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Chicago White Sox Bullpen Given Historically Poor Projection in 2025

The Chicago White Sox may earn more total victories than their historically-poor 2024 season, but they aren't necessarily going to be a whole lot better.
Brady Farkas|
Chicago White Sox relief pitcher Prelander Berroa (66) pitches during the seventh inning against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in 2024.
Chicago White Sox relief pitcher Prelander Berroa (66) pitches during the seventh inning against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in 2024. | Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images

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Chicago White Sox

The Chicago White Sox put together the worst season in the Modern Era in 2024, going 41-121.

The Sox are going through a painful rebuild, and it appears it will take them years to come out of it. They do have some reasons to be excited, as new manager Will Venable brings a degree of optimism and pitching prospects like Drew Thorpe, Hagen Smith and Noah Schultz are close to making major-league impact, but by and large, this should be another poor season on the South Side.

Fangraphs put out its ZIP projections for the White Sox on Monday and there's a mixed bag in there too. The site projects the White Sox to actually win 20 more games than a season ago, but it had a historically poor projection on the bullpen:

The bullpen projects… worse. Indeed, this is the worst unit that ZiPS has ever projected, but I’m not inclined to rag on a dozen org guys on a terrible team. Of the projected relief corps, Prelander Berroais probably the name to watch — though you don’t have to watch the White Sox, I promise — as his plus fastball and slider at least could be good. Problem is, he’s definitely far more of a thrower than a pitcher at this point; his pitches often intersect with the strike zone purely by chance.

The White Sox have traded away, or let walk: Liam Hendricks, Gregory Santos, Aaron Bummer, Joe Kelly and Keynan Middleton in the last two years, so it's not surprising to see the bullpen predicted to struggle.

There is no household name in that bullpen and no clear-cut hierarchy.

At least on the offensive side of things, Luis Robert Jr. was predicted to have a 20-homer season. Andrew Vaughn got a 21-homer prediction as well.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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