In a scintillating preview of what's to come on Opening Day, the White Sox and Angels tied at 1 on Wednesday.
The Angels only tallied three hits, although one of them was a game-tying revenge single by Chuckie Robinson. The White Sox had 11 hits, but they went 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position, and also had an off-kilter Jacob Gonzalez cut down at home plate trying to score from first on Brooks Baldwin's two-out double. If Gonzalez got a great secondary lead in his attempt to get the extra base, it was probably undone by all that windmilling at the end.
At least the tie kept the White Sox from having the worst record in the Cactus League, as their 5-12 mark is one loss better than the San Diego Padres.
In lieu of action, I was left to fixate on the weirdness of seeing Tim Anderson wearing bright red and No. 77 while manning short for the Angels.
Anderson in another uniform is nothing new given that he played for the Marlins last year, but he wore No. 7 for Miami while rotating between white, black, gray and blue jerseys, and the White Sox share three of those colors. Basically, there were enough similarities that it didn't adequately prepare me for seeing Anderson wearing a spring training-assed number in a garish red.
But the other reason Anderson stood out is that the jerseys have the big nameplates again. Major League Baseball and Nike spent the bulk of the 2024 season having to answer (and eventually apologize) for jerseys with shrunken surnames that looked like they were sourced from an overseas knockoff market. If you've pushed them out of your memory, here's what they look like from last spring training to this one:
Kinda like the empty stands or cardboard cutouts of the COVID year, there's going to be no mistaking when photos or videos were taken in 2024, which makes me feel bad for any fan who dropped full price on a jersey last year. Perhaps this is why the White Sox generated precious few highlights and rid themselves of all marketable players -- they're just protecting you, the consumer.
However it happened, order is restored, and now there's no mistaking who any player is when seeing them in an unfamiliar color and number. That's the whole point, right?
Speaking of uniforms, the Nashville Stars -- the potential MLB expansion team backed by the Music City Baseball advocacy group -- released a logo and cap. What they lack in a deep-pocketed owner who will foot a lot of the bill for a ballpark, they make up for in marketing.
The Nashville Stars, a potential MLB expansion team, revealed a new logo and cap.
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) March 12, 2025
A group called “Music City Baseball” is working to bring an MLB franchise to Nashville.
📷: @NashvilleStars pic.twitter.com/WF3jRLlr5m
Spare Parts
If I had to name a non-roster invitee who'd jump from the Cubs to the White Sox in the middle of this spring, I would've guessed Nicky Lopez, since the White Sox are short on proven shortstops. Instead, with Andrew Benintendi, Austin Slater and Oscar Colás all out of action, the sudden vacuum in the outfield pulled in Travis Jankowski.
After missing all of 2024 recovering from an internal brace procedure on his right elbow, Lucas Giolito tweaked his hamstring and gutted through his first inning of the spring. He says it's mild, but he's undergoing an MRI. If you're a loyal Sox Machine reader, you've actually experienced the 'Lucas Giolito goes on the IL for a hamstring strain he says is mild' dynamic play out multiple times before.
Speaking of old friends, Erick Fedde remains a Cardinal due to St. Louis' inability to find trades to their liking, and Ben Clemens is bullish on his ability to hold the value he established last year. There are echoes here of the White Sox front office expressing similar frustration that the league had not fully bought into Fedde's new value, including the part where the organization's stagnation makes outsiders wary of taking the front office's complaints at face value.
Minnesota's search for a buyer after Justin Ishbia's withdrawal isn't producing any immediate fallback options.
The Rays have some Tampa-area investors who are interested in taking the team off Stu Sternberg's hands, and Evan Drellich says Rob Manfred and other owners want him to consider those offers, especially if Sternberg doesn't have the money to pay his share for a new ballpark. What's most interesting is the leverage that Manfred can attempt to wield toward a desired outcome, since this hasn't really come up:
Next offseason, Manfred can exert some financial pressure on the Rays if he decides to lessen or eliminate their payments from two pots of money he controls: the commissioner’s discretionary fund and the commissioner’s supplemental discretionary fund. The league does not publicize those distributions, but the Rays have been a beneficiary, people briefed on that process said. Those payments are typically not huge — several million, rather than tens of millions, but they’re not negligible either.
The most powerful lever MLB has over the Rays, though, likely lies in the CBA. When it expires in December 2026, Manfred is poised to try to overhaul the sport’s revenue-sharing system, and that might leave the Rays with less of other teams’ money coming to them.
While Colson Montgomery seems just as surprised as we were about his optioning to Charlotte, I'm mainly linking to this Daryl Van Schouwen story because he announced that he's accepting a buyout from the Sun-Times at the end of spring training.
GLENDALE, Ariz. — This, my 15th spring training covering the White Sox and 37th year with the Sun-Times, shall be the last. Three kids, seven grandchildren and one buyout later, it’s the perfect time to call it a career. The Sox’ last day of camp will be mine as well.
— Daryl Van Schouwen (@CST_soxvan) March 11, 2025
Over Daryl's run as a White Sox beat writer, the Sun-Times has had the most consistent presence on the White Sox beat, both in terms of staffing and travel. The Chicago Tribune went years without dedicated reporter at one point, and two startups boasting a White Sox beat writer came and went. Throughout this period, the constant -- at least among outlets not owned by the league -- was the Van Schouwen story filed from where the White Sox were playing. Were he announcing his retirement under normal circumstances, the numbers "15" and "37" would explain it well enough, because that's quite the grind.
It's a little more troubling than that, because the Chicago Sun-Times Guild said seven members have taken buyouts so far, and more are expected, as Chicago Public Media wants to cut several million dollars from its budget. The Sun-Times has rallied from more pressing financial crises, but every outlet in the same situation has considered White Sox coverage the easiest to forgo, which is why this situation is worth monitoring. It'd be hard to replace Daryl under any circumstances. This backdrop makes me wonder if or how they'll be allowed to try.
