White Sox sign Sean Newcomb to one-year contract

11:04 AM CST on December 23, 2025

New White Sox reliever Sean Newcomb — Sean Newcomb
|Dennis Lee/Imagn Images

While it remains unclear whether the surprise signing of Munetaka Murakami will crimp the White Sox's ability to spend in other areas, it didn't stop them from making their first addition to the bullpen.

In the morning after their in-person introduction of Murakami on Monday, the White Sox announced their one-year, $4.5 million signing of left-handed reliever Sean Newcomb. In a corresponding move, the White Sox will be the latest team to try sneaking Ryan Rolison through waivers, as they designated him for assignment 10 days after claiming him.

This signing won't necessitate booking Rate Field's Conference and Learning Center -- he'll have a Zoom call after the holidays -- but it fits numerous patterns in the White Sox's search for pitching, in that he 1) is left-handed, 2) has the ability to cover multiple innings, and 3) has recently introduced a sinker to his mix. You can extend this even further from his on-field contributions by noting he hails from Massachusetts, joining Shane Smith, Mike Vasil and Sean Burke in that regard, and that he's the 18th member of Baseball America's 2017 Top 100 Prospects to be employed by the White Sox at some point in his career.

But back to the baseball merits, Newcomb is coming off a strong year, as he posted a 2.73 ERA and 1.6 bWAR over 48 games and 92⅓ innings between Boston and Sacramento. He's had better years as a pro, but they came as a starter for the Braves before the pandemic. He'd initially survived inflated walk rates, but control issues eventually caught up with him, and then ankle and knee injuries further held him back.

The White Sox will be his fifth organization in five years, but Newcomb showed some signs of staying power in 2025. He parlayed a minor-league contract with his hometown Red Sox into a season-opening assignment in the rotation, where he fared decently while biding time for Lucas Giolito's return. He then gave the Boston a fair amount of bulk innings out of the bullpen before being a victim of his own success. In search of a fresh arm and with Newcomb being out of options, they designated him for assignment in May, and ended up trading him to the Athletics for cash.

He was even better in Sacramento, posting a 1.75 ERA over 51⅓ innings, and most of his 36 appearances came in standard medium-to-high-leverage relief work. The only negative about his second stint with the Athletics was that it ended two weeks early due to elbow inflammation, with some diminished velocity in his final appearance.

Newcomb has made numerous adjustments to reach this current form. He went from being an over-the-top fastball-cutter guy to a three-quarters lefty who complements a choice of fastballs -- usually four-seamers to righties, sinkers to lefties -- with a slurve that he's comfortable back-footing to righties. While the adjustments haven't boosted his strikeout rate, he's cut down on the walks considerably, and he keeps the ball in the park with a ground-ball rate that's approaching 50 percent.

Newcomb had reportedly received interest as a potential starter over the winter, and the White Sox will explore that possibility in spring with swingman work as a backup. That makes his 2025 analog Bryse Wilson, but one who will hopefully be twyse as nyse, considering he costs far more than twyse the pryse.

In the meantime, Newcomb's arrival means the White Sox will be playing a game of bullpen musical chairs during spring training, because with Newcomb and Tyler Gilbert unable to be optioned and two Rule 5 picks vying for spots, something will have to give.

And to tie up a loose end on a little bit of trivia referenced earlier, here's the complete list of BA 2017 top prospects who have worn a White Sox uniform of some kind over the years: