As summer begins to turn into fall, the Major League Baseball season is in it's home stretch, and several teams will be looking to build their playoff roster. But for some, like the Chicago White Sox, the final month of the season is about putting the team and organization in the best position for 2026 and beyond.
MLB grants teams the ability to add some extra players to the active roster for September, expanding roster sizes to 28. The White Sox will have a chance to add a couple deserving players to their roster to get a first glimpse at some potential future pieces.
Barring an injury, the White Sox starting rotation seems pretty set for the rest of 2025, and there aren’t any hitters really knocking on the door and deserving of regular at-bats in the Major League lineup.
It seems to me that adding a couple bullpen arms would be the most optimal (and likely) strategy for the White Sox. I believe Peyton Pallette and Shane Murphy are the two players most worthy of be "September call-ups."
RHP Peyton Pallette, Charlotte Knights
The White Sox drafted Peyton Pallette out of Arkansas in the second round back in 2022, the same year they drafted Noah Schultz.
Pallette was coming off Tommy John surgery that caused him to fall to pick No. 62, even though he was a higher rated prospect than Schultz in MLB.com's rankings. When healthy, Pallette flashed first-round caliber stuff.
He returned to the mound in 2023 as a starter, where he posted a 4.13 ERA with Low-A Kannapolis. The White Sox moved him up to Winston-Salem in 2024 hoping he’d take a big step forward, but he struggled with his command and ended up with an ERA near 5 before a midseason move to the bullpen.
The bullpen move came with a promotion, and Pallette was dominant in eight appearances with Double-A Birmingham to close out the season. He began 2025 at the same level, striking out 32 hitters in 21 innings before being moved up to Triple-A.
The International league is known to be hitter friendly, so Pallette hasn’t been quite as dominant in Charlotte as he was in Birmingham, but 40 strikeouts and just 14 walks in 33.1 innings is promising.
At 24, Pallette seems ready for the big leagues, and his back-of-the-bullpen stuff may pair nicely with Grant Taylor. If the White Sox elect to move Taylor back into the rotation, Pallette may even find himself in a closers role in the future.
I expect Pallette to be strongly in the mix for the 2026 bullpen, and he could get his first audition as early as next week.
LHP Shane Murphy, Birmingham Barons
Left-handed pitching prospect Shane Murphy has been one of the biggest stories in the White Sox organization this season, and yet, many people are still unfamiliar.
Drafted in the 14th round of the same draft as the aforementioned Pallette, Murphy has quietly been one of the more dominant arms in the White Sox farm system over the past three years, but he’s taken it to a whole new level since his promotion to Birmingham earlier this season.
The 24-year-old has a 1.63 ERA this season, and in 17 starts (19 games) since his promotion to Double-A, his ERA is a sparkling 1.45. Murphy has struck out 90 hitters and walked just 18 in 115.2 innings in 2025.
He remains outside of the White Sox top 30 prospects list, likely because of his age and his lack of overwhelming stuff.
Murphy is a soft contact machine who pounds the strike zone. Because of this, I believe his stuff will play better as a starting pitcher in the long run, but the White Sox could give him his first taste of Major League action in the bullpen.
The organization has been trying to control his innings, so his last few starts have been on a pitch count. The White Sox could give him the opportunity to face more advanced hitters for the final month while continuing to monitor his innings. Some big league success in September could put Murphy firmly on the radar to crack the 2026 White Sox rotation. We've seen the organization attempt similar maneuvers before.
The White Sox will likely add two players to their roster this weekend, and it would make a ton of sense to add a couple bullpen arms to eat innings.
While other candidates with less intrigue remain in Charlotte, it would benefit the White Sox to get a glimpse at a couple pitchers who could be part of their long-term plans. We’ll see if Chris Getz feels the same way.