Cam Booser has gone from afterthought in Chicago to a real weapon for an AL champion.
That’s the kind of turnaround the White Sox can only look at and wonder about. Booser was one of the rougher stories in the 2025 Sox bullpen, but now he’s pitching in the World Series for the Tampa Bay Rays after a late-January free-agent move gave his career new life.
His season in Chicago was brutal by the numbers. Booser posted a minus-1.5 bWAR, which ranked second-worst among Sox pitchers in 2025.
He finished 2-4 with a 5.52 ERA, 1.52 WHIP and 6.26 FIP across 39 games. He turned 33 during the season, and it would have been fair to wonder whether he’d get another real chance in the majors.
Instead, the Rays bought low and got a completely different pitcher.
In 42 regular-season appearances, Booser delivered a 1.98 ERA with a 0.76 WHIP and a 2.93 FIP. He struck out 45 batters and issued only six walks, sending his strikeout-to-walk ratio from 1.84 a year ago to 7.50. The result was a solid 1.1 bWAR and a much better-looking bullpen piece than the one Chicago had last season.
And he hasn’t faded under October pressure. Across six playoff appearances, Booser has worked 4.2 innings without allowing a run or even a hit.
He has given up only one walk, with a postseason WHIP of 0.43 and a FIP of 2.89. The strikeout totals haven’t been as loud, but the results have stayed sharp.
His biggest outing of the postseason so far came in the Rays’ pennant-clinching game. Booser followed ALCS MVP Freddy Peralta and threw 1.2 perfect innings, needing just 17 pitches to get through the frame and landing 14 of them for strikes.
For White Sox fans, it’s easy to picture the alternate version - the one where Booser is part of their own attempt to finish off the ALDS. But even then, that probably would not have been enough. The source of the damage was bigger than one reliever, with the Cleveland Guardians lineup heating up at exactly the right time and the Sox bullpen getting knocked around.
Still, Booser’s rise is another reminder that a new uniform can change everything. It worked for Andrew Vaughn, and it worked for Booser too. Sometimes the move is all a player needs.
In Other News...
Freddy Peralta Just Gave Rays Fans A Reason To Dream
Freddy Peraltas arrival gave the Rays more than another arm for the stretch run, it gave the organization a potential long-term fit as well. Tampa Bay landed him from the Mets ahead of the 2026 trade deadline, and the fit has apparently been smooth enough that Peralta has already sounded at ease with his new surroundings as the Rays chase a title.
The timing only sharpens the intrigue, with Tampa Bay set to face the Brewers in the World Series and Peralta lined up to start Game 3. For Rays fans, that makes every outing feel bigger than a single October assignment, because the club also has reason to believe this could be more than a one-year stop for a pitcher they just added for the biggest stage. [Read more 🡒]
Rays Trade That Reshaped Two Careers Feels Even Wilder Now
A December 2018 three-team deal keeps looking more consequential with time, even though it was built around the kind of financial housekeeping that usually fades quickly from memory. The Rays, Guardians and Mariners put it together to clear obligations tied to veterans Edwin Encarnacin and Carlos Santana, but the swap also sent prospects into new situations that ended up mattering far beyond the original bookkeeping.
For Tampa Bay, the trade has taken on a different meaning because of how one of those young players developed after arriving. The deal was also finalized under unusual circumstances on the other side of it, with Mariners president Jerry Dipoto handling matters from a Las Vegas hospital while the transaction came together, which only adds to the strange backdrop of a move that now reads like much more than a routine roster shuffle. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers World Series Run May Hinge On One Massive October Question
The 2026 World Series is set to bring together two franchises still chasing their first championship, and that alone gives this matchup a different feel. Tampa Bay has spent years building around pitching depth, bullpen stability, and enough lineup flexibility to survive long series, while Milwaukee arrives with the same kind of October identity, a club that leans on run prevention and pressure from the mound to keep games in its control.
For the Rays, the biggest subplot may be the late-inning picture, because the margin in a Series like this can be razor thin when every matchup gets magnified. Milwaukees own October formula has only sharpened the focus on how each team handles the back end of the staff, and one lingering Brewers question is how much certainty they really have in the bullpen mix before the spotlight gets even brighter. [Read more 🡒]