Everyone’s going to remember Cleveland. The 2-0 lead, the Game 5 no-show, the shutout loss at home that ended the season with 21 strikeouts against three measly hits.
Fine. Remember it.
But that’s not the real story of this White Sox season, and it’s not the most important thing that happened in 2026 either. No team in Major League Baseball history had ever made the playoffs after two straight 100-loss seasons. NOT ONE. The White Sox just did it, and the ALDS loss is the ending, not the plot.
They took a 2-0 series lead on the Guardians, then dropped three straight, including a Game 5 shutout at home where Cleveland punched out 21 Chicago hitters on three total hits. José Ramírez ended it with a go-ahead two-run homer off Sean Burke in relief. Burke didn’t make excuses. “He’s a really good player,” he said after the game. “He’s probably headed to the Hall of Fame someday. It was a good swing by him.”
That’s the right way to lose a baseball game.
Three days later, GM Chris Getz told reporters the White Sox will pursue starting pitching this winter, and he actually put names on it. Per MLB Trade Rumors, Burke, Noah Schultz and David Sandlin are part of that 2027 mix. Grant Taylor and Hagen Smith are further down the runway, with no firm commitments yet.
Getz said as much out loud:
White Sox To Pursue Starting Pitching https://t.co/ZF07XVwNnL pic.twitter.com/XL0p1VP3F0
— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) October 15, 2026
Good sentence. Only the follow-through counts.
White Sox starters threw 674.2 innings in 2026, LAST in the sport, which is exactly why Will Venable spent October stitching games together out of relievers. Burke was the best of what he had to work with — 3.34 ERA, an 11-7 record, 185 strikeouts in 172.1 innings, 4.2 WAR — and that’s one hell of a season for a guy who’s better on the road (2.58 ERA) than at home (3.86 ERA). It’s still a floor, not a ceiling. The White Sox don’t have an ace. They have a very good complementary starter and a plan to go find him some help.
“We weren’t trying to create the wheel; we were trying to optimize the group that we had,” Getz said, per the Sun-Times. Translation: the South Side made the playoffs by duct-taping a bullpen together, and it worked right up until Game 5.
Getz has said the right things about pitching before. Every rebuilding GM says the right things about pitching. What’s different is he’s actually earned the credibility to be held to it now. This team swept Houston for the White Sox’ first playoff series win in 21 years, took Cleveland to the brink, and did all of it without a real No. 1 starter, on one of the smallest payrolls in baseball. That’s leverage. Spend it on arms, not vibes.
Shortstop Colson Montgomery put it better than any press release could. “We came into the year with a 0% chance of making the playoffs, and we shocked the world,” he said. “Coming up short like this, it hurts. It hurts a lot. But there’s a lot to be proud of.”
There’s plenty to be proud of. There’s also a rotation that finished dead last in innings pitched and a GM who just cashed in the only currency that matters in a rebuild. Burke is the floor. Go find the ceiling, Getz. The vibes are already set.
