Gavin Sheets addresses 2025 success with Padres and if the White Sox failed him

The Chicago White Sox played their final home series of the season this past weekend as they welcomed the San Diego Padres to town.

The White Sox ultimately lost two of three games in the series, but it was a notable weekend as the team welcomed back a pair of former players to Rate Field for the first time in their new uniform.

Right-handed pitcher Dylan Cease got the ball for the Padres in Friday’s series opener for his first start back in Chicago since being traded to San Diego in March 2024. Cease allowed four earned runs over six innings and was ultimately saddled with the loss, as the White Sox won the ballgame 4-3.

The White Sox also welcomed back former second-round draft pick Gavin Sheets.

Gavin Sheets has had a great year with the Padres

Sheets, now 29, was non-tendered by the White Sox in the offseason and signed a minor league deal with San Diego.

A good Spring Training helped him make the Padres roster, and a red hot start to the season earned him some more playing time.

While Sheets has cooled down a bit since his torrid April, he’s still putting together the best overall offensive season of his career. Sheets enters the final week of the season hitting .258 with a career-high 19 home runs and a .766 OPS.

Sheets does not blame the White Sox for his struggles in Chicago

CHSN’s Chuck Garfien sat down for a conversation with Sheets during the weekend, and he asked about the reason behind the success in San Diego and whether it’s because of something the White Sox are doing wrong.

“You know, I don’t think it’s a White Sox thing.” Sheets said. “I think it’s just a change of scenery, you know. I love the staff here in Chicago now. I was expecting to come back, but I was talking to Will [Venable] and talking to these guys and hearing their vision and hearing what they saw for the future, and I was fired up for it. I loved what he was bringing to the table. I thought what he was bringing was refreshing. It was exciting."

Sheets made it clear that being non-tendered was just a business move by the White Sox, and it gave him the fresh start that he really needed.

"It was the moves that needed to be made, so it’s not a ‘Hey I got out of Chicago, I got out of that staff’, it’s not that," said Sheets. "It was a nice change of scenery, especially after last year. For me, it was such a tough season that to get somewhere new and to get somewhere fresh was what I needed."

Hearing Sheets say that he was excited for the plan of the White Sox staff should be a comfort to Sox fans.

Let’s face it, 2024 was a disaster on all fronts, and it seems unlikely that anybody could’ve been having fun. To have a player on that team saying he was genuinely excited for what the White Sox were building after that disaster is nice to hear.

It also makes total sense for Sheets to feel like he needed to go elsewhere to get a fresh start. It’s easy for White Sox fans to look at the success of Sheets in San Diego or Andrew Vaughn in Milwaukee and continue the narrative that the White Sox ruin everything they touch, but there’s a reason to believe that this group is different.

The White Sox have an analytics driven GM and manager for the first time, and Chris Getz has been determined to build things differently. 

Even with the White Sox closing in on yet another 100-loss season, strides have been made and it’s easy to see the progress. The influx of young talent has played well and shown why they were highly regarded prospects. Getz will need to pull the right strings in free agency and on the trade market to add pieces to the core, but things appear to be headed in the right direction.

I’d urge White Sox fans to focus on the future instead of dwelling on past failures. Rather than focus on the success of Gavin Sheets in San Diego, let’s look ahead to the success that’s to come on the South Side.