PHOENIX -- Sean Newcomb's path to winning a White Sox rotation spot was a bit easier to envision back when he signed his one-year, $6 million contract in December.
In the intervening weeks between last Christmas and Newcomb's two-inning scheduled spring debut on Thursday, the Sox have added Erick Fedde on a guaranteed deal and stated their expectation for the right-hander to be in the rotation, traded for David Sandlin to be another near-ready starter prospect with the potential for a midseason debut, and even added to their supply of veteran swingmen looking for a chance to start by signing control maven Austin Voth to a minor league deal.
And with Newcomb coming off 51⅓ relief innings of 1.75 ERA-ball after a Memorial Day weekend trade sent him to the Athletics' bullpen last season, putting someone who immediately profiles as the Sox's best leverage left-hander in competition with Sean Burke and Jonathan Cannon for a rotation spot might scan as a surprising use of resources. But for how the 32-year-old Newcomb feels with his expanded six-pitch arsenal, having recently added a sinker and sweeper (it gets tagged as a slurve) to fit his lower arm slot, competing for starts feels like the logical next step for him.
"It's a mixture of things where you have multiple fastballs and able to land some breaking balls, it's kind of the appeal these days," Newcomb said. "I had some experiences of going three or four innings, I was starting earlier on in the year. I didn't feel like my momentum picked up until mid-May to June, around the time I got traded to [the Athletics].
"It wasn't really a role thing, it was about getting momentum, getting into games. My first outing there was 3⅓ innings up in Toronto and I was kind of cruising, just using all my pitches all over the zone and felt good. I was hoping to get some starts there, but their immediate need was in the pen and a long role/multiple-inning weapon."
If the Sox's starting depth maintains its current levels of health, a similar assessment of need could be made here, since the five starts Newcomb made in 2025 were the most he's made in the majors since 2018. But after spending the 2023-24 winter rehabbing a left knee injury, and the following winter trying to figure out a routine after being released midseason, Newcomb feels like he's coming off his first normal offseason in years and is ready to add more innings to his slate.
Maybe the simpler, cleaner and more straightforward explanation for the pursuit of a rotation spot is that after they briefly overlapped in the Giants organization in 2023 -- where Newcomb picked up the changeup he still uses -- the big left-hander simply possesses a lot of ingredients for a starter transition that intrigue the White Sox's director of pitching.
"To his credit, he very much did the same thing with his arm slot and arsenal that Anthony Kay did," said Brian Bannister. "It's a very similar adjustment where he's on a flatter plane of rotation, a little more east-west, sweeps the ball very well. He could always spin the ball, but now there's a little more seam effects, so now it's a little more two-plane in nature, versus originally, he was more just trying to ride the four-seamer."
After chasing a vertical attack predicated on riding four-seamers and curveballs, to now utilizing more east-west pitches that play into his lower arm slot, Newcomb thinks he can do both and feels more powerful in his delivery. This kind of late-career breakthrough and a rebuilding team usually equals opportunity, and the rest of spring will bear out whether the Sox have acquired the starting depth to alter the equation.
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Luisangel Acuña was sorting through a lot this spring, well before a head-first slide into second base led to four stitches above left eyebrow on Wednesday. Maybe it's partially a downstream effect of having an outfielder for a manager, but plenty of his practice time has been dedicated to the nuances of manning the outfield that go beyond being a really fast little dude.
"We want to get most of the reps in center field as he continues to get accustomed to the position," said Will Venable. "He looks really good. The first-step stuff we’ve been working on, the pre-pitch stuff, he’s been out there this winter. It’s been kind of just fine-tuning some things for him. One of the things we’re working on is the throwing from the outfield, a different arm stroke from the outfield, some different objectives from the outfield spot. So, he’s been working extremely hard, early work every morning, just taken to all the coaching he's been given."
Venable didn't look directly into the camera while doing it or anything, but noted that he's holding off on big judgments about offensive results this early in spring when so many guys are just getting comfortable. That goes double for Acuña, who is still working to find consistency in keeping his weight in his back leg in order to lift the ball for more power, after going homerless in over 300 plate appearances split across Triple-A and the majors last year.
"From when he was in the big leagues in '25 to the swing in Venezuela to where he is now, he has made considerable adjustments that are going to be really beneficial to him," said hitting director Ryan Fuller. "He's still in the process of finding a consistency with it. But I feel great about the relationship he's going to have with [hitting coaches Derek Shomon] and Joel [McKeithan] here and the work they're attacking. They've already made really nice adjustments to his cage work here."
Meanwhile, in the realm of meaningless spring results, Brooks Baldwin is 4-for-7 with a double and homer in the early going, which if nothing else reminds that there is a genuine competition for center field at-bats in Sox camp.
"Swing decisions are feeling pretty good right, seeing the ball pretty well and being able to see it deep and make that last-second decision is feeling pretty good," said Baldwin, whose chase rates have run high in his big league career, but is trying to combat them by adding core strength. "Holding my posture keeps your eyes still, you're able to see a lot better, so you're able to make those swing decisions slightly later."
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This past Nov. 18 was a big career milestone for utilityman Tanner Murray. Over five years after being a fourth-round pick in the abbreviated 2020 draft, he was finally added to the Rays' 40-man roster.
Within a few hours, things got weird.
"I was excited that the Rays felt highly enough about me to put me on the 40-man, then I realized it was a business and they traded me out," said Murray, who came over alongside Everson Pereira in exchange for Yoendrys Gómez and Steven Wilson later that same day. "But it was cool to know that the White Sox had wanted me for a good amount of time and had tried to make a trade happen. So it was a good feeling that I got an opportunity over here and I was excited."
Getting dealt can be a disorienting experience, so when possible, it's best to be part of the fifth of six trades made between two teams in the calendar year.
"Half of the guys in here I played with last year with the Rays, it seems like," Murray quipped.
After being a high contact/low impact hitter at the outset of his pro career, Murray hit one fewer home run last season (18) than he had lifted in his three previous years combined, but also slashed .241/.299/.400 at Triple-A with an elevated (24.1 percent) strikeout rate. Murray would sooner term his power outburst as a bit of solace amid a season of offensive struggles than a conscious trade-off, but is hopeful his two-run shot in Peoria on Tuesday is evidence of a new ability to tap into his power when the opportunity arises.
"I give credit to Kenny Hook, the hitting guy in Durham last year for dealing with me and helping me unlock some stuff I didn't even know I had, so I'm excited to use more of it this year," Murray said. "It was more just kind of making sure I get my A-swing off, not getting so passive with my swing just trying to make contact. It's being confident so that when I get a pitch in the zone that I really like, knowing that I'm strong enough to hit it really hard, and not hesitate."
Murray manned six different positions last year, and played some first base in 2024, so he could definitely get to seven. But his natural home is at shortstop, the position he's played since childhood. From my own looks at him on video and judging from the White Sox' early usage of Murray this spring, he can pick it well enough there to be a protective layer of depth between Colson Montgomery and the many shortstop prospects in the system who deserve more time to marinate.
