The Chicago White Sox 2025 payroll will be in bottom 5 after avoiding arbitration with eligible players

The Chicago White Sox lost a record 121 games with a payroll over $130 million. Now the Sox will attempt to lose possibly 100 games or more in 2025 with a payroll that projects to be around $79 according to Fangraphs.

That puts the White Sox players' costs at 27th among all 30 MLB teams. Fans have every right to groan after enduring a competitive window that was slammed shut partially due to ownership-imposed spending restrictions.

Unless the White Sox make a surprise move, it looks like they will enter the season with the league's third-lowest payroll.

That is because the Sox announced they avoided arbitration with the four eligible players.

Vaughn's $5.85 million makes him the third-highest-paid player on the roster. If the White Sox were operating out of a smaller market, it would make sense to have a payroll this low.

The Sox conduct business in Chicago--even if the team does not act like it--where Chicago's Southside team should never have a payroll this far below $100 million.

Now there is a method to the franchise's frugalness.

The Sox have just 11 players on the 40-man roster who have reached arbitration-eligible or veteran status. That means nearly 75% of the roster is still in the very cheap portion of their club control years.

The White Sox should be rolling out young players during the beginning part of this decade's rebuild. Young players such as Jonathan Cannon, Davis Martin, and Drew Thorpe should make up the bulk of the rotation as they have shown a ton of promise.

They come cheap not because the Sox are operating that way. It is because they are still years away from qualifying for arbitration.

Young hitters such as Colson Montgomery, Edgar Quero, Kyle Teel, Bryan Ramos, Brooks Baldwin, Chase Meidroth, and even Miguel Vargas should be given at-bats to see if they can be long-term pieces. Once again, most of those guys will not be eligible for arbitration for a while.

Even potential long-term key backups such as Lenyn Sosa and Korey Lee are still in their pre-arb years. That explains why the payroll is going to be so low.

Now, fans' frustrations with the team's lack of spending are warranted.

A salary cap does not exist in baseball and owner Jerry Reinsdorf keeps acting like there is one. He continued to put self-imposed spending limits during the team's contention window between 2020-2022. He also refuses to spend the going rate for premium talent which is going for over $100 million these days.

It would have been great for the Sox to sign Juan Soto, Willy Adames, and Anthony Santander while extending Garrett Crochet. The owner was never going to authorize that kind of spending, so the front office had to pivot to a youth movement and acquire players who could be flipped at the deadline.

Also, it is hard to see the Kansas Royals going from finishing dead last in the AL Central in 2023 (worse than the 101-loss 2023 White Sox) to making the playoffs with a moderate spending offseason spree. The difference between the Royals and the Sox is Kansas City has a generational talent in Bobby Witt Jr. along with Salvador Perez.

The Sox just do not have those types of players. Heck, the White Sox no longer have the Athletics as their partner in not spending as the A's have spent a ton this offseason. Although, the A's are doing it to avoid a grievance being filed by the player's union.

To be fair, Reinsdorf has authorized payrolls that have exceeded $200 million, so it is not like he will ever spend. He just will never spend enough.

It will be interesting to see how much the White Sox improve their win total (if they improve it) compared to the Los Angeles Angels.

The Angels finished with 99 losses and have spent over $80 million to upgrade their roster. If the Angeles can reduce their run differential and improve their win total more than the Sox, then fans should feel even more frustrated.