Davis Martin has gone from surviving the Chicago White Sox’s darkest stretch to fronting their most promising one, and he’s doing it with the kind of calm that makes the whole thing sound almost casual.
The 29-year-old right-hander has been one of the biggest reasons the Sox have climbed into the conversation this season. He started Saturday’s 2-1 walk-off win over the Kansas City Royals, working 5 1/3 scoreless innings as Chicago earned its 43rd win at the season’s halfway point. Martin didn’t factor into the decision, but he was exactly where he wanted to be when the game tightened in the ninth: in the dugout, locked in like a fan.
“This year,” he said to me recently, “I feel like a fan watching the games.”
And for a guy who gets paid to watch his team finish off comeback wins, that’s not a bad setup.
Martin’s perspective on this season is shaped by everything that came before it. He’s the only player in the clubhouse who played for Tony La Russa, and for him, this run feels like a reset after years of slogging through the opposite. He put it plainly.
“I feel like I’ve (gotten) to experience all the terrible lows,” he said. “And so just to be able to be on this upswing and feel like we’re battling for a first-place position, we’re playing good baseball, it makes me realize just how much fun baseball is when you win.”
That joy has been a real part of the Sox’s season, not just a talking point. The club has leaned on young talent and a wave of minor-league call-ups who came up and looked like they belonged right away. The dugout has taken on a looser, more connected feel, helped in part by injured reliever Mike Vasil and his collection of props.
Martin said the group has embraced the team side of the game in a way that doesn’t always happen.
“I think coming up through the minor leagues, at times it can be pretty lonely because it feels like everybody’s trying to get to their spot,” Martin said. “And I think this team has fully embraced the team aspect.”
The results back it up. Going into Thursday’s start in Cleveland, the Sox had won 12 of Martin’s 16 outings this season.
That’s a dramatic swing from where things stood in the last two years. In 2024, Chicago won only one of his 11 appearances.
Last year, the Sox went 9-17 in the games he pitched.
Martin has lived through all of it. A 14th-round pick in 2018 - the Nick Madrigal draft - he reached the majors in 2022, right as the organization began its long descent. He pitched under La Russa and Miguel Cairo while the roster was stocked with veterans and still managed to see a very different version of the rotation.
“I mean our rotation was (Dylan) Cease, (Lucas) Giolito, (Johnny) Cueto, Lance Lynn,” he said. “It’s a little different now, just a little bit.”
Then came Tommy John surgery, a year away, and a return in late July 2024 to a team that was barreling through one of the bleakest seasons in baseball history. Martin’s first game back was July 27, out of the bullpen, and the Sox lost to fall to 27-80.
His first start came on Aug. 2, when he allowed four runs in a loss that dropped Chicago to 27-85. He never got a win that season, though the Sox did win his final start on Sept. 25, a result that pushed them to 38-120.
Now the story is completely different. Martin is 9-3 with a 3.00 ERA.
He’s working with former pitching coach Ethan Katz and new pitching coach Zach Bove, and he’s regularly using six pitches, including a sharp slider he turns to as a strikeout weapon. The analytics crowd may not always love his stuff, but opposing hitters haven’t had much fun with it either.
If things keep going this way, he’s tracking toward an All-Star nod, Cy Young votes and maybe a postseason start.
His younger brother, Brock, helped put that in perspective during a recent visit from Austin, Texas.
“He was just like, can you imagine you were watching those Texas Rangers games when we’re 10, 11, 12 years old and now we’re sitting here in downtown Chicago eating a dinner after a game,” Martin said. “It’s kind of fun to kind of have those moments to kind of pop your head out of the trenches, and be like, ‘This is really cool. I really enjoy this’ and then go back down and get back to work.”
Chicago’s success has been built at Rate Field. The Sox are 28-14 at home and have won 10 straight series on the South Side.
On the road, they’re 17-25. Martin’s numbers follow the same split: 5-0 with a 0.88 ERA in seven home starts, 4-3 with a 4.67 ERA in nine road starts.
He pointed out that the road ERA is shaped by two rough outings at Yankee Stadium and Target Field, and he doesn’t seem overly concerned.
“I feel like our starters, all of our blowups have been on the road and so it just kind of inflates those ERAs,” he said.
Even with the strong start, there’s still work to do. The Sox were 45-39 with a two-game lead over Cleveland in the AL Central going into Tuesday’s game, but the playoff odds still lagged behind the standings - PECOTA had them at 35.7 percent, and FanGraphs had them just under 40 percent. Martin knows the margins remain thin, and Erick Fedde, another holdover from that 2024 club, keeps reminding everyone not to take anything for granted.
Still, this team has already shown enough to believe in itself.
“I think we could beat anybody, and I think we’ve shown that,” Martin said. “The biggest thing is the confidence is there.
And that’s always the most important key. When it’s a tight spot and a tight game, we don’t flinch.
They flinch. We win.”
In Other News...
White Sox Fans Wont Love Where Nick Madrigal Just Resurfaced
Nick Madrigals career has taken another turn, and it brings back a familiar name for White Sox fans who remember how quickly his time on the South Side changed. The former fourth-overall pick once looked like a cornerstone in the infield, showing real contact skills in a brief run with Chicago before being sent to the Cubs in the Craig Kimbrel deal, a move that still lingers as one of those reminders of how fast a rebuild can shift direction.
Now Madrigal is trying to get back on track after a stint with the Angels, where he was the odd man out when the roster got healthier and he opted for free agency rather than accepting a minor league assignment. The Rays have parked him at Triple-A Durham for now, with a chance to earn a return to the majors, and his path will be worth watching for a White Sox club that has since moved on from the old draft-and-development approach that once made him such a central part of the conversation. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Could Change Everything With One Massive Lineup Move
The White Sox have positioned themselves well in the American League Central, and that has made every potential upgrade feel a little more real. With the lineup still looking for another impact bat, the discussion around possible additions is starting to turn from general to specific, and Houston has become part of that conversation for obvious reasons.
One name that keeps surfacing is Yordan Alvarez, a hitter who would instantly change the shape of Chicagos order if he ever became available. The complication is that Houston still controls him for two more years, and whether that changes may depend on how the Astros look over the next two weeks, which leaves the White Sox watching closely and waiting for the market to clarify itself. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Face Defining First Pick Question As Draft Pressure Builds
Since Mike Shirley took over as scouting director in 2020, the White Sox have built a pretty clear draft identity: steer away from high school pitching, lean into hitters who get on base, and use the middle rounds to stock up on college arms who can move faster through the system. It has been a balanced approach overall, but with a definite lean toward college pitching when the board reaches those deeper stages, and recent names in the pipeline reflect that mix of strike-throwing upside and everyday offensive skill.
Now the real challenge arrives with the 2026 draft, where the White Sox will have to decide how much of that philosophy carries over when the stakes are highest. Their success in that class will hinge on how they use the first overall pick, a choice that could shape the organization for years and force a test of whether their established habits fit the player who might be available when they are on the clock. [Read more 🡒]