If there's anything that should give Chicago White Sox fans confidence for 2026 and the years that follow, it's the current race between the Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers for the AL Central title.
The winner of the AL Central in 2025 will come down to Game 162 on Sunday. It should be an electrifying finish, but admittedly, it can be hard to watch meaningful baseball when your favorite team isn't in the mix.
That being said, seeing the Tigers collapse in September and the Guardians clinch a playoff spot is an example of how winnable this division still is.
The White Sox are playing in the worst division in baseball
The White Sox are not playing int he AL East or NL West. It won't take a 100-win season to unseat the current top teams.
The Guardians were right around .500 and 10.5 games out on August 31. Postseason baseball seemed extremely unlikely. A hot month and some lucky breaks now have them right in the thick of things with a chance to win the AL Central if they win their final game of the regular season.
Cleveland could become division champs with 87 or 88 wins. Every other division winner has 90+ wins this season.
The Guardians have a run differential of -7 for the season. This is not a particularly good team. Cleveland's .668 OPS this season is 29th in baseball, making them one of two teams worse offensively than the White Sox...and yet, this is who Chicago will need to chase down in the future years.
2025 was a year of progress. There's a lot to like about the direction the Chicago White Sox are headed as an organization and the potential of this young core. With another offseason development and some supplementary additions but the front office, the Sox should take another huge step froward from their 18-19 game improvement this year.
Can the White Sox win the division or make the playoffs in 2026? I think that's highly unlikely. But they're not as far away as many people in baseball would lead you to believe. The Guardians just proved that if you can hang around .500, you are one hot stretch away from being the best team in the weak AL Central.