Caleb Bonemer didn’t take long to make noise when he saw Gerrit Cole, and the White Sox prospect hasn’t stopped talking about it since.
Bonemer, one of the brightest young names in the organization, turned in a monster season that included 37 home runs in his second full big league campaign. His breakout started in Winston-Salem and kept rolling in Birmingham, but one of the most memorable stretches came during that Winston-Salem run, when he got a rehab assignment matchup with Cole and wound up in the middle of an online firestorm.
Bonemer opened the game by jumping on a fastball and sending it into the left-field seats for a home run. He followed that with a single in his second plate appearance, then got hit by a pitch in his third trip, which set off plenty of debate about whether the moment was intentional.
Cole’s frustration was obvious, and some viewers immediately questioned the pitch. But Bonemer said this week, in an interview with Chuck Garfein, that he treated the at-bat like any other.
“I just tried to take it like any other at bat”, Bonemer said. “Luckily he kinda gave me a good fastball to hit and I put a good swing on it.”
When the conversation turned to the hit-by-pitch and whether he thought it was on purpose, Bonemer kept it light.
“Everybody was telling me like ‘oh, you should show some emotion or say something back’ but I mean, what else can I say? I did my job and that’s that”
The moment played out loud in real time, but Bonemer’s reaction afterward says plenty about where his head is at. He looked at it as a good day’s work - three times on base against a former Cy Young winner, rehab assignment or not.
And if Bonemer keeps developing the way he has over the last couple of seasons, a second meeting with Cole may not be far off. Barring any lockout changes to the calendar, the White Sox are scheduled to face the Yankees in July and September of 2027. The White Sox went 3-4 against New York in 2026, and as the roster continues to improve, Bonemer is expected to be a major part of what comes next.
That leaves the door open for a rematch that would have plenty of eyes on it. Bonemer vs. Cole could be back on the schedule in 2027, and it would be must-see TV.
In Other News...
White Sox Offseason Blueprint Hints At A Much Bigger Reset
The White Sox are heading into the offseason with a roster that already looks like it could use a few more layers of clarification, from arbitration-eligible players to looming free agents and a handful of moving parts left over from recent transactions. The broader picture in the clubs planning is easy enough to see: Chicago is sorting through depth, role fit and a potential lineup structure for next season, while also weighing how aggressive it wants to be as the front office keeps reshaping the roster around a long-term plan.
Recent trades have only added to the sense that this winter could bring more turnover, with the team already pulling in Braxton Ashcraft and sketching out how players like Freddy Peralta and Alec Bohm fit into the larger discussion. The intriguing part for White Sox fans is how much more movement might still be coming, because the current blueprint suggests the organization is still willing to make bigger, harder choices if it means accelerating the reset. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Link To Superstar Starter Raises A Bigger Front Office Question
As the White Sox head toward free agency, the conversation around their roster fits is already bigger than just plugging a few holes. Starting pitching remains a need, and so does outfield depth, which is why Jim Bowden of The Athletic linked Chicago to Tarik Skubal while ranking the left-hander as the top free agent on the market and putting the Dodgers and Mets in the same bucket of possible suitors.
The tougher question is whether a club still operating under financial constraints and a fairly cautious roster-building philosophy can realistically chase that kind of impact arm. Bowdens broader point was less about a likely chase and more about the kind of decision the White Sox front office has to make if it wants to accelerate the rebuild, because the market for a star starter of this caliber is expected to test every teams appetite for spending. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Rotation Search Just Got Real About One Harsh Limit
The White Sox are already being pushed into the 2026 starting-pitching market, and the early list is a reminder of how hard it is to build a rotation from the top down. Tarik Skubal sits at the center of the conversation because he is the sort of arm every team would want to chase, but the reality is more complicated than the name alone. Chicagos search has also turned toward a handful of other free-agent and trade possibilities, with each one carrying a different mix of cost, risk and fit.
Freddy Peralta is emerging as the more realistic high-end target for the White Sox, which says plenty about where the clubs search may actually lead. Clay Holmes, meanwhile, still lingers as a name worth watching after past trade chatter, but he looks more like a fallback than a front-line answer. Beyond that, Chicago is sorting through left-handed options such as Foster Griffin and Trevor Rogers, trying to find a path that makes sense without overreaching for the wrong kind of help. [Read more 🡒]