It’s not supposed to happen this quickly. Not long ago, the Chicago White Sox were coming off a 121-loss season with little to look forward to. But less than two years from that forgettable time in Sox history, a team of young and hungry players looking to turn the tides on the South Side has emerged.
And they’ve emerged not just as a good team but also as one of the American League’s best.
“You should stop thinking of this as a surprise,” White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery said this week. “Because we’re consistently winning, we’re consistently in every game. … It doesn’t matter what team it is, we’re not going to overlook them. We’re going to go out there, and we’re gonna just try and play our ball. I think those days [of being a surprise] are kind of over.”
So far in 2026, the White Sox have been arguably the best story in baseball. Coming off a third consecutive 100-loss season, Chicago is 38-34 and tied for first in the AL Central. It’s the team’s best start to a season since 2021, and this squad has already changed the narrative on what they can be this year.
If you broke the season down into quarters, the White Sox’s first 40 games (they went 19-21) were a surprise to most. An incremental step forward was expected, but they weren’t supposed to be a team playing .500 ball. Yet in May, Chicago took off, winning 18 of 28 games. The Sox began to play inspired baseball, led by rookie sensation Munetaka Murakami, who was the first player in MLB to hit 20 home runs this season.
The emergence of the team’s young core, including Montgomery, third baseman Miguel Vargas, utility man Sam Antonacci and rookie top prospect Braden Montgomery, has helped the White Sox raise their profile league-wide. The Sox’s entertaining, exuberant style of play has stood out to onlookers as they’ve continued to find their groove and hit their stride. Since May 1, Chicago is 24-17, the sixth-best record in MLB in that span.
The second quarter of this White Sox season is showing that this team is not only fun but also legitimately good — and not just in comparison to a subpar American League. Unlike in their first 40 games, the White Sox have had to deal with some new challenges lately. Murakami, their best offensive player, has been out due to a hamstring strain for the past three weeks. Even so, the Sox have managed to stay afloat, going 8-7 without the Japanese star.
The real test has come this month, with the White Sox getting the chance to find out what they’re made of by facing off in consecutive series against four of the best teams in baseball: the Phillies, Braves, Dodgers and Yankees. For a young team, this stretch presented an opportunity to show the baseball world they are no fluke.
“We’ve done a great job all year of just never giving in,” second baseman Chase Meidroth said. “You know, it’s one through nine, it’s for nine innings … we’re gonna come at you every single day.”
Sure enough, the White Sox began their jaunt against the Phillies, Braves, Dodgers with some success, winning five of those eight games and taking the series against Atlanta and L.A. And while dropping the series to the Yankees (the finale is Thursday), ends this stretch on a less fun note than where they started, the White Sox’s overall performance against a group of contenders showed that they can hold their own against the powerhouses of MLB.
What lies ahead for the White Sox as they enter the third quarter of their season? Well, they’ve officially put themselves in position to compete for the division. With the contenders and underperformers in the division having become clear, it looks as if the AL Central is going to be a two-horse race between the Sox and the Cleveland Guardians.
The Guardians, who have won the division in three of the past four years, come to Chicago next week for a three-game set that is suddenly a battle of the Central’s two best teams. Whichever team emerges victorious from that series will have a leg up as the season reaches its midway point. But a major factor for Cleveland in the second half is that the Guardians will be without superstar third baseman José Ramirez for at least five to seven weeks as he recovers from surgery to repair a broken hamate bone.
And as the White Sox gear up for a back-and-forth battle for the AL Central crown, for the first time in four years, they should be looking to add at the trade deadline. While their young position-player group is set, in the weeks to come, the front office could look to add depth to their starting pitching. Despite the first-half success of right-hander Davis Martin, Chicago’s rotation could use some reinforcements.
Whether Chicago can play in October this year remains to be seen, but the White Sox’s first half has given them something to chase and reason to be optimistic as their season nears its halfway point. Going into the year, it was all about improvement, but now these White Sox have a real chance to win. They’ve given themselves a shot for more, and they’ve proven to the baseball world that they are no accident.
“It doesn’t matter what [people] believe. We stay with us. We believe it,” Meidroth said. “That’s all that matters, and we’re going to continue to put the work in. We’ve got a ways to go. We’ve got to get a lot better at a few things. We’re excited.
“We know where we’re at, but we’re not satisfied right now.”
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