The upcoming offseason will be filled with big decisions for Chris Getz and the Chicago White Sox front office.
With what could end up being a 20-game improvement in 2025, the White Sox are now looking to take the next step in their rebuild and put together a more competitive roster.
As the team gets more competitive, more difficult decisions will need to be made. I can already foresee a few players getting cut, sent down, or benched this offseason that the White Sox may live to regret letting go of.
Here’s a look at three players who I could see not being brought back for 2026, but I think it would be a mistake for the White Sox to discard.
Martín Pérez
The White Sox have a $10 million mutual option with veteran starting pitcher Martín Pérez this offseason. While Pérez has expressed interest in coming back to a White Sox team that he believes will be competitive in 2026, I expect the White Sox to decline their end of that option.
Given the pitching depth in the organization, Pérez turning 35 right around the 2026 home opener, and his shoulder injury that sidelined him for most of the 2025 season, Chicago will probably opt to save the money. I think that will be a mistake.
Pérez has still got it. He has proven that over 10 appearances and 52.1 innings this season (3.27 ERA).
The White Sox need a veteran presence in their starting rotation, even if they have organizational depth. It's going to be hard to find another pitcher on the same level as Pérez for a better price than $10 million on the open market. Chicago may as well pick up this option, it makes their team better.
Cam Booser
Chris Getz and the White Sox front office clearly believed in Cam Booser prior to the 2025 season. They went out of their way to trade 18-year-old pitcher Yhoiker Fajardo for him, who has had a tremendous season in the Red Sox organization and pitched his way into their Top 30 prospects.
Booser has had a frustrating year, with a 4.82 ERA and 1.46 WHIP, but I wouldn't be so fast to get rid of him.
According to the advanced metrics on Baseball Savant, Cam Booser has an expected ERA of 4.07 and an expected opposing batting average of .198, which is one of the best marks in baseball.
Booser has had a control problem and has gotten really unlucky on balls in play this season, but he still has swing-and-miss stuff with 10.6 K/9 in the Major Leagues.
With his contract keeping him under club control through the 2030 season, the White Sox would be foolish to let Booser go over the winter. My fear is that he is not one of the prioritized left-handed relief pitchers in the organization and will get DFA'd to make room for someone on the 40-man roster.
If Booser is subjected to waivers, a smart team will jump on the chance to claim him.
Curtis Mead
Curtis Mead is probably the odd-man-out for the White Sox when it comes to the corner infield position battle right now.
I tend to believe the Sox would give both Lenyn Sosa and Miguel Vargas a roster spot and regular at-bats before Mead at this point, which could mean Mead doesn't have a place on the 2026 team.
Mead’s numbers don’t jump off the page. He’s hitting .264 with a .644 OPS since joining the White Sox, but I firmly believe that he’s a few small corrections away from reaching his potential as a former top prospect in baseball.
Mead has good bat speed and rarely whiffs. His barrel percentage and hard-hit-rate in 2025 are the highest of his career and continue trending in the right direction. That said, he hits too many ground balls and needs to take more walks, especially for a hitter than seems to have a good approach at the plate.
The White Sox probably want to see Mead get into more of his power. While he has eight (8) doubles over his last 17 games and has started to find the gap-to-gap pop, he'll need to hit the ball over the fence if he’s going to stick at a corner infield position.
I think he deserves more opportunity to prove he can do that, but Mead only has one minor league option remaining and the White Sox could look to add a first baseman in free agency. If they do, I'd be willing to bet Mead starts the 2026 season in Charlotte and is blocked from getting at-bats with the White Sox for the foreseeable future.