fourth consecutive season, I am choosing not to attend Opening Day at Rate Field. In fact, I have not purchased tickets for one single game in Chicago, and I do not intend to do so this season.
It's a difficult decision, but the team the Sox are putting on the field and the lackluster ballpark experience are not worth my valuable time and money -- and it's been this way for a while now.
The first home game used to be one of my favorite days of the year. Now, it is one of my least favorite days. It brings me great sadness what has happened to my baseball team.
Here's what Opening Day means to me now:
It's terrible to feel this way, but that's how it is. We're reduced to dreaming of the day when the 90-year-old miser who hates his paying customers is no longer owner of the team. It's the only way this changes.
One of the strangest things about this past month has been the level of optimism surrounding the 2026 White Sox. If you looked around on social media, you found plenty of folks who seemed to earnestly believe this team could approach .500 this season -- despite 324 losses over the past three years.
Not to be a cynic, but I wasn't feeling it. My prediction for the season was 63-99, and I was just trying to be nice. It still looks like a 100-loss team on paper to me, and I don't see how any objective observer could come to any conclusion other than the Sox look like the worst team in the American League.
I look up and down the roster, and I can't find a single guy who I can point at and say, "Yes, I know what that player is going to do. You can trust him." Not even one single player.
All of the rosy projections are based on wishful thinking. There are hopes that inexperienced players will take the next step. There are hopes that cherished prospects will arrive sometime during the season and boost the team. But it's all hoping and wishing. There's nothing concrete with this team that you can put your arms around.
There isn't a single guy in the starting rotation who is proven. The outfield is full of Quad-A players, or in the case of Andrew Benintendi, a guy who is past his prime. Every major preseason publication picked the Sox to come last in the AL Central, and rightfully so.
This first week of the season has been a disaster, a slap in the face. The Sox are 1-5 after a 10-0 loss to the Miami Marlins on Wednesday. In their first six games, they've been outscored 52-21. Four of their five losses have come by five runs or more. They also had a loss where they led 7-2, only to blow it by giving up six runs in the eighth inning.
The team ERA is 8.63, which is about three runs worse than the next-worst team in MLB. With a run differential of -31 six games into the season, they are lucky they are not 0-6.
Wednesday's starter, Shane Smith, is a great example of White Sox hoping and wishing. Nothing against Smith personally, who seems like a great guy. He's just being set up to fail.
Smith was one of the best stories of the 2025 season. He was a Rule 5 pick, a long shot to make the team last year. Not only did he make the team, he ended up being the Sox's lone All-Star representative. He went 7-8 with a 3.81 ERA in 29 starts and posted a 2.3 WAR as a rookie. Very solid, overachieving, round of applause for Smith for that season. Can't take it away from him.
Here's the problem: The Sox were so impressed by that season that they came into this year counting on Smith to be their ace. It's an unrealistic expectation and totally unfair to him. He was on the scrap heap as recently as 15 months ago, and there's a reason for that. Last year was a pleasant surprise, and it just might have been his career year.
Instead of being happy with that, the Sox convinced themselves that they had "found something" and hyped Smith up as a "budding star." They made him their Opening Day starter, almost by default, because they didn't add any credible starting pitching during the offseason.
Welp, guess what? Smith had a bad spring. He couldn't find the plate during the entirety of the Cactus League schedule. When the bell rang on March 26, he wasn't ready. He got knocked out in the second inning on Opening Day, having given up four runs against the Milwaukee Brewers. The Sox burned through their whole bullpen and lost 14-2.
Wednesday? Even worse. Smith gave up four runs in the first inning, two more in the second and two more in the third. Eight runs allowed, and the Sox were buried -- with their bullpen once again overtaxed.
Smith is now 0-2 with a ghastly 19.29 ERA. Another couple outings like this, and there will have to be serious conversations about sending him to Triple-A.
So much for that ace hype. The Sox are guilty of this ALL THE TIME. They put unreasonable expectations on players. They ask them to perform beyond their capabilities.
That's not to say give up on Smith. He might right the ship. But if he does, he's an option for the back of the starting rotation. Former Rule 5 picks are not pitchers who should be considered the centerpiece of your staff. It's ludicrous.
Some questionable lineup and managerial decisions. Underperformance by some highly decorated players.
That's the story for Team USA, which had to settle for silver in the World Baseball Classic after losing 3-2 to Venezuela in Tuesday's championship game in Miami.
The U.S. bats were kept quiet until the bottom of the eighth, when Bryce Harper delivered a two-out, two-run, 432-foot home run to center field to tie the score at 2.
It could have been an iconic home run in baseball history, but it will mostly be forgotten because Venezuela answered quickly with a run in the top of the ninth and made that lead stick.
Reliever Garrett Whitlock walked Luis Arraez to start the ninth, and Eugenio Suarez followed with an RBI double that provided the Venezuelans the winning run.
