ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The White Sox are in first place in the American League Central, but that hasn’t kept the trade deadline from hanging over the clubhouse. With Monday approaching, Will Venable said the team has already talked through the possibility that the roster could look different very soon.
“There's a non-zero chance that the DNA of our club changes here over the next couple of days,” Will Venable said. “We just want to be prepared for that, and make sure that it's not more of a distraction than it needs to be.”
That kind of language fits the reality around this deadline. Around the league, the market is short on true sellers, and the few clubs in that group - including the Royals and Tigers in the AL Central - are not expected to make it easy for the White Sox to land players with multiple years of control. Tarik Skubal is not expected to be a realistic target, either.
The bigger issue is supply. The teams that are selling don’t have much to move, which is part of why they’re selling in the first place.
That scarcity has pushed prices up, and a lot of the buyers are clubs that believe they’re in the race but not at the peak of their window yet. Those front offices aren’t eager to pay a premium just to chase 2026.
The White Sox fit that description. Venable is still talking openly about the postseason and the World Series as goals within reach, but the front office is signaling something more cautious behind the scenes: it is not inclined to part with major prospect capital for a team it still views as early in its contention timeline. The idea that the 2026 White Sox are ahead of schedule to be leading the AL Central has been coming up a lot lately.
Even so, league scouts believe rental prices should stay relatively normal, and some think the White Sox could still wind up with a rental starter and a catcher once the deadline passes. Kyle Teel is still wearing his walking boot under his catching gear while working through defensive drills, so catching depth remains a need.
That possibility was enough to prompt a clubhouse meeting to keep the focus where it belongs.
“It’s something to address,” Davis Martin said. “Obviously, it can be a distraction, just like how the All Star break can be a distraction.
There's always these little phases inside the season that kind of take your attention away from the game. It's just reprioritizing, 'Hey, can we control this?
Can we control that?' If we can't, stop and just try to stay focused on our path.”
The White Sox also have a separate off-field effort underway. Munetaka Murakami plans to donate to relief efforts in his hometown of Kamamoto, Japan after a deadly earthquake earlier this week, and the White Sox are organizing an auction of souvenir items on Aug. 4, with the proceeds going to the same cause.
On the field, Drew Thorpe’s rehab work is moving forward. His next start will come next Wednesday with Double-A Birmingham and will be built out to five innings.
The original plan had him pitching Tuesday for Triple-A Charlotte, but the White Sox decided that would create too much disruption for the Knights’ pitching schedule, so he’ll make one more appearance with the Barons before moving up. His last outing for Birmingham was a sharp one: four scoreless innings, one hit allowed.
“He had to go down to the pen to finish the pitch count because he was so efficient the first four innings,” Venable said.
The organization also moved outfielder James Taussig to Double-A Birmingham. The 23-year-old, who went undrafted, hit .284/.380/.639 in 40 games at High-A, though he also struck out at a 30.2 percent clip.
Venable is also dealing with a bullpen that has been stretched thin. The group covered 11 innings over the past two days, and this is the eighth day of a 10-game stretch in 10 days.
“Big impact here,” Venable said. “It’s really going to take starting pitchers and the guys who are available in the bullpen to go out and cover innings and hopefully do it in a way to help us win some games.
We are thin in the pen and I don’t think there’s any way to hid it. You have the game against Houston with the eight-run sixth where we had to use a bunch of guys set it up.
Then you finish that homestand with two extra innings games, the pen is feeling it.”
Before the game, infielders and outfielders worked on tracking popups and fly balls against the white Tropicana Field roof. Maybe that helps.
Venable said Miguel Vargas looks better than his post-All-Star break numbers show. Vargas has hit .204/.271/.352 in 13 games since the break, though Derek Shomon wearing Vargas’ single dangly earring in batting practice on Friday was at least one attempt to change the offensive feel.
First pitch is White Sox at Rays. TV: CHSN. Radio: ESPN 1000 AM.
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