A busy week across Major League Baseball is coming to an end. The Rule 5 deadline on Tuesday led to some tough roster decisions for many teams, including the White Sox. Friday marked the second big deadline of the week: the deadline to tender a contract to all arbitration eligible players. For the White Sox, the biggest decision was on the status of veteran outfielder Mike Tauchman, and the choice has been made. The White Sox have non-tendered Tauchman as well as first-baseman Tim Elko and reliever Cam Booser, while the club has tendered a contract to outfielder Derek Hill. The Sox have have already found their replacement for Booser in newly acquired reliever Chris Murphy, but it’s a surprising turn of events for Tauchman and Elko, both of whom were expected by fans to be back in 2026.
The Chicago White Sox have agreed to terms on a one-year, $900,000 contract with outfielder Derek Hill, avoiding arbitration, and have declined to tender 2026 contracts to left-handed pitcher Cam Booser, first baseman Tim Elko and outfielder Mike Tauchman.
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) November 21, 2025
Tauchman, a native of Chicago’s northwest suburbs, was originally drafted by the Rockies in 2013 and made his major league debut with Colorado in 2017. Primarily a fourth outfielder throughout his big league career, Tauchman’s best season came in 2019, where he produced an OPS of .865 in 87 games with the New York Yankees. Tauchman became a solid contributor on the north side of Chicago in 2023 and 2024 before being non-tendered by the Cubs and signing a one-year deal to stay in Chicago on the south side. Hamstring injuries limited Tauchman to 93 games in 2025, but the veteran had a productive season at the plate while healthy, posting a .756 OPS with nine home runs.
Tim Elko just broke into Major League Baseball this season but struggled in 23 games. The 26 year-old struggled in his big league time, hitting just .138 and looking largely overmatched at the plate. To make matters worse, Elko had surgery to repair a Torn ACL and wasn’t likely to return until midseason 2026. With the White Sox likely to go outside the organization to fill their need at first base, there wasn’t a clear path toward a roster spot for Elko, who will now hit free agency and look for a new deal. Releasing Elko removes him from the team’s 40-man roster, and tt’s possible that the plan is to bring Elko back on a minor league contract, but his status for 2026 and beyond is nevertheless up in the air.
The White Sox decision on Mike Tauchman makes little sense
The White Sox had interest from other teams in Tauchman at the trade deadline, but valued his veteran presence and extra year of control enough to hold onto him, making the decision to not tender him even more curious. The team potentially passed on acquiring prospects at the trade deadline to hold Tauchman for another two months and then let him walk for free. There may have been behind-the-scenes reasons for the decision to hold him, but on the surface, this doesn’t feel like a sound process for the situation. In addition to not trading Tauchman at the deadline, the White Sox could've traded him at any point in the past few weeks to get something in return, but elected not to. Now, he'll hit free agency and the Sox will get nothing but memories of his year in Chicago.
The White Sox will now move forward with even more clear needs in the outfield and at first base. The offseason is just getting started and there are plenty of opportunities for the team to improve in those areas. Only time will tell if Chris Getz can make it happen.