Honestly, it was silly to not throw strikes to Arraez, a contact hitter without much power. If you throw Arraez a strike, the worst thing that will likely happen is he will hit it for a single. You can't just give him a base. You have to make it earn it.
Suarez is a completely different type of hitter -- big power, but a lot of swing-and-miss. If you lay one in to him, he can hurt you, and he most definitely hurt Whitlock and Team USA.
Why did they pitch Arraez like a slugger and then challenge Suarez in the middle of the plate? No idea.
A better question: Why was Whitlock out there anyway? Mason Miller is Team USA's best reliever, but apparently he was only available for a "save situation."
That's weird. Can you pitch an inning or can you not? What difference does it make whether it's a save situation?
When asked after the game why Miller wasn't used, Team USA manager Mark DeRosa said he wanted to "honor the Padres" by only using Miller if there was an opportunity for a save.
The San Diego Padres, of course, are Miller's MLB team. But what's the priority here? "Honoring the Padres" or winning a game for your country?
That's why this tournament, as much as I enjoy it, still doesn't carry a lot of weight with people.
DeRosa's taking a lot of heat for the U.S. loss and rightfully so. Gunnar Henderson had been the hottest American hitter in the tournament. He did not start in the championship game, so Alex Bregman, who is ice-cold, could go 0 for 3. Cal Raleigh, who hit 60 home runs last season, didn't leave the bench in this final game.
In fairness, Raleigh was hitless in the tournament, and he wasn't the only big name who was quiet for the U.S. Aaron Judge was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts in the title game. Even with his big homer, Harper hit only .214 for the tournament. Will Smith, who was catching instead of Raleigh, was hitless Tuesday night. Bregman batted .143 in the WBC.
Not great. A lot of blame to go around, for both the manager and the players.
White Sox catcher Kyle Teel is expected to miss four to six weeks with a Grade 2 hamstring strain, general manager Chris Getz announced on Wednesday.
Teel, who was playing for Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic, was injured Tuesday running from first base to second after doubling in Italy's 8-6 win over the United States.
Earlier in Tuesday's game, Teel homered to give his team the lead. Italy was a surprise winner in Pool B of the WBC, as it completed a 4-0 run through pool play with a 9-1 win over Mexico on Wednesday night.
With two weeks to go until the regular season begins, it is certain that Teel will begin the season on the injured list. The best-case scenario involves a return around mid-April, which would likely require a rehab assignment in Triple-A Charlotte.
Most likely, Teel will not play for the Sox until late April or early May.
Fortunately, the Sox have depth at catcher. There's been an offseason debate over who will be the team's long-term answer at the position, Teel or Edgar Quero?
With Teel out, Quero will get the chance to catch the overwhelming majority of the games this first month. Despite plenty of trade speculation, the Sox also have Korey Lee on their roster. The pitchers like throwing to Lee, who is a respectable defensive player. You wouldn't want Lee to be your starting catcher because he doesn't hit enough, but he's fine as a backup who plays once or twice a week.
Injuries are inevitable in sports, and despite all the crying from Sox fans on social media, Teel's pulled hamstring does not change the trajectory of the season. It shouldn't be a long-term injury, and the Sox have other players who are capable of filling in.
I haven't written much about spring training games because I put no stock in the results or the statistics.
The White Sox are 7-6 through their first 13 Cactus League games, which is fine. It's better than being 3-10 like we've seen in previous years.
But one thing I've noticed, the Sox are 0-5 in one-run games this spring. The latest such loss happened Tuesday, 4-3 to the San Diego Padres.
Of course, it's minor league players in there at the end of games, but my eyebrows are raised a little bit because the Sox have been almost comically terrible in one-run games the past two years.
In 2024, they went 13-29 in such games. Last season, they were 15-36. That makes them 28-65 over the past two seasons in games decided by one run.
I can almost hear Chuck Garfien's voice in my head right now: "There's no way they're going to lose that many one-run games again this season! If they had won even two of those one-run losses they have this spring, they'd be 9-4 right now!"
Just something to keep an eye on once the games start to matter. Winners find a way. So do losers.
If you want to watch the White Sox spring training opener against the Cubs on Friday, you'll have to turn on Marquee Network.
You might want to mute the TV to avoid that extra helping of Cubbie glee.
Given that it's the first game of spring, and given that the opponent is the other Chicago team, you'd think Chicago Sports Network would be on the air with Sox-centric coverage.
But you'd be wrong. You'll have to wait until Saturday to see the first Sox broadcast of the spring. Here's the list of spring games appearing on the network this year:
Only nine games. You'd think they'd show more. What else does Chicago Sports Network have to show on February and March afternoons? The World Series of Poker? Outdoors Today? The Chuck Garfien White Sox podcast?
Wouldn't it be better to just show the games?
Of course, that would cost money. It would require sponsorships. It would require Sox announcers to actually want to show up.
That's not really how things work around here.
