3 Chicago White Sox Storylines Heading into A's Series

The Athletics and Chicago White Sox are set to embark upon a three-game series beginning on Tuesday, and while neither team has necessarily hit their stride yet this season, this should be an interesting matchup.

For the A's, these are games that they'll have to win to show that they're to be taken seriously as contenders in the American League West. For Chicago, they're coming off of a series win against the Boston Red Sox, and looking to keep the wins coming in what is expected to be another down year for the club.

Here are three White Sox storylines heading into the season to get you ready for the series.

Strength vs strength, weakness vs. weakness

The White Sox pitching staff has been terrific to begin the 2025 season, ranking No. 10 in ERA with a 3.55 as a unit, while the starters (3.76) rank No. 13, and the relievers are ranked at No. 7 with a 3.22. This may be where the A's have lucked out a bit in this series.

While the staff as a whole has been good, the three pitchers the A's are schedule to face--Sean Burke (6.08 ERA), Jonathan Cannon (5.79), and Davis Martin (4.24) are not the starters that are carrying the load for Chicago. Those two would be Martín Pérez (1.59) and Shane Smith (2.04).

Offensively, the Sox have been one of the worst teams in baseball, ranking No. 27 in wRC+ with a 68 (100 is league average), while placing in the same slot in runs scored with 50 on the year.

The A's on the other hand rank No. 14 in runs scored (65) and tenth in wRC+ with a 110. It's their pitching that has slowed them down a bit so far this season, ranking No. 27 in ERA (4.91) as a staff. The starters hold a 4.71 ERA and are ranked No. 26, while the bullpen holds the same ranking with a 5.19 ERA.

The key to this series for the A's will be to build up leads against the White Sox starters and then hope for the best in the later innings.

Current and former Sox grabbing headlines

It seems like every few weeks a new Luis Robert Jr. rumor comes out. We're in the middle of one of those news cycles.

As Bob Nightengale of USA Today pointed out in a recent column, the White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers have tabled talks to send Robert to L.A. in exchange for James Outman, who is currently in Triple-A, and "a front-line prospect."

Chicago making a deal with someone for Robert seems inevitable. He is making $15 million this season, and has two $20 million club options that keep him under team control through 2027. Despite hitting .163 this season with a .250 OBP and one home run, if the Dodgers are after him, then there should be hope that he'll turn things around before long.

The other bit of news came during Sunday's game, when one of the bigger trade pieces of the entire offseason, Garrett Crochet, took a no-hitter into the eighth inning against his former team in Chicago. He ended up striking out 11 in 7.1 innings of work, giving up one run and walking one. Through four starts he holds a 1.38 ERA.

Back in 2020 when the White Sox faced the Athletics in the Wild Card round, Crochet got two outs, both via strikeout in the decisive Game 3. It was at that point that he had to be pulled due to forearm tightness while experiencing a dip in velocity. Crochet had been so electric in his brief time in the big leagues at that point that his injury may have swayed that series in the A's favor.

On Sunday, it was Chase Meidroth, one of the players traded by the Red Sox for Crochet, that ended up breaking up the no-hit bid.

The good and the bad

While the White Sox enter the series at 4-11, good for a .267 winning percentage, there are some positives to grasp onto for the Southsiders. During last year's 41-121 campaign, the team had three losing streaks of 12 or more games, and tied the American League record for consecutive losses (21). They finished that season with a .253 winning percentage, just a touch below this year's mark.

While the A's victory on August 5 of last season had them tie that streak, the A's also helped them break the losing streak the next day with Cannon defeating Ross Stripling 5-1 in Oakland.

The Sox current winning percentage isn't much better than one of the worst in MLB history, but there is one big difference between the two seasons right now, and it goes back to the pitching staff. Despite being seven games under .500, Chicago's run differential is just -3, which gives them an expected record of 7-8. They're playing better baseball than the record would indicate.

That -3 ranks as the third-best in their division, and is also better than the Boston Red Sox (-15), Baltimore Orioles (-6), and Atlanta Braves (-12). It would also be tied with or better than any club in the AL West.

Of course, it's still early in the season and the sample size isn't huge yet, but last year their run differential was -306, which gave them an expected record of 48-114. This year's team isn't going to be pushing .500, but they should be more run of the mill bad than historically awful.