The White Sox have spent most of 2026 trying to patch together a catcher situation that keeps springing leaks.
Kyle Teel didn’t make his season debut until June 22 because of hamstring and knee injuries, then got only 19 games under his belt before an ankle injury knocked him out again. With Teel now likely sidelined until September, Chicago leaned on Edgar Quero and Drew Romo, but neither has held up well. The front office tried to solve it by trading for Joey Bart, only to watch that move go sideways almost immediately when Bart broke his hand in his third game with the White Sox and landed on the shelf for at least a month.
That trail of bad breaks has pushed Chicago back into the market, and Jake Rogers is suddenly sitting there as a possible fit.
Rogers, 31, has been around plenty. The Astros picked him in the third round of the 2016 draft, then shipped him to Detroit in the 2017 Justin Verlander blockbuster.
He debuted for the Tigers in 2019, but didn’t really settle into a regular role until 2023, when he blasted 21 homers and put up a .730 OPS across 107 games. Detroit thought it had its catcher of the future, but Rogers slipped in 2024, when his OPS fell to .607.
He stayed with the Tigers after that, though he spent the last two seasons in a backup role and had hit just .567 in 36 games this year before Detroit designated him for assignment.
His path since then has moved fast. Rogers was traded to the Orioles on July 30, then quickly flipped to the Red Sox in the deal that sent Adley Rutschman to Boston.
He played three games for the Red Sox and went 3-for-6 with two doubles and two RBIs, but once Rutschman returned, Boston designated Rogers for assignment too. That makes him available on waivers for the other 29 teams, including the White Sox.
For Chicago, the appeal is pretty straightforward. Rogers isn’t going to transform the season, but his career .653 OPS would still be an upgrade over Quero and Romo.
He also brings something the White Sox could use right now: a track record of handling a pitching staff. There’s also a little extra value in his familiarity with the Tigers’ pitchers, which could matter for White Sox hitters as they head into a key stretch.
That stretch starts this weekend with a four-game series in Detroit, and the Tigers enter Wednesday just two and a half games behind the White Sox in the AL Central. The teams will meet again in Chicago in September, so this isn’t exactly a quiet roster decision. Rogers has shown some power in the past, and he could simply buy the White Sox time until Teel and/or Bart are back.
Quero gave Chicago something to think about on Tuesday night by hitting his third home run of the season, and he had already reached base three times on Sunday, so maybe there’s finally a spark there after a long slump. But even if that’s the start of a turnaround, Romo is still hitting under .130, and his spot looks vulnerable. Quero’s better week shouldn’t keep the White Sox from looking at Rogers.
At this point in the season, the waiver wire probably isn’t producing a difference-maker. Still, the teams trying to stay in the race have to find edges wherever they can. The White Sox may have one sitting right in front of them.
In Other News...
Chase Meidroth Is Giving The White Sox A New Infield Debate
Chase Meidroth has gone from a useful part of the White Sox infield picture to one of the more important reasons the club can even think about its next steps there. Acquired in a trade, he has taken a clear step forward in 2026 after a rookie year that left plenty of room for growth, and the gains have shown up everywhere from the plate to the field. His batting average, on-base percentage, slugging, home runs and defensive metrics have all improved, and the overall result has made him one of the teams most valuable players.
For a White Sox team still sorting out how its infield should look going forward, that kind of rise matters. Meidroth now sits second on the club in fWAR behind Miguel Vargas, which is a notable place to be for a player who was not originally expected to be part of the conversation at this level so quickly. The bigger question is how Chicago balances his surge with the rest of the roster picture, because the more he plays like this, the harder it gets to treat him as anything less than a central piece. [Read more 🡒]
Colson Montgomery Is Becoming A Real White Sox Debate
Colson Montgomery has become one of the more interesting evaluation cases on the White Sox roster, because the offensive line is pulling in two directions at once. The power is real, and the glove at shortstop keeps adding value, but a .213 batting average is the kind of number that forces a tougher conversation than the usual young-player growth curve.
The bigger question for Chicago is how to weigh the total package when the plate discipline still lags behind the league standard. His on-base and walk rates are a little below average, the strikeout rate is higher than normal, and yet the pop and defensive work make him far more than a one-dimensional bat. For a White Sox club trying to sort out what it has, Montgomery is no longer just a prospect to monitor. He is becoming a player the organization has to debate in earnest. [Read more 🡒]