BALTIMORE – On the day Sam Antonacci played his first professional baseball game, going 2-for-4 for Class A Kannapolis in a Carolina League contest Aug. 8, 2024, the Chicago White Sox fired their manager with a 28-89 record, mired in a stretch of losing 48 of 54 games, on their way to a record-setting 121-loss season.
Sometimes, it’s advantageous to be young and oblivious.
From that moment in time, a gaggle of players like Antonacci methodically worked their way through the White Sox’s system, were culled from the waiver wire, imported en masse in a blockbuster trade or drafted, developed and tossed into the fire.
And in less than two years, baseball’s most depressing outpost has become its most surprising story.
“When I got drafted, when I first got to the Arizona complex,” Antonacci, a fifth-round pick out of Coastal Carolina in 2024, tells USA TODAY Sports, “it didn’t feel like a 121-loss team.
“I knew it was going to change quickly. It was a matter of when.”
How about… now?
These 2026 White Sox are 45-39, will begin the month of July atop the American League Central and, in a year of leaguewide mediocrity, have an 80% chance to reach the playoffs. It is a stunning climb for a club that saw the fading presence of Tony La Russa give way to three consecutive 100-loss seasons, the utter chaos of the Pedro Grifol managerial era and, finally, a place in the record books nobody wanted.
Yet for so many of the players assembled this year on the South Side, there’s a certain eternal sunshine of the rookie mind that joyfully prevails.
Antonacci did not debut until April 15, yet as the club’s leadoff hitter and left fielder, ranks sixth in the AL with a .391 on-base percentage, a 5-foot-11 doubles hitter residing among giants named Yordan and Trout and Kurtz. Tristan Peters, an erstwhile Savanna Banana rescued via cash considerations after the Tampa Bay Rays designated him for assignment, is playing Gold Glove-caliber defense in center field, rarely strikes out and reaches base at a .345 clip.
Munetaka Murakami, of course, was a member of Japan’s Yakult Swallows back in 2024, only to arrive this year and pound 20 homers in 57 games before a hamstring injury sidelined him. Still, he's a joyous presence around the club as he works his way back to a July return, secure in knowing the club has maintained a 15-12 clip without him.
And then there is Miguel Vargas, whose steady climb these past three seasons at both third base and the plate has him on the verge of a rare journey: Discarded Dodger mega-prospect to All-Star.
“It’s been really impressive,” says second-year White Sox manager Will Venable. “And it starts with players that, regardless of their opportunity in the past or where they are in their career, they’re really special guys. Guys who want to go out and compete and play hard, and make adjustments.
“That’s really what’s required to stay in this league and perform at a high level.”
Even if getting there can be a circuitous journey.
'A wild ride'
Winkler, Manitoba won’t be confused for a baseball outpost anytime soon, wedged as it is roughly halfway between Winnipeg and Grand Forks, North Dakota. And as Peters was growing up, juggling youth hockey (duh) and baseball, he realized his proclivity for the latter.
With that, his family agreed to ship him 12 hours west, to Calgary, where he’d stay with an aunt and attend a school with a baseball academy for his junior and senior years.
Peters would continue following the sun, to Arizona’s Chandler-Gilbert Community College, where fate would intercede in many ways.
Juco ball creates a melting pot of personalities and Peters wasn’t quite sure what to think when a teammate suggested they kill a night by going line dancing.
“And I was like ‘Oh boy, I don’t know,’” Peters remembers. “I said yes and almost got cold feet.”
Yet Peters and his buddy followed through, and good thing they ended up at Scootin’ Boots in Mesa. That evening, Peters would meet a young woman named Erin, commencing a four-year friendship that culminated in their 2023 marriage – held just a short drive from their initial meeting at Scootin’ Boots.
Peters also left an impression on Tyler Gillum, an opposing coach at South Mountain Community College, who’d remember Peters after the outfielder continued on to Southern Illinois University.
And in 2021, Gillum invited Peters to suit up for the Savannah Bananas.
Oh, it wasn’t full-fledged Banana Ball just yet. The Bananas were members of the summer collegiate Coastal Plain League. Yet their home games were spectacles – all the TikToks and stilts and dancing fans have come to expect.
Peters played in 17 games, a period that coincided with Milwaukee choosing him in the seventh round of the 2021 draft. It was good baseball – and an even better mental reset as his pro career began.
“Often, we focus on our performance on the field. There, we’re focused on the fans and how to give them a good time,” says Peters. “That’s who we’re playing for, essentially.
“When you’re hard on yourself and struggling, it can be pretty tough. It didn’t matter if you had a bad game or good game – you’d go out and dance with the fans after the game. You gotta have fun.”
