An A grade from ESPN would have looked absurd for the White Sox in March. In late September, it almost feels conservative.
David Schoenfield handed Chicago an A in his regular-season team grades for all 30 MLB clubs, and he left the door open for even more if the White Sox can finish the job. If they somehow rally to win the AL Central, he said that would be worth an A+.
That possibility is still alive, which tells you plenty about how far this team has come.
Before the season, ESPN projected the White Sox at 61-101, while FanGraphs pegged them at 67-95. Instead of drifting into another winter buried in the standings, Chicago has stayed in the race down the stretch. That climb has been driven by a lineup that suddenly looks dangerous in ways almost nobody saw coming.
Miguel Vargas, Munetaka Murakami and Colson Montgomery have each topped 30 home runs, according to ESPN. That kind of power changes everything for a club that entered the year with modest expectations.
One surprise bat can make a rebuild interesting. Three can drag a team into meaningful September baseball.
Chicago has used that pop to remain in both the division chase and the wild-card mix, while also giving fans a core worth tracking beyond 2026.
Tristan Peters has been part of the story too, and Schoenfield pointed to his path from the Savannah Bananas to an American League All-Star selection as one of the season’s most unexpected individual arcs. He’s the kind of player who embodies how strange and productive this White Sox season has become: hard to forecast, easy to notice.
The pitching staff has done its part to keep Chicago in contention, but there’s a warning sign on the back end. ESPN noted that White Sox relievers have thrown the most innings in the majors and appear to be wearing down.
That matters now more than ever. Chicago’s offense can flip a game with one swing, but the final stretch may come down to whether the bullpen can hold up long enough to protect slim leads.
Even if the White Sox don’t finish with a division title, 2026 already qualifies as a major step forward. A wild-card berth alone would be a huge result for a team that was expected to lose at least 95 games. Winning the AL Central would take the season to another level entirely, which is why Schoenfield called it one of the least likely division titles in recent memory.
For now, the A reflects more than a good record. It captures a team that found a dangerous offensive core, stayed relevant into the final days of the season and turned a low-expectation year into something real. After the way this season began on paper, that’s no small thing.
In Other News...
Former White Sox Players Are Fueling A Playoff Push Chicago Can Feel
A late-season surge in San Diego has a familiar Chicago footprint to it, with three former White Sox players helping push the Padres into the kind of form that can change a playoff picture in a hurry. The Padres have won 13 of their last 14, and the run has included meaningful contributions from Gavin Sheets, Austin Hays and Dustin Harris, each of whom reached this point through a different path away from the South Side.
Sheets is on the injured list but expected back for the postseason, while Hays has carved out a part-time role after being designated for assignment by the White Sox. Harris has become an everyday piece for San Diego after a series of transactions that also involved the White Sox and Astros, giving the Padres another useful bat at just the right time. For Chicago, it is the kind of reminder that roster churn does not always end when a player leaves town, especially when those players suddenly become part of a contenders most important stretch. [Read more 🡒]
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 🡒]