The White Sox are facing another Rule 5 crunch, and this time the decision looks pretty straightforward on one name and much less so on the others. With the draft giving teams a chance to poach unprotected players and with Chicago still carrying the memory of landing Shane Smith in the 2025 Rule 5 draft, the club has a few eligible players to sort through before the 40-man roster decisions are made.
The clearest case for protection is infielder William Bergolla Jr. Acquired in the 2024 deal that sent lefty Tanner Banks to the Phillies, Bergolla had his season derailed by a freak injury, but before that he was doing enough to make a big-league debut feel close.
The 21-year-old turned heads in spring training and then opened Triple-A Charlotte with a .444/.524/.566 line in 11 games. His profile is built on bat-to-ball ability, speed, and defense, and while he’s not projected to be a big impact hitter, he looks like the kind of utility infielder teams value.
With Triple-A time already on his resume and tools that should play at any level, Bergolla looks like an easy 40-man add.
The other side of the ledger is much less urgent. Jeral Perez, another player brought in during the 2024 trade deadline in the same deal that landed Miguel Vargas from the Dodgers, put together a solid 2025 in High-A as a 20-year-old, finishing with a .763 OPS and 22 homers.
But his move to Double-A in 2026 at age 21 exposed him, and the production cratered. In 60 games with Birmingham, he hit just .180 with a .563 ERA before being sent back to High-A.
His numbers have improved since the demotion, but he still hasn’t shown he can handle upper-level pitching. He’s only 21, so the upside is still there, but he hasn’t given anyone enough reason to believe he can stick on a big-league roster all year if selected in Rule 5.
Ryan Burrowes is in a similar spot. The Panama native has been in the organization since signing at 17 in 2022, and he was putting together the best offensive season of his career before cooling off after reaching Double-A.
Known more for his glove than his bat, Burrowes has already set a career high with 11 home runs this season. Even so, his upper-minors offense still doesn’t look strong enough to draw real Rule 5 interest.
At 22, he needs to start turning the corner with the bat if he wants to lock himself into the club’s long-term plans.
Then there’s left-hander Shane Murphy, whose case has already played out once. The White Sox passed on protecting him last year despite a 1.66 ERA over 135 minor league innings, and he went unselected.
After getting a big-league spring training invite, Murphy has taken a clear step back in 2025, posting a 4.64 ERA in 129 innings. That drop has made the earlier decision look better in hindsight, and unless he gets added before the season ends, he’ll be eligible again this offseason.
For now, the expectation is the same as it was before: Murphy stays exposed for Rule 5.
In Other News...
White Sox Stadium Dream Just Got Real With One Huge Catch
A new White Sox ballpark is moving from concept to something a little more tangible. Justin Ishbias Canal Edge development company has released the first information and renderings for a proposed stadium called The Railyards, a project planned for Bridgeport across the Chicago River. The design leans into a nostalgic look, with an open roof and architectural touches meant to echo Comiskey Park, while placing the venue along West Roosevelt Road and West 18th Street.
The appeal is obvious for a franchise that has spent years dealing with uncertainty around its home future, but the path forward still looks complicated. The site comes with a major obstacle in the form of active railyards that would need to be relocated, and even with the visuals now public, the project still needs city approval and funding before it can move beyond the dream stage. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Future Just Got More Interesting For One Strange Reason
The White Sox have turned the final stretch of the season into something more than a division race, sitting atop the AL Central with a little more than 20 games left. But the bigger long-view conversation around Chicagos rebuild is starting to take on a strange new wrinkle, because the next truly meaningful wave of young talent may arrive right when the sports calendar gets complicated.
Ongoing MLB labor negotiations have made a 2027 lockout look increasingly likely, and if that happens, players on the 40-man roster would be the ones sidelined. That is where the White Soxs farm system comes into focus, with top prospects Roch Cholowsky and Caleb Bonemer projected to play major roles in the organization by then and possibly put themselves in position for debuts if a season is played. For a team trying to line up its next contender, the timing could end up mattering almost as much as the talent. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Prospects Are Giving This Farm System Some Real Momentum
A little momentum in the White Sox farm system has been hard to miss lately, and a few of the organizations younger arms helped keep it rolling. David Sandlin, Grant Umberger and Fabian Ysalla combined to allow four earned runs over 16.1 innings while striking out 20 in recent minor league games, a stretch that gave the system a much-needed jolt across multiple levels.
Sandlin was sharp for the Triple-A Charlotte Knights, striking out 11 in a win, while Umberger delivered six innings with five strikeouts in a playoff-clinching victory for the High-A Winston-Salem Dash. Even the Single-A Kannapolis Cannon Ballers found a way to add to the mood, winning a close one with six stolen bases, while the Double-A Birmingham Barons had their game washed out by rain. [Read more 🡒]