Peters made his major league debut Aug. 8 with Tampa Bay – he’d been dealt from Milwaukee in 2022 for reliever Trevor Rosenthal – yet was hitless in 12 at-bats before returning to Class AAA.
The taste of the big leagues increased his cravings. As did sitting on an 0-for-12 all winter.
Yet as Peters redoubled his efforts, working out at Driveline Baseball’s Arizona facility to add strength and revamp his hitting approach, the Rays designated him for assignment. The White Sox soon worked out a deal for a lump of cash in exchange.
Why the White Sox, for a guy with four games of major league experience?
“They brought up my defense, first and foremost,” says Peters. “Saw some potential in my bat as well. I agreed and thought it was there.
“They were really awesome and excited to have me. That gave me motivation.”
It set the stage for an unforgettable couple of weeks – Peters made the White Sox’s opening-day roster and shortly thereafter, his daughter Elaine was born.
With Erin and Elaine along for most road trips – “She’s having a blast, I think,” says Peters of nearly 4-month-old Elaine – Peters has established himself as a mainstay in center field, racking up 2.3 WAR and tied for fourth among major league center fielders with seven outs above average.
“It’s been a wild ride, to say the least,” he says. “There’s been a lot of steppingstones along the way and some you don’t expect. I’m just super grateful to be here and have this opportunity.”
South Side energy
Vargas can second that. He was a ballyhooed prospect with the Dodgers, rising to No. 30 in Baseball America’s top 100, yet predictably didn’t have a full developmental runway after batting .195 over 81 games in 2023.
So in August 2024, he was dropped into the White Sox’s 121-loss misery. A year later, with Venable stabilizing the managerial position, Vargas began to make strides.
This year, now 26, Vargas is about maintaining that over a full season, with excellent results so far.
The third baseman has racked up 3.3 WAR while hitting 19 homers in 82 games. He’s very much on track for a reunion next week with Cuban countryman and close friend Andy Pages, himself enjoying a big breakout with the Dodgers.
“I just try to be better every day, be consistent with my job,” says Vargas. “Understand that this is a long season. Get my body in the best position to go out there and compete every single day.
“Also, this group of guys, the energy they bring every single day (makes) it so easy to come here and match that energy. It’s been great for me to be part of this group.”
Says Venable: “He’s been so consistent. Last year we saw in flashes, in stretches that lasted a little longer. He just wasn’t able to really maintain it. That’s what’s been impressive – the work he’s put in in the offseason to give him that strength to be consistent throughout these stretches.”
That goes for the White Sox at large. They have received decent starting pitching from somewhat unexpected sources such as Davis Martin and Sean Burke. Noah Schultz, their 6-10 top prospect, will return from injury and start Wednesday, July 2 at Baltimore.
The bullpen is a bit unsettled, yet that’s the case for even the top contenders. Questions still remain about the sustainability of it all, as young players like Antonacci and Peters, recent outfield call-up Braden Montgomery and another rookie first-round pick, first baseman Jacob Gonzalez, complete their first trips around the 162-game sun.
It seems like a hodgepodge of youth. It also seems, trite as it sounds, like these guys are learning how to win. They are 17-10 in one-run games, a respectable 19-22 against teams with winning records.
"Early in the season, we were in a lot of these games that came down to one inning, situational baseball. We’ve had experience with all this stuff now. Everyone kind of knows their role," says shortstop Colson Montgomery, another former first-round pick who leads the club with 21 home runs. "We’re just getting more and more polished each day we play.
"We’re a young team and everything like that. But we like to act like we have that experience and confidence, because we do."
Braden Montgomery's June 9 debut was symbolic in another sense: All three pieces from the December 2024 trade of ace Garrett Crochet to the Boston Red Sox - Montgomery, second baseman Chase Meidroth and catcher Kyle Teel - are now everyday players in Chicago.
That deal perhaps the franchise nadir - 121 losses followed by the trade of a future Cy Young runner-up. They'd go on to lose 101 more games in 2025, the product more respectable but not yet totally watchable.
Yet look at them now.
The White Sox have drawn 15 crowds of at least 28,000, and now rank 10th in the AL in attendance - this after ranking 13th the past two seasons, finishing ahead of only the minor league Athletics and uncertain Rays.
“That’s why I feel it’s more enjoyable,” says Vargas, “and you kind of come from that and where we are now. You look back and the way we’ve been doing it step by step and it’s amazing.
“It’s a great journey for me and the whole organization, and we want to take this opportunity the best we can.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How Chicago White Sox went from 121 losses to AL Central penthouse
