Before the White Sox held onto Luis Robert Jr. at this past season’s deadline, it was foreshadowed by a few days of evaluators from other teams griping that they were clinging to unreasonably high asks for their center fielder’s services. The gap between the internal and external evaluations of Robert’s value were stark enough that the safest assumption is that there will be no deal until he can change perceptions with new work on the field.
Often, this is the language used to describe a team right before they capture a haul larger than anticipated. And in many cases, these critiques came from the same people who gave poor grades to the returns the White Sox brought in for Dylan Cease and Erick Fedde. Having now sampled both sides of reviews from around the league, Sox officials express that they’d rather be called obstinate than gullible; a stance which Chris Getz echoed when asked about it.
“I have heard that teams have been frustrated with asks,” Getz said. “But that frustration is stemming from the fact that they really want the player. So there’s different ways to view it. And the beauty of it all is that he’s our player and he’s someone we’re proud of and we know that can help us win ballgames. And if that means that we’re stubborn or asking for too much, so be it. But he’s our player and it’s our right to handle it that way.”
Roles and fits for new acquisitions
The Rule 5 protection deadline is effectively a cutoff for teams to declare who merits an early claim on a 40-man roster spot before acquisitions begin in earnest, and shop around the players who don’t. With that in mind, all three of the players the White Sox dealt for on Tuesday–Chris Murphy, Tanner Murray and Everson Pereira–were talked up for their versatility rather than declared any variety of “our _____ of the future.”
Getz described Murphy as a reliever before catching himself and noting that the left-hander had started in the past, mostly before the 2024 Tommy John surgery that Getz felt affected the 27-year-old’s command (13.5 percent walk rate) last year. "Multi-inning reliever" sounds like Plan A for Murphy, and Murray could be the position-player version of the same. Getz noted that the 26-year-old Murray is capable of manning shortstop or even outfield, in addition to second and third base, where he’s been found more often. A new addition to the 40-man, Murray arrives with three years of options to tear through and the Sox could make plenty use of him as the first infielder up from Charlotte for a time.
The opposite is true for Pereira, who is out of options and thus only useful to a team that is prepared to give him a big league shot or is uniquely confident about sneaking him through waivers. And since Pereira’s early major league results (.147/.227/.215) have been so extreme, a team could only feel good about giving him a longer look if they had tweaks in mind to allow the 24-year-old to make more contact.
Getz offered that the White Sox have both, reaffirming that every hitting acquisition is run by Ryan Fuller as a matter of course. But he also offered a more reasonable baseline for Pereira’s contribution than simply assuming that this is when it clicks for a prospect who had fallen by the wayside of Yankees’ plans.
“Certainly at the very least, you are looking at someone who can hammer lefties and play a solid defense,” Getz said. “[He] hasn’t had a clear runway just because of the landscapes [he was] coming from. At his floor, we have a strong defender who can play center field and the wings and has power potential just like the two you named. He has a big engine, he has potential. He’s got a chance to really bloom into a solid everyday player.”
Fraser Ellard retirement
Ellard did not have a great 2026 season. He battled control issues before suffering a lat strain in early May that kept him out of action for six weeks, and his next sustained big league run wouldn’t arrive until September call-ups. Nevertheless, he ended the year as a 28-year-old with a career 101 ERA+ who missed bats and threw mid-90s with his left hand, which offered him at least a slim chance of pitching professionally forever.
Instead, his retirement became official on Tuesday, a few weeks after he already reached out to Getz to let him know of his intentions.
“Obviously unusual being that he was just getting his major league career started,” Getz said. “He is a very bright kid, he’s someone that has interests outside of baseball, not that it’s uncommon. He has some businesses outside of baseball and on top of that, he and his wife are starting a family. And so you know, we talked through the decision. Oftentimes, when players come to me looking to retire – and most often I had those conversations as a farm director more than as a general manager – if I know that it’s a well thought-out decision, it’s not my job to convince someone to continue playing major league baseball, professional baseball.
"I thanked him. I let him know I enjoyed getting to know him, and he has a very strong reputation within our organization, and that if he needs anything in the future, we are here for him, and wished him well.”
To echo Getz’s comments, Ellard has always been a thoughtful interview even though our conversations were usually confined to all the thought he put into refining his pitch mix. Apparently he could’ve expounded just as deeply about he and his brother’s digital marketing company.
Justin Ishbia meets the pope, plans a first pitch
In our regularly recurring feature It's Still Surreal that the Pope is a White Sox Fan, it's no longer bizarre to see Pope Leo XIV receiving a sports jersey of any kind, because apparently that's what His Holiness gets from everybody now, but the latest update takes it in a couple of different directions.
First of all, it's Justin Ishbia, presenting a White Sox jersey signed by members of the 2005 White Sox to Pope Leo outside St. Peter's Basilica.
And then he talked to news outlets afterward. From Mitchell Armentrout, Sun-Times reporter and Sox Machine subscriber:
Vatican security advised guests not to hand any gifts directly to the pope, but when Leo saw Ishbia had brought along a Sox jersey signed by members of the 2005 World Series-winning squad, “he looked at me and he goes, ‘No, no, no, hold on — that stays here with me,’” Ishbia recalled.
“He was excited to have this jersey with, I’m guessing, some of his heroes, the Paul Konerkos and Ozzie Guillens of the world. It was really cool that he didn’t want to follow protocol. He wanted to have it near him,” said Ishbia, who lives in Chicago and is building a massive home in Winnetka.
This is Ishbia's first real moment as co-owner/presumptive future controlling partner of the Chicago White Sox, and he packs layers of humors into it. There’s what was presented as funny, which is the idea of a pope overruling his security detail for a White Sox jersey. There's the absurd, which is the concept of a pope having sports heroes. Then there's a twist of irony by the builder of a $77 million estate meeting with the spiritual leader who opened the week by celebrating the World Day of the Poor.
Ishbia's ambassadorial turn also gave him an opportunity to speak about White Sox business for the first time, albeit in a limited fashion. Paul Sullivan relayed Ishbia saying that he wishes he could be the owner -- "steward" is the word he uses -- yesterday, but instead his capital infusions will begin next summer, per his agreement with Jerry Reinsdorf. He also told Leo that he could throw out the first pitch at the new White Sox ballpark, whenever it's built:
“When I’m the steward, I will have an opportunity to determine where the team plays and a lot about what they do, but that is not my decision today, so you’ll have to ask him about that,” Ishbia said. “But I will say this: The lease (at Rate Field) is up in four years after 2029, and I’m 48.
“So I can tell you one thing for sure — we will build a new stadium. I’m not sure when it will be. But in the next 50 years, when I’m the steward, there will be a new stadium built. I’m not sure if it will be four years or 40 years, but there will be a new stadium at some point.”
Even if the first pitch proposal is mostly tongue-in-cheek, this is a much more pleasant way to open-endedly discuss a vision of a future White Sox ballpark, rather than wondering if a White Sox chairman lied by omission to the supreme pontiff about where that ballpark might be.
