The Padres have turned the National League’s late-season picture into something much simpler than the mess in the American League. San Diego has won 13 of its last 14 games, and that surge has put three familiar names from White Sox circles right in the middle of the club’s playoff push.
Those three players are Gavin Sheets, Austin Hays and Dustin Harris - all former White Sox pieces in one form or another, and all now helping San Diego chase October.
Sheets is the headliner of the group. The 30-year-old was a second-round pick by the White Sox and is now in his second year with the Padres after Chicago non-tendered him before 2025.
He flashed enough during his White Sox run to keep people interested, but never locked down a true everyday role. His 2025 season with San Diego changed that conversation some, as he hit 19 home runs and posted a career-best .746 ERA.
That earned him more runway this year, and he started strong by batting .264 with four homers in April. That stretch included a two-homer game and a walk-off homer against the Rockies on April 10th.
The season has been rougher since then. A bad July and August dragged down his line, and Sheets is now hitting .211 with a .701 OPS.
He hasn’t appeared since August 29th and went on the injured list on August 30th with a foot sprain, though the Padres are hoping he’ll be back for the Postseason. The bat won’t win any awards, but the left-handed power is real, and that’s exactly the kind of ingredient San Diego will want in October.
Hays has followed a different path to the same destination. The White Sox brought in the former Orioles All-Star this offseason while trying to patch their outfield after trading Luis Robert Jr., and he looked like a regular from the start.
Injuries wrecked that plan almost immediately, though, and Hays lasted only 12 games in a White Sox uniform. When he was ready to return at the beginning of August, the Sox had no room for him because Randal Grichuk had taken off, and they designated Hays for assignment on August 7th.
San Diego moved quickly, grabbing him two days later. Since then, Hays has hit .788 in 21 games for the Padres. He’s mostly a part-time piece, but the production has mattered, and his experience gives the club another useful option as the games get bigger.
Then there’s Harris, the most winding story of the three. He signed a minor league deal with the White Sox in the offseason, got pushed into action in April because of a pair of outfield injuries, and appeared in six games for Chicago.
In that brief stint, he went 3-for-12 with an RBI and four walks, good for a .771 OPS. The White Sox designated him for assignment, he moved on to the Astros and put up a .576 OPS in 11 games, then found his way back into the White Sox organization later in the year.
That didn’t last, either. After another release, Harris signed a minor league deal with the Padres and joined the big league roster on August 24th.
Since then, he’s been a different player entirely, hitting .353 with an .840 OPS in 22 games. He has worked himself into an everyday role down the stretch, and the Padres should have a significant place for him when October arrives.
In Other News...
White Sox Wild Card Cushion Suddenly Feels Less Comfortable
The White Sox have spent much of the stretch run in a more comfortable position than some of the clubs chasing them, but the picture is getting tighter as the Astros keep hanging around the postseason race. Houston still has two ways in, either by catching Texas in the AL West or by climbing past Chicago for the final American League wild card spot, and the fact that the Astros own the tiebreaker in both directions adds another layer to the pressure on everyone involved.
For Chicago, that means the cushion in the wild card standings can no longer be treated like firm ground. Houstons path depends on a combination of its own remaining games and results elsewhere, with Texas, Toronto and Baltimore all part of the larger postseason puzzle, but the White Sox are the team most directly in the crosshairs. The margin is still there for now, yet it is the kind of lead that can shrink quickly when one contender is playing with multiple routes and every game around them starts to matter. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Suddenly Have A Breakout Problem Fans Will Love
Chase Meidroth and Sam Antonacci have become the kind of young hitters the White Sox have been waiting for, and both have done it in ways that make the present feel a lot more interesting than the rebuild chatter around them. Meidroth has taken a major step forward from his 2025 debut, while Antonacci has settled in as a top-of-the-order type who can get on base and is also learning how to handle the outfield.
The good problem is that Chicago may not have an easy path to fitting both players into the same long-term picture. Their skills overlap in some ways, the roster already has other young options in the pipeline, and the White Sox could eventually have to sort out whether either player settles into a platoon, a utility role or becomes part of a bigger trade discussion. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Fans Just Lost A Respected Voice From 2005
Don Cooper, one of the most recognizable voices and most respected hands in the White Sox dugout for nearly two decades, has died at 70 in Brentwood, Tennessee, according to a family statement. Cooper spent 2002 through 2020 as Chicagos pitching coach and was part of the staff that helped guide the 2005 club to a World Series title, making him a familiar figure to multiple generations of White Sox fans.
The organization offered its condolences and pointed back to Coopers long run with the club, noting his 33 seasons as a coach within the White Sox system. For a fan base that still remembers the 2005 run as a defining moment, his passing lands as more than just another note from team history - it is the loss of a steady presence tied to one of the franchises most celebrated eras. [Read more 🡒]