The White Sox stocked up on multi-inning relievers over the course of the offseason, and that depth will be tested now that they've lost the services of the guy who set the template.
The team announced that Mike Vasil will undergo Tommy John surgery in the coming weeks, which leaves a couple of voids in the White Sox bullpen. There's the matter of the 100 relief innings he contributed to last year's team, which took the form of opening, closing and everything in between, but there's also the outsized personality that buoyed a pitching staff that was constantly in flux.
Vasil's season came to an abrupt end, even by the standards of a UCL tear. He needed just 34 pitches to cruise through 3⅔ innings against the Dodgers on Saturday, but after a pair of walks, he ended up departing the game with a trainer.
Scott Merkin relayed the immediate reaction...
“Something just didn’t feel right," Vasil said after the game. “Anytime with an elbow ... if something’s not feeling right, you gotta speak up, gotta say something. Had them come out there, and we just decided it was best not to push.”
... but the lack of an immediate follow-up from the team portended a lengthy absence, as did Elijah Evans' report that Chris Murphy was set to make the Opening Day roster.
Murphy, the lefty who was acquired from the Red Sox in a minor trade at the Rule 5 protection deadline, has a history of starting and relieving, and a Vasil-like willingness to contribute innings on short notice. The White Sox also signed Sean Newcomb after he threw 92⅓ innings over 48 games for the Red Sox and Athletics last season, and while he opened the spring auditioning for the rotation, Will Venable officially assigned him to the bullpen on Saturday.
But Murphy and Newcomb -- and let's add non-roster invitee Ryan Borucki, who is also showing well -- are lefties. And as the White Sox finalized their rotation on Tuesday, right-hander Jonathan Cannon was optioned to Triple-A in a move that likely puts him as the next man up for filling a rotational need rather than contributing to the bullpen.
White Sox rotation (in order) to begin the season: Shane Smith, Sean Burke, Anthony Kay, Davis Martin and Erick Fedde.
— LaMond Pope (@lamondpope.bsky.social) 2026-03-17T18:47:07.304Z
If Venable and Chris Getz want a right-hander to handle some of Vasil's duties, they could pay tribute to Vasil's Rule 5 roots by going with Jedixson Paez. Paez is sporting an 8.53 ERA this spring, but it's entirely due to one disastrous outing. The rest of the game log is a lot more flattering:
| Date | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb. 28 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| March 5 | 1.1 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| March 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| March 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| March 14 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
The White Sox placed fellow Rule 5 pick Alexander Alberto on waivers on Monday, but with Paez being a reliable strike-thrower who is used to starting, there's a much more generous pathway for granting him a major league audition. Paez has expressed a Vasil-like willingness to mix into whatever role is available, even if it was just grounded in a clear-eyed view of his fight for a spot.
These aren't the circumstances that anybody wanted for affording him the opportunity, but at least there'd be a pleasing symmetry were Paez able to capitalize on it the way Vasil did the year before.
