Bryan Hudson’s 2026 season gave the White Sox a little bit of everything: volume, versatility and a strange little slice of team history.
Hudson led the club with 70 appearances, and he did it while posting the lowest walk rate among Sox pitchers with at least 23 innings, averaging 2.4 walks per nine innings. The workload came with a pile of firsts and career bests, too. He set personal highs with 70 appearances, nine starts, eight saves and 67.1 innings for the 2026 Sox.
The left-hander also carved out a notable role in the postseason. Hudson inherited five runners in the playoffs and none of them scored, a feat topped only by Neal Cotts, who inherited seven in 2005 without allowing a run.
One of Hudson’s biggest moments came in Game 1 of the American League Division Series in Cleveland, when he entered in the third inning with the bases loaded and escaped without giving up a run. He joined Octavio Dotel (Game 1 2008 ALDS), Orlando Hernandez (G3 2005 ALDS), Tim Belcher (G4 1992 ALCS) and Dick Donovan (G5 1959 WS) as Sox pitchers to enter a postseason game with the bags loaded and not allow any runs.
Erick Fedde duplicated the feat in Game 4, making him the 10th pitcher to inherit a bases-loaded jam in Sox postseason history.
Hudson’s usage in the first two months of the season was also unusual. His 15 appearances in March and April were the most ever by a Sox lefty and tied Dominic Leone’s 2024 club record. And his eight saves put him in a rare spot in franchise history, too.
Those eight saves tied Neal Cotts’ 2006 mark for the most by a Sox pitcher from Illinois in a season, and they rank tied for fourth among Illinois natives in White Sox history, behind Ed Farmer, who owns the top three spots on that list. At 6-foot-8, Hudson became the tallest pitcher in Sox history to record a save. Among left-handers listed at 6-8 or taller, only Lee Guetterman had more saves in a season, finishing with 13 for the 1989 Yankees.
Hudson’s eight saves were also the most by a Sox lefty since Chris Sale had eight in 2021. The last White Sox southpaw to top that total was Damaso Marte, who had 11 in 2003.
In Other News...
Anthony Kays White Sox Season Brought Real Value And One Ugly Question
Anthony Kay gave the White Sox plenty to feel good about in 2026, even if his season came with more than a little edge. He reached career highs with 10 wins, 33 appearances and 129 strikeouts, and along the way he carved out a strange little place in club history, from becoming the pitcher with the lowest uniform number ever to start a postseason game for Chicago to turning in a start that will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.
The value was real enough, especially in a year when he also showed he could handle left-handed hitters and pitch his way through bases-loaded trouble. But Kays season also left behind one ugly question that hangs over an otherwise productive year, and it is the kind of issue the White Sox cannot simply shrug off if they want his gains to mean something beyond one useful regular season. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Face A Rotation Question Cheap Fixes May Not Solve
The White Sox have spent enough time shopping in the short-term pitching aisle to know the bargains can cut both ways. Last offseason, smaller bets on Anthony Kay and Erick Fedde gave the club serviceable innings and helped push the team into the postseason, a reminder that modest investments can still matter when a rotation needs stabilizing.
But the broader pattern has been harder to ignore, with some of those quick fixes outperforming expectations and others falling short of the mark. As Chicago looks ahead, the starting pitcher market is going to be part of the conversation again, because the club still has to decide whether another low-cost patch is enough or whether the rotation needs a more lasting answer. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Kept Betting On Luis Robert Jr And It Cost Them
Luis Robert Jr.s rise and fall has become one of the clearest reminders of how quickly a franchise can go from building around a centerpiece to trying to move on from one. After his breakout 2023 season, the White Sox kept betting on the talented center fielder even as injuries and performance issues chipped away at his value in 2024 and 2025. His production had slipped below league average, but the appeal of his upside never really disappeared, which is why his name kept surfacing in roster decisions and trade conversations.
Now Robert is headed into free agency with interest expected from several teams, leaving Chicago to reckon with what it got and what it never quite could. For the White Sox, it is another costly chapter in a rebuild that has been forced to absorb both the promise Robert once represented and the reality of how little certainty came with it. [Read more 🡒]