The White Sox are sending six more players into winter ball as they look to squeeze every last bit out of the offseason.
A group of prospects and younger big leaguers have already been working in the Arizona Fall League, but the club added another wave of names who will keep playing beyond the end of the 2026 season. Edgar Quero, Juan Carela, Adisyn Coffey, Junior Perez, Riley Gowens and Samuel Zavala are all set to report to winter leagues in the coming weeks.
Quero’s assignment is the most familiar of the bunch. The White Sox had already been linked to his winter plans, but now it’s official: he’ll join Estrellas Orientales in the Dominican Winter League and report on 11/5.
After Kyle Teel’s spring injury opened the door, Quero took on a major role in Chicago, but the bat never really caught up. In 69 games, he hit .203 with a .541 OPS, and his work behind the plate remained a problem.
Last offseason, Quero turned to driveline for swing adjustments. This year, he’s taking a different route, hoping the winter work leads to a much cleaner 2027.
Carela’s path has been more stop-and-start. The White Sox got him in the 2023 deadline deal that sent Keynan Middleton to the Yankees, and he flashed a 3.34 ERA in six starts after the trade.
He then posted a 3.71 ERA across High-A and Double-A in 2024 before elbow trouble and Tommy John surgery wiped out his momentum. Back in action in 2026, the 24-year-old put up a 4.75 ERA in 16 outings.
He’ll try to reset in the Dominican Winter League this week.
Coffey is another arm trying to rebuild some buzz. The Illinois native was a third-round pick in 2020 and looked like he might be turning a corner after a 1.55 ERA split between Double-A and Triple-A in 2024.
Since then, though, the last two seasons have been a step back. He’s headed to Venezuela, where the White Sox will hope he can rediscover the form that once put him in the mix for a bullpen job.
If things click, a big league debut in 2027 is at least on the table.
Perez is taking his power-speed package to the Dominican Republic after a brief but eventful run in Chicago. Acquired in a May trade with the Athletics, he got an opening because of injuries in June and made the most of the raw pop, launching three homers in 22 games.
The catch was that he hit only .171, and those home runs accounted for half his six hits. He’s shown the kind of upside that can jump out in a hurry - including that homer against Tarik Skubal in June - but the next step is putting the bat on the ball with far more consistency.
Gowens remains part of the White Sox’s long-game pitching depth. He’s the last piece still standing from Chris Getz’s first trade as general manager and has kept producing in the minors.
After a 3.34 ERA in 27 starts at Double-A in 2025, he shifted to the bullpen in 2026. The 27-year-old, another Illinois native, will head to Puerto Rico in the first week of November and looks like a strong candidate to open 2027 in Charlotte’s bullpen.
Zavala, still only 22, rounds out the group. He came over with plenty of promise after a season that featured a .797 OPS and 14 home runs as a teenager, but his time in the organization has been uneven.
He spent all of 2026 at Double-A Birmingham and turned in his best year since joining the White Sox, though the overall production still didn’t pop. With loud tools and elite plate discipline, Zavala will spend the winter in Venezuela trying to put all the pieces together before what shapes up as a pivotal 2027 season.
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For Chicago, it is another reminder that front office continuity can be hard to hold onto even as the organization tries to build around Getz's leadership. Barfield has already been connected to other GM opportunities, and he previously passed on outside interest while choosing to stay focused on the White Sox, which makes this latest round of attention worth watching closely. [Read more 🡒]