{"id":925243,"date":"2026-10-12T09:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T09:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/925243\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T09:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T09:10:16","slug":"white-sox-express-hope-amid-sadness-but-they-know-next-season-wont-be-the-same","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/925243\/","title":{"rendered":"White Sox express hope amid sadness, but they know next season won’t be the same"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND \u2014 The visitors\u2019 clubhouse at Progressive Field wasn\u2019t filled with despair after the White Sox<\/a>\u2019 loss Saturday night.<\/p>\n

There certainly was sadness after the team lost its third consecutive game and let the Guardians off the hook after they had dropped the first two in the American League Division Series. But there were lots of hugs and handshakes and enough smiles to belie the feeling.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018More to come,\u2019\u2019 an optimistic Davis Martin was overheard saying.<\/p>\n

Sean Burke took an undeserved loss in Game 5, allowing the only runs on a two-run home run by Jose Ramirez, who hit a pitch that was almost in the dirt. That didn\u2019t stop Burke from going person to person in the clubhouse, thanking, consoling and congratulating teammates, whichever fit the moment.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018These are my brothers,\u2019\u2019 Burke said. \u2018\u2018I\u2019ve played on a lot of teams in my life. This is definitely my favorite team I\u2019ve ever played on.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Miguel Vargas, who led the Sox by far with a 1.129 OPS in the series, felt the same way, making the end of the season harder to swallow.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018We just love each other so much in this clubhouse,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u2018\u2018It\u2019s not going to be the same next year, for sure.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Indeed, it won\u2019t. It never is. Though much of the Sox\u2019 young core figures to return, there are few guarantees. Some highly respected veterans, such as Erick Fedde and Randal Grichuk, probably won\u2019t be back, and some highly rated prospects, such as Caleb Bonemer and Roch Cholowsky, could join the team. It might be great, but it won\u2019t be this.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018It was a pretty unique group,\u2019\u2019 Grant Taylor said. \u2018\u2018The contributions we had to the clubhouse, even from guys that weren\u2019t on the field, like [injured] Mike Vasil, everyday guys, just having a good time. We were friends, which is not what you get out of a clubhouse a lot of times.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018This is so different than last year for us,\u2019\u2019 said Chase Meidroth, referring to the third of three consecutive seasons with more than 100 losses. \u2018\u2018This is a family; this is a brotherhood. We wanted to win for each other. I didn\u2019t love baseball like this last year.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

That was evident in the clubhouse after the game. Though the Sox struck out 21 times, setting the MLB record for strikeouts in a nine-inning game \u2014 postseason or regular season \u2014 there was some positivity and a feeling of \u2018\u2018We showed you\u2019\u2019 amid some teary eyes and raw emotions.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018We proved we\u2019re a good team,\u2019\u2019 Burke said. \u2018\u2018We believed throughout the season when people were doubting us and said this wasn\u2019t sustainable or this was a fluke. More importantly, we proved to ourselves that we can do this.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018Starting from last year in the second half, we all believed that we could be a winning playoff team,\u2019\u2019 Colson Montgomery said. \u2018\u2018And we carried that mentality into this year.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018We stuck together,\u2019\u2019 Vargas said. \u2018\u2018The vibes in the clubhouse, everything was so awesome, sharing the time with the guys this year. We created a brotherhood here that is going to be forever. It\u2019s a tough one, but it\u2019s just the beginning for us.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Those who expect to be back expect to be better.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018I\u2019m still swinging at the high-velocity pitches and breaking balls down, and the chase is there,\u2019\u2019 Munetaka Murakami said through a translator. \u2018\u2018So I\u2019ve got to be better in all the mechanics and all the aspects of baseball.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018Get better next year; we\u2019ll be ready,\u2019\u2019 Meidroth said. \u2018\u2018Being here [was a] good experience for next year, coming to camp and knowing what you need to do to get where we\u2019re at today.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018Obviously, not the result we hoped for in this series, but this core will be together for a little bit,\u2019\u2019 Burke said. \u2018\u2018As sad as it is now that the season\u2019s over, there\u2019s so many bright spots to look forward to and such a good future to look forward to for the White Sox.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Sox fans have heard that before, and it has led to anything but. Team history is littered with one-offs. In 126 seasons, the Sox have made consecutive postseason appearances once, in 2020-21, and the first season was shortened by the pandemic.<\/p>\n

It sounds as though these Sox expect to make it two.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018We\u2019ll be back next year,\u2019\u2019 Meidroth said, \u2018\u2018and this group will keep getting stronger.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018We know we probably should\u2019ve got the job done,\u2019\u2019 Montgomery said, \u2018\u2018but you\u2019ve got to take away what we did this year. There\u2019s a lot to be proud of.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND \u2014 The visitors\u2019 clubhouse at Progressive Field wasn\u2019t filled with despair after the White Sox\u2019 loss Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":925244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-925243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=925243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/925244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=925243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=925243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=925243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}