White Sox prospect right-hander Mathias LaCombe loves baseball.
That's not some special advantage he holds over his competition in High-A. But as he left his home in France to pitch in junior college in Arizona, and has spent much of his pro career since being drafted in 2023 rehabbing injuries at the team complex, LaCombe's dream to be the first true native of his country (sorry, Bruce Bochy) to play in the major leagues has been an animating force.
Now that the newly 24-year-old is over the shoulder soreness that delayed the start to his season, and is vaporizing South Atlantic League hitters out of the Winston-Salem bullpen (11⅔ IP, 21 K, 5 BB, 2.31 ERA), his love for the sport is seen less through internal motivation and more in outward aggression. Or maybe it takes an outsider to put the social dynamics of such an American sport into stark relief.
"Strikeouts are the most fun thing to do," said LaCombe, who despite his self-criticism, speaks English remarkably well. "Just to see the guy walk slowly back to the dugout, it's so fun. Just knowing that I'm better than you. It's such an experience. There's nothing that compares to that."
In this way, there hasn't been a big adjustment for the Sox shifting LaCombe to relief; certainly not in pitching style. He's trying to blow everyone away just as he always has, and with the same five-pitch mix (four-seamer, sinker, slider, splitter, cutter) that he touted last year.
"When I was a starter I would still go in and not think about whether I needed to go five, or six, or seven innings that day," said LaCombe, who relieved plenty in college. "I would just give my best every inning and just see how long I could hold that for. I'd rather, as a starter, give four of five innings of work but not give up any runs, than go seven innings and give up two runs in the first because I was not going all-in. I'll always give my best any time I'm on the bump and not thinking about how tired I'm going to get."
Injuries contributed to the move rather than ineffectiveness, as the Sox have always lauded the Frenchman's pure stuff, and he struck out 32.6 percent of hitters even while struggling with walks last year. And it's less about future injury concern than the time his shoulder and lat issues have already taken. LaCombe is Rule 5 eligible at the end of next season, and there's always a latent desire to test what they have by that decision date. But LaCombe said the door has been left open to starting again, and echoed what farm director Paul Janish has said about the decision: Rather than slowly build up his inning capacity in Arizona and further delay his start to the season, they wanted to pick a path where the right-hander could just go out and start competing.
Early on, the South Atlantic League just isn't much competition.
Throwing out a low three-quarters slot with a ton of horizontal action on all his pitches, LaCombe has adapted his course this year and really fallen in love with attacking with a four-seamer (which still has plenty of run) at the top of the strike zone, racking up a preposterous 39 percent miss rate with it so far per Synergy Sports. Combined with a growing comfort in throwing his sweeper for strikes, he's pitching backwards more than ever, and has walked just five of 50 batters in Winston-Salem (10 percent) this year, compared to 13 of 77 (16.9 percent) at Kannapolis in 2025.
"I don't know whether it's just confidence or me getting stronger or the drills that I'm doing, or a little bit of everything," LaCombe said. "My command went up, too. I just live more in the zone, and I can throw sliders or fastballs elevated in the zone to strike people out later in the count. Getting ahead in the count is a little easier for me to do this year because I control more and feel more confident, where last year I would struggle finding the zone sometimes."
The cutter and splitter, the latter of which LaCombe feels is the hardest to control, still exists largely as chase pitches, and game reps have obviously been the missing ingredient for sharpening his command. Especially if his eventual introduction to Chicago comes through the bullpen, the largest question is simply staying on the field.
LaCombe believes his injury this spring stemmed from his shoulder not being strong enough. But after training at Alex Bregman's new Nemesis facility in Scottsdale, where he played catch with the likes of Zac Gallen, Walker Buehler and Connelly Early, he has a bevy of exercises and drills that he feels have him in a more stable place physically. LaCombe said he never lost velocity this spring, even when he started to feel pain, and recalls hitting a personal record of 99 mph in his first outing back at Winston-Salem.
"I'm not saying it will never be [painful] again, because baseball is a pretty demanding sport and that's how it is," LaCombe said. "It's something that came a few times, but it's just a lack of strengthening and stability in my shoulder. When I hammer some specific exercises, the pain goes away. Sometimes it's a little much for my shoulder but when I get to be a little stronger, I have no problem with it."
There were a couple French-born collegiate players this season that LaCombe is pretty excited about. But without any shoulder or lat pain to contend with, throwing the hardest and nastiest stuff of his career, and compiling dominant results in High-A, it's easier to believe the Sox right-hander is going to be the first from his country to crack the big leagues.
Easier for us, maybe.
"I always believed it's going to happen," LaCombe said. "If I don't believe, who's going to believe for me? It's my dream. It's what I want to do. This is why I work, this is what I'm here for. Obviously, every time I get promoted and go to the next level, it's going to get me closer and feel even more real. But I never doubt that I will get there eventually."
