Among the questions we received for the P.O. Sox mailbag we ran earlier this week was one we set aside, since it takes the form of a standalone post at some point between September and November:
Thinking about the 2026 rotation question in a recent podcast made me wonder what all the timelines are for the injured pitchers and if any injuries will affect 40 man / rule V draft protections.
Andrew S.
In the interest of five-star customer service, let's knock it out right now, especially while everything looks relatively straightforward.
Starting with the pitchers who missed the 2025 season, Ky Bush had his Tommy John surgery in February, Prelander Berroa and Juan Carela underwent the knife in early March, Drew Thorpe in late March, and Mason Adams in early April. The most recent update came from Thorpe, who said in August that he was targeting a return at next year's All-Star break based on a 15-month estimate, so add or subtract the corresponding weeks for the others until they tell you otherwise.
Carela was released and re-signed to a minor league deal, but the others can open next season on the 60-day injured list if needed. They'll just have to return to the 40-man roster at the conclusion of the season and occupy those spots for the duration of the winter. How will the White Sox accommodate that? It looks pretty simple.
Free agents
- Tyler Alexander
- Martín Pérez
- Michael A. Taylor
All of them have served their purposes on the 2025 roster, but none figure to be re-signed before the free agency period opens, so that brings the 40-man roster down to 35, which means ...
60-day IL
- Prelander Berroa
- Ky Bush
- Miguel Castro
- Drew Thorpe
... that all players who were placed on the 60-day injured list can be reinstated without having to clear a roster spot. They'd even have room for Castro if he weren't also a free agent after the season, but as it stands, this will bring the White Sox 40-man roster back to 38 before considering the players who are...
Rule 5 eligible
- Peyton Pallette
- Tyler Schweitzer
- Mason Adams
- Juan Carela
- Shane Murphy
- Tanner McDougal
- Duncan Davitt
- Ben Peoples
- Samuel Zavala
Pallette and McDougal jump out as the obvious candidates for Rule 5 protection. The former has been successful enough in a Triple-A bullpen, and while the latter might be a half-season away from truly earning an MLB audition, most teams would take a crack at seeing if he could bludgeon his way through low-leverage opportunities.
There are arguments for a few others: Schweitzer and Murphy are lefties who can throw strikes with four pitches and have thrived at Double-A, but Schweitzer got rocked at Triple-A, and Murphy topped out at 91.7 mph in his 2025 Charlotte debut. Davitt compensates with below-average velocity with five pitches from the right side, but his walk rate has ballooned in Triple-A as he works through the typical issues a low-slot righty has against lefties.
Peoples was eligible for the Rule 5 draft last year, and while he piqued the White Sox's interest enough to trade for him despite said eligibility, nothing he's done in Charlotte supports prioritizing him yet. Zavala hit .283/.388/.396 with a 17.6 percent strikeout rate after June 1 while playing center field nearly everyday at age 21, but he spent that entire season in Winston-Salem for the second consecutive year.
And then there are Adams and Carela, both of whom underwent Tommy John surgery and missed all of 2025 which means they aren't likely to be selected in the Rule 5 draft.
The wrinkle is that both can open the 2026 season on the 60-day injured list, and that could make them more appealing to certain teams who don't want the headache of forcing a pick onto the Opening Day roster, but might be fine with bringing them into the fold, maxing out a rehab assignment when they return to the mound, and seeing if they can reach 90 days on the active roster over the second half of the season. It's probably not worth the trouble, since a healthy Carela was a fringy addition to the 40-man roster last year, and Adams' timetable probably can't afford a setback of any kind to make that plan work, but it's within the realm of possibility.
Just like last season, I'd figure two players will be added to the 40-man roster at the Rule 5 deadline, assuming Pallette isn't selected to the major league roster over the last 15 games of the 2025 season. That means the White Sox could accommodate both prominent prospects without making any cuts, but if the Sox wanted to protect an extra arm or two, there are a half-dozen other spots in the 40-man roster that are primed to be turned over.
While the White Sox have indeed played like a legitimate, respectable major league team over the second half, this is one indicator that they're not yet bankable. A team like the Rays can trade three players for two months of Adrian Houser without much thought because they have always face roster squeezes during and after a season, and Curtis Mead, Davitt and Peoples all projected to be outside the bubble this time around. Meanwhile, the White Sox always have room at the inn for their own prospects, not to mention other teams' huddled, yearning, tempest-tost masses.
Perhaps next year will be a different conversation, with Noah Schultz, Christian Oppor, Jeral Perez, Jacob Gonzalez and William Bergolla on deck to join whatever holdovers remain from this year. In the meantime, enjoy one more offseason of easy accounting, with the ability to randomly claim or sign players that other teams couldn't stash.
