The White Sox’s offseason picture is already cloudy, and the minor league free-agent market is starting to reflect it. With an expected lockout set for Dec. 1, the usual winter movement is on track for now before everything hits a wall next month. Chicago has already seen several players leave on major league contracts, and now a separate wave of familiar names from outside the 40-man roster is heading into the open market.
According to Future Sox, 13 players in the organization have elected minor league free agency. The group includes pitchers Aidan Anderson, Adisyn Coffey, Dylan Cumming, Jairo Iriarte, Jarold Rosado, and Tyler Gilbert.
Gilbert is one of the more recognizable names in that bunch. He spent time with the White Sox from 2025 to 2026 and appeared in 51 games, including six starts.
His 2025 season was solid, with a 3.88 ERA over 46 appearances. But his six innings in 2026 went sideways fast: eight runs, 12 hits, two home runs, and four walks.
He now enters free agency in his age-33 season.
Iriarte is another notable departure. He came to Chicago in the Dylan Cease deal with the San Diego Padres, a package that also included Drew Thorpe, Samuel Zavala, and Steven Wilson.
Wilson was later traded in 2026 for Tanner Murray and Everson Pereira. Iriarte and Thorpe were supposed to be key pieces of the White Sox’s future rotation, but Thorpe underwent Tommy John surgery in 2025 and has seemingly fallen out of favor with the organization.
Iriarte, meanwhile, is now a free agent after pitching in six major league games for Chicago in 2024.
The list also includes catcher Korey Lee, first baseman Tim Elko, second baseman Andy Weber, and shortstop Riley Unroe. Lee and Elko were once viewed as possible long-term answers for the White Sox.
Lee, a former first-round pick by the Houston Astros, was known more for his defense and pop time than his bat when Chicago acquired him in a one-for-one deal involving Kendall Graveman in 2023. He struggled badly in his first White Sox season, hitting .077/.143/.138 in 24 games.
In 2024, he got a much larger opportunity during the club’s 121-loss season and posted a .210/.244/.347 line with 12 home runs in 125 games, along with solid defensive metrics. He then hit .257/.333/.429 in 25 games in 2025 and was expected to take on a major role in 2026 after Kyle Teel’s injury in the World Baseball Classic.
Instead, he never appeared in a major league game for Chicago despite the injuries and inconsistency at catcher.
Elko’s path took a different turn. Before Munetaka Murakami arrived on the South Side, some saw Elko as the future at first base.
He played in 23 games in 2025 and hit .134/.194/.328 with four home runs, including a Mother’s Day three-run go-ahead blast. A torn ACL likely ended any chance of him ever appearing in a White Sox major league uniform again.
Three more outfielders - Jake Cave, Joey Wiemer, and Junior Pérez - also entered minor league free agency. Cave and Wiemer were added as minor league pieces over 2026, while Pérez came over from the Athletics during the season for Jackson Nove. Pérez was one of more than a dozen players to make his major league debut with Chicago in 2026 and hit .171/.194/.429 with three home runs in 22 games as a depth option.
Many, if not all, of these players are expected to move on from the White Sox. Even so, the organization’s minor league depth has never been stronger, and its future never brighter.
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For a club still sorting out its long-term picture, those kinds of honors matter because they hint at depth beyond the current roster. Bonemars bat has already made him one of the systems more closely watched names, and Clarks work in relief has only strengthened the sense that the White Sox have some legitimate pitching talent on the way. The bigger question now is how soon that next wave can start to influence the major-league conversation. [Read more 🡒]