{"id":445011,"date":"2026-02-02T17:53:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T17:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/445011\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T17:53:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T17:53:06","slug":"white-sox-notes-hicks-sandlin-leasure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/445011\/","title":{"rendered":"White Sox Notes: Hicks, Sandlin, Leasure"},"content":{"rendered":"

The White Sox pulled off another significant transaction yesterday, acquiring<\/a> right-handers Jordan Hicks<\/a> and David Sandlin<\/a>, two players to be named later, and $8MM in cash (to help cover Hicks\u2019 $24MM salary) for pitching prospect Gage Ziehl<\/a> and a player to be named later.\u00a0 It is the third notable move in four days for Chicago, after the Pale Hose signed Seranthony Dominguez<\/a> and Austin Hays<\/a> to free agent contracts.<\/p>\n

Between the $12MM owed to Hicks in 2026, Hays\u2019 $6MM guarantee in a one-year deal, and the $8MM allotted for Dominguez in the first season of his two-year, $20MM contract, it adds up to a $26MM outlay for the White Sox on this trio for the upcoming season. It\u2019s a pretty close match for the $20MM Chicago had committed to Luis Robert Jr.<\/a> before the outfielder and his contract were dealt to the Mets<\/a> on January 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the payroll flexibility that we gained through that move, we wanted to utilize that money toward players that could help us for the long term as we continue to take the next step.\u00a0 There are different avenues to do that,\u201d White Sox GM Chris Getz told reporters (including SoxMachine\u2019s James Fegan<\/a> and MLB.com\u2019s Scott Merkin<\/a>), further noting that \u201cadding a Sandlin is essentially part of a Luis Robert return.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a bit of a eyebrow-raising comment, given that Chicago\u2019s payroll currently sits at a paltry $85.5MM, per RosterResource<\/a>.\u00a0 To suggest that Sandlin\u2019s acquisition was only possible in conjunction with a Robert trade would imply that the Chicago-based club can\u2019t support a payroll that includes Robert, Dominguez, Hays and Hicks \u2014 but that would\u2019ve only pushed the payroll to around $105MM.\u00a0 Perhaps owner Jerry Reinsdorf truly won\u2019t green-light a payroll north of $100MM at present, but the South Siders trotted out a $181MM Opening Day payroll as recently as 2023 (and $193MM in 2022).\u00a0 Getz\u2019s assertion that Sandlin is indirectly part of the Robert return is either a case of some serious spin or an eye-opening acknowledgement of severe budget restrictions put in place by Reinsdorf.<\/p>\n

Regardless,\u00a0 it seems that Sandlin has been on Chicago\u2019s radar for a good while now, and Getz views the hard-throwing right-hander as someone who\u2019s \u201cgoing to come into Spring Training and compete for a spot\u201d in the team\u2019s rotation.\u00a0 Sandlin has only 23 2\/3 Triple-A innings to his name, and he struggled to a 7.61 ERA during that brief stint with Triple-A Worcester in 2025.\u00a0 Even if he doesn\u2019t crack the club\u2019s Opening Day rotation, it\u2019s perfectly plausible that he\u2019ll be an option to join the staff later in the season as he gets more experience at the top minor league level.<\/p>\n

Beyond this young arm in Sandlin, Hicks brings some experience to the pitching staff, though he\u2019s a pure rebound candidate.\u00a0 The righty posted a 6.95 ERA across 67 1\/3 innings with the Giants and Red Sox in 2025, with subpar strikeout (18.5%) and walk (10.2%) rates.\u00a0 Hicks\u2019 4.41 SIERA also wasn\u2019t great but is a better reflection of his performance, since it factored in some bad batted-ball luck, as the grounder specialist was hurt by a .352 average on balls in play.<\/p>\n

Health was also a factor. Hicks spent a little under two months on the injured list dealing with toe inflammation and then tendinitis in his throwing shoulder.\u00a0 On this front, Hicks told media that he has recovered well, and is up to throwing 99.5mph in a recent bullpen session. \u201cMy body\u2019s in a great place, probably the best it\u2019s been since 2023,\u201d Hicks said.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m fit for whatever role that the team needs me in.\u00a0 I think that I can do very well in both [starting and relieving].\u00a0 I\u2019m just excited for the opportunity mostly, and ready to get back on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, the White Sox plan to use Hicks as a relief pitcher, Getz stated.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t surprising given how Hicks struggled as a starter with the Giants and was converted back to relief work partway through each of the last two seasons.\u00a0 Hicks has spent the bulk of his career in the \u2019pen and had better results as a reliever than as a starter.<\/p>\n

Speaking of relief pitchers, the White Sox discussed another reliever during their negotiations with the Red Sox.\u00a0 MassLive.com\u2019s Chris Cotillo<\/a> reports that the two sides \u201chad serious discussions\u201d about including Jordan Leasure<\/a> in the deal before the Red Sox instead went with Ziehl as the named player in the two-player return.<\/p>\n

Whereas Ziehl has yet to reach Triple-A, the 27-year-old Leasure has two seasons of MLB experience, with 101 games for Chicago.\u00a0 Leasure made his debut in 2024 and posted a 6.32 ERA over 31 1\/3 innings, but improved on that mark significantly with a 3.92 ERA and 30.1% strikeout rate over 64 1\/3 frames in 2025.\u00a0 The right-hander\u2019s 11.2% walk rate was still on the high side, but a step up from Leasure\u2019s 12.7 BB% in 2024.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no real reason to think Chicago is actively shopping Leasure, but it\u2019s of some note that they at least considered it \u2014 particularly with how many clubs around the league are looking for affordable bullpen help.\u00a0 Leasure will pitch the bulk of the upcoming season at 27 (28 in mid-August), has a pair of minor league options remaining, and won\u2019t be arbitration-eligible until next offseason, when he\u2019ll likely be a Super Two player.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The White Sox pulled off another significant transaction yesterday, acquiring right-handers Jordan Hicks and David Sandlin, two players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[208663,24066,209338,99],"class_list":["post-445011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-david-sandlin","tag-jordan-hicks","tag-jordan-leasure","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}