On the Sox Machine Podcast Thursday, debate opened up on whether new White Sox fifth starter candidate Bryse Wilson is the next Chris Flexen or the next Michael Soroka.
He's aiming more for the next Wade Miley.
"I've been talking a lot with Wade Miley the last couple of years," Wilson said of his former Brewers teammate. "He's made a very good career on cutters up and in to righties and changeups down and away."
For someone polished enough of a strike-thrower that Wilson matter-of-factly states, "I command the baseball really well," and was defying his peripheral numbers to post a 4.07 ERA as a swingman in Milwaukee last season, the question is where there is more upside to unlock. With Miley, Wilson invokes simply a more reliable and established (and left-handed) version of his current weak-contact profile.
If Wilson simply produced a few more years of league-average results despite meager strikeout numbers, the expectations around the White Sox picking him up for lower than his estimated arbitration figure would take on a different tone. But while the freshly minted 27-year-old (today is his birthday) is old enough to talk about wanting to take a leadership role on the White Sox roster, he wants to take the type of step forward that any young pitcher would desire.
"Kind of a little bit more strikeouts, little less homers and I think we'll be on a good path," Wilson said, after punching out 82 and allowing 20 dingers in 104⅔ innings last season.
Wilson credits developing a cutter over his two years in Milwaukee as the key to keeping damage against left-handed hitters to a more reasonable level (.254/.336/.466), but the changeup resembled a work in progress throughout 2024. While he believes his cutter has kept lefties from leaning over the plate and waiting to drive his sinker to left field, a swing-and-miss changeup is missing from his Wade Miley starter pack, and has been Wilson's offseason focus.
"The cutter opens it up," Wilson said. "It's just being able to consistently throw it with good movement and good location. To continue to develop that is going to be big."
As a former top-100 prospect who flopped in his turns in the Braves and Pirates rotations, Wilson confirmed a shot to pitch his way into the Sox five-man was a big incentive to come to Chicago, though new bench coach Walker McKinven used to run pre-series bullpen meetings in Milwaukee and that remains an alternative route for him. After covering over 100 innings by the start of September in 2024, Wilson feels he's ready for a full starter workload if it comes to him. That Wilson was throwing live bullpens by the end of the regular season suggests his oblique injury wasn't a factor in the Brewers deeming him expendable, but also backs his assertion that he's having a normal and healthy offseason.
"A lot of what they told me is just come in, come into spring training, kind of kick down the doors and I'm going to compete for a rotation spot," Wilson said. "It's just a really good opportunity going forward with my career. We've made some pretty good moves this offseason already. Some smaller signings, but good players overall. Just looking forward to coming in, kind of taking on a little bit of a leadership role, that piques my interest a lot. Coming in, competing and trying to win as many games as possible."
Matt Thaiss won't turn 30 until next May and was taken six picks later in the 2016 MLB draft than Zack Collins, who was supposed to still be in his prime as a White Sox catching mainstay, but instead became part of their contention window dying in adolescence.
And yet upon being dealt to the White Sox for cash considerations, his second move in a month after a DFA brought an end to over eight years in the Angels organization, Thaiss found himself reaching out to prospects who are set upon one day taking over the catching job like fellow University of Virginia product Kyle Teel, and his peers on the coaching staff, which includes a former teammate in catching coach Drew Butera.
"I loved working with Drew, and loved working with [assistant pitching coach] Matty [Wise], and [hitting coach] Marcus [Thames] was one of my favorites, too," Thaiss said. "[Butera] was huge for me in 2021 when he was still playing. We were in Salt Lake City together. Just really helped me, a month or two months in catching and he really helped me elevate my game from that standpoint. And in 2023 as my catching coach he was unbelievable with drill work he’d do every day. The kind of mentorship he gives. Guys like Kyle and [Edgar Quero] are going to see that."
Thaiss' 91 wRC+ against right-handed pitching over the past two seasons makes him the most likely member of the White Sox catching mix to provide credible offense beginning on Opening Day. But even with his familiarity of the coaching staff, his roster status makes it easy to conceive of a scenario where Teel and/or Quero are pushing him out of the picture during the season, and Thaiss has been bounced around too much in the past month to speak like anything is guaranteed to him.
With the multi-year break he took from catching, Thaiss has only actually made 116 career starts behind the plate in the majors. But much like Wilson, he's centering his role on this White Sox team as offering the insight of his experience to a roster that will largely have even less.
"I know I’m not too old yet, but I want to help elevate these guys, get them to be the best they can be," Thaiss said. "One of my strengths as a catcher is my ability to study a game, work a game, call a game, and [with] me and Korey [Lee], try to lead this staff. I know they are young, but I’m excited."
No one is coming to the 2025 White Sox on the premise of "if you can't beat them, join 'em," though Thaiss being on the Angels team that was swept by the Sox to end the home schedule means he saw last year's team playing their best. That gives Thaiss a notion that there's some talent with this group that he can be part of developing, and that it goes beyond the one specific pitcher he's looking forward to seeing from behind the plate rather than while standing at it.
"I’m excited not to face Prelander Berroa any more," Thaiss said. "I just remember walking back to the dugout telling the hitting coach, ‘Yeah, I can’t hit that.’ So, he’s got good stuff. I’m excited to get catch him and get back there, like I am for a lot of these guys."
