The White Sox enter the offseason with a clear need in the rotation, and it sounds as though they’ll plan to address it both internally and via some outside additions. General manager Chris Getz said in an appearance with MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (audio link) that hard-throwing reliever Grant Taylor will move from the bullpen into the rotation. The Sox are planning to keep left-hander Hagen Smith in a relief role for now, however. Any further rotation additions will come from free agency or the trade market.
“We’re going to exhaust the starter market, both free agency — we’ll take a look — along with trades,” said Getz. “That is our top priority.”
Starting with the 24-year-old Taylor, a move to the rotation has been an oft-discussed topic in ChiSox circles for years. Taylor, selected with the No. 51 overall pick in 2023, has worked as a starter briefly in the minors but has spent the bulk of his professional career in relief. That’s not due to doubts in his ability but rather his recent health.
Taylor required Tommy John surgery while pitching at Louisiana State University. He was in the process of rehabbing in ’23 when the Sox drafted him, and he didn’t formally make his professional debut until late in the 2024 campaign. He pitched 19 1/3 innings across five starts that season, posting a 2.33 ERA with dominant strikeout and walk rates in the low minors.
In 2025, Taylor posted video game numbers (1.01 ERA) in a small sample of 26 innings between the rotation and bullpen in Double-A before being promoted to the majors, where he worked in relief (plus a couple opener stints). He had a rough stretch in mid-August but finished the year with nine straight scoreless innings and a 16-to-3 K/BB ratio in that time.
Taylor spent the whole 2026 season in the majors and now looks like a core piece in Chicago. The 6’3″, 230-pound righty tossed 84 innings with a 2.25 ERA, 31.5% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate, 48% ground-ball rate and 0.75 HR/9. Taylor sat 98.1 mph on his four-seamer and 98.9 mph on his sinker. He saved 10 games, picked up 11 holds, and regularly worked multiple innings. Half of Taylor’s 60 appearances saw him record four or more outs. He topped out at 2 2/3 innings in a single appearance on the year and tossed two-plus innings on 17 separate occasions.
Taylor will now step into a rotation mix that also includes Sean Burke, Davis Martin, Anthony Kay and veteran Luis Castillo. Shane Smith, Drew Thorpe, Noah Schultz, Jonathan Cannon, David Sandlin and Tanner McDougal are all on the 40-man roster as well and could mix in, though some from that bunch will be in Triple-A while others will pitch in relief.
It’s a decent collection of depth, but the South Siders are lacking in clear top-end arms. Burke paced the team in 2026 innings and had the best ERA among this past season’s rotation members (3.34), but it was an uneven season. Burke posted pedestrian numbers early, caught fire for most of the summer, then wilted in August and into early September before closing out the year with three strong starts. He’s assured a rotation spot and has clear playoff rotation upside, but both he and the Sox would surely prefer a smoother trajectory in 2027 and beyond.
Martin’s season was somewhat the opposite. He dominated early in the year despite middling strikeout numbers, then began missing bats and looking truly formidable … before faceplanting with a 5.63 ERA from June onward (17 starts). He finished with a 3.95 ERA in a career-high 146 major league innings. Kay started rough, pitched well midseason, then tanked over the final month en route to a 4.44 ERA.
It’s perfectly feasible that the quartet of Burke, Taylor, Martin and Kay could form a solid one through four in a competitive rotation. The wealth of names mentioned previously isn’t without upside, either. Smith was a Rule 5 gem in 2025 and looked like a potential building block before he was hit hard early in ’26 and shelled by Triple-A pitching the rest of the way following an early demotion. Thorpe and Schultz, in particular, have been top-tier prospects in the past but have been hobbled by injuries.
Though there’s some upside, the Sox are lacking in terms of certainty and established front-of-the-rotation presence. They’re not going to be anyone’s pick to sign Tarik Skubal — though as we’ll get into shortly, they have the payroll space for a big splash — but could realistically reel in anyone else on the market. Trevor Rogers, Freddy Peralta, Michael King and Sonny Gray are among the names on the next tier of the free agent market.
[Related: Top 40 Trade Candidates of the 2026-27 MLB Offseason]
The trade market will likely include Angels lefty Reid Detmers. Rays president Erik Neander has already said his intent is to hang onto Drew Rasmussen, but other clubs will be calling and could still try to pry the Tampa Bay ace loose. The Mariners (George Kirby, Emerson Hancock), Yankees (Ryan Weathers, Will Warren) and Rangers (Jacob deGrom, MacKenzie Gore) are among the other teams with starting pitching that could be available.
Payroll-wise, the Sox shouldn’t have any limiting factors. As can be seen in MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker, Ethan Hullihen projects a $108MM payroll for the South Siders next year. The Sox only have five players on guaranteed contracts: Castillo, Kay, Jordan Hicks, Andrew Benintendi and Munetaka Murakami. They’ll all be free agents following the ’27 season (though Castillo has a vesting option that kicks in if he tosses 180 options next year).
The Sox have a blank payroll slate beyond 2027, and most of the roster is made up of controllable players who won’t become pricey via arbitration until the 2030s. Burke and second baseman Chase Meidroth can reach in 2028. Taylor, Colson Montgomery, Kyle Teel, Sam Antonacci and Tristan Peters won’t be arb-eligible until 2029.
That gives the Sox a good bit of runway to win with the current core, but the composition of the roster could necessitate some urgency with regard to next season. Murakami is signed only through 2o27. Getz has spoken about hoping to extend him, but nothing has come together yet. Kay is also a free agent next winter. Slugging third baseman Miguel Vargas is controlled via arbitration through 2029.
The looming departures of Murakami and (to a lesser extent) Vargas, coupled with the wide-open nature of the payroll post-2027, create a compelling case for Getz to make a sizable rotation investment, whether that be a long-term deal for a Rogers/Peralta/King-caliber arm, a trade for someone like Detmers — or possibly even both. Extensions for Vargas and/or Murakami could further legitimize the long-term core but would surely require sizable commitments. The largest contract in franchise history is, somewhat incredibly, Benintendi’s five-year, $75MM deal. Given the heightened expectations in 2027, it would seem there’s a good chance for the Sox to put down a larger commitment this winter.
All of this creates plenty of decisions for Getz and his staff — but these sorts of “problems” are more than welcome for a club that has ramped up from record-setting futility (121 loss in 2024) to genuine contender in far quicker fashion than anyone could have reasonably anticipated.
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