PHOENIX -- If Davis Martin is sore at all about Sean Burke winning the opening day starter nod over him, his revenge will be of the extremely slow boil variety.
"We almost swarm-tackled him," Martin told reporters of his first reaction to the announcement, which he then realized might have been premature. "I was actually in the hot tub and I started clapping and I don’t think Will [Venable had] told him yet. He’s like, 'What are you clapping about?' And I was like 'Maryland, baby, they look good this year. They’re in my Final Four.'"
While they haven't had a ton of overlap in regards to being on minor league rosters at the same time, Burke was among the group of White Sox starters that Martin kept in touch with regularly as they prepared for the season, and their connection dates back further.
"Dude, I’m pumped," Martin said. "Sean spent the whole time in Arizona in 2023 when I was rehabbing my elbow and he was rehabbing his shoulder. Talk about a guy who comes in and does the right things every day to be able to compete every five days. Truly, I could not be happier for Sean."
Pitching coach Ethan Katz repeatedly pointed out Burke's splits as an explanation for the nod. Right-handed outfielders Mike Trout, Jorge Soler and Taylor Ward are the primary concerns against the Angels, and Burke struck out 10 of the 26 righties he faced in the majors last year, walking none.
The White Sox aren't revealing their rotation order beyond Burke at this point, nor tipping their hand on their preference between ascendant Rule 5 pick Shane Smith or veteran Bryse Wilson for the fifth starter job, nor specifying if they'll even use their fifth starter in their first turn through the rotation. The importance of Martin and Burke to the rotation is some factor in making the distinctions blurry. Both are career starters, so their restrictions won't be as strict as what Garrett Crochet faced last year, but neither have pitched a lot the past two seasons due to injury rehab, and Katz thinks pulling from rotation depth to spell them will be a regular feature of managing Burke and Martin's usage.
"We have a lot of starter depth this year, just in case, Katz said. "We have to be really mindful of their workloads and how far do we push them in games. They might be rolling, and they're at five innings, and their pitch count might be good, and we might cut it off just based on the workload previously."
The White Sox are coming off consecutive 100-loss seasons (to put it lightly), so it wouldn't be out of step to infer that rest for a starting pitcher results in a swingman being tabbed to wear it. But while the Sox lack for high-octane arms among their major league ready options, Katz is bullish on the staff overall
"I’m excited," Katz said. "I think we’re going to be really surprising to most people in the industry how good they’re going to be."
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Speaking of rotation options, Drew Thorpe recently completed a two-inning live batting practice, and is scheduled to throw two innings in a minor league game on Thursday as he works back from his post-surgery elbow discomfort.
All has progressed on schedule since Thorpe became the only person to celebrate SoxFest by getting a cortisone shot, but it's pretty clear he'll start the season on the injured list.
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By his description, Andrew Benintendi is having the rapid recovery from a small fracture below the pinky in his right hand. He faced live pitching on the backfields on Monday, and is scheduled to DH in a Cactus League game on Wednesday.
"The hand, the bone itself is healed; at this point it’s just pain tolerance," Benintendi told reporters. "Definitely don’t want to miss Opening Day and things like that. You want to be in this clubhouse with these guys playing. If it takes a little pain swinging a bat to do it, so be it."
It's a process, and Benintendi is in the middle of it, but he is optimistic that his timing can recovered in the next 10 days and that he can get off his best swing even with some discomfort. But that last quote contains an admission about parts of the initial 4-6 week recovery timeline holding true.
"It probably won’t feel 100 percent until the 4-6 weeks," Benintendi said.
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Initially projected as day-to-day with a sprained big right toe, infielder Josh Rojas has a walking boot and a new diagnosis.
"He’s got a hairline fracture," said manager Will Venable, confirming the break is in Rojas' toe itself, not elsewhere in his foot. "It’s pain tolerance. I don’t think there’s anything he can do running around out there that’s going to make it worse. It’s about him being comfortable and running out there. But obviously it’s fractured. He’s in some pain now. So we’ll give him his time to heal up and just do everything we can to support him."
Along with Benintendi and Austin Slater, Rojas adds to the White Sox crop of position players trying to maintain hope for recovering from injuries in time for Opening Day on March 27.
"Hopeful, but again, don’t want to put a timeline on his getting healthy," Venable said of Rojas' status for the opener. "He’s important piece for us and we want him with us the whole summer and whatever he needs to do to get out there with us, we are going to give him. Just make sure he’s healthy. We are going to ask a lot of him."
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The White Sox's latest round of cuts captured their two catching prospects of note, Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero:
"They're very vocal," Katz said of the young catchers. "Teel’s very comfortable for being new in camp. Obviously we've got to see Quero a lot last year, so they've been great. They've been like sponges, trying to learn information. And also the stuff we talk about in the meetings, we'll be in the game and they'll come in the dugout, and say, ‘Oh, I remember you talking about this and that.’ So they're also applying it too. It's nice, nothing's really speeding up on them."
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Spring training stats don't matter and all, but Jonathan Cannon's fourth Cactus League start didn't get his ERA back under 10.00. He's now allowed 22 hits in 11⅓ innings after needing to be pulled from the third inning Monday for pitch count reasons, then re-inserted to hit his benchmark of starting four innings so that he's appropriately ramped up with one spring outing remaining.
"Pretty bad, honestly," Cannon said of his most recent outing. "This whole spring training, just kind of going through it a little bit. I feel like the stuff is there. Just the command has been a little bit off. Still feel like I'm getting the feel for some things. But I feel confident in my process and my ability to prepare for the season. So I'm still going to continue to improve, start to start and be ready for whenever that first outing is."
One of last year's few success stories and one of even fewer established members of the 2025 rotation, Cannon seemed like a possible choice for the Opening Day starter over the winter. But in addition to the hard contact that has been persistent this spring, Cannon added three walks and a hit batter to the issues in his most recent outing, bolstering his premise that command is the real problem at the moment.
"Just trying to avoid thigh-high," said Katz. "You’re either up or you're down. The sweeper's been really consistent right now. And we're just trying to get the changeup dialed in, which he’s done a lot better with and obviously the cutter's been always good for him so far versus lefties. So just trying to get his arsenal dialed in a little bit more, from a movement standpoint, location standpoint."
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Luis Robert Jr. has been batting second a lot this spring. He's one of very few White Sox position players with a role steady enough to even imagine him having a regular spot in the lineup, but this really could be where he winds up landing.
"Someone like Luis you probably find him a spot and let him go," Venable said. "He’s going to be in there every day, and guys in there every day, there’s something to be said for having your spot in the order. At the same time, it changes day to day what’s best for the group, with who we have in the lineup to maybe change a little bit. I think you will see a mixture of both. Probably for Luis, some stability; whether that’s the No. 2 hole or somewhere else, you will probably see him in the same spot."
