MLB Reports: Exercise That’s Fun, Funny, and Sad: How Good Would the White Sox Be Without Judge, Skubal, and Ohtani?

I’m not sure if any of us needed more background information on how awful the 2025 Chicago White Sox project is, but I’m really happy that Dan Szymborski of FanGraphs chose to provide it to us nevertheless.

In essence, Szymborski questioned what would happen to the AL Central projected rankings using ZiPS if he traded Aaron Judge, Tarik Skubal, and Shohei Ohtani to the White Sox after they were released from their present teams. The solution? Even so, the White Sox would still be a terrible team! However, they would at least have a chance to make it to the postseason:

Despite being on the same roster, three of baseball’s top players only managed 72 victories. It’s nearly a re-creation of some of the Los Angeles Angels teams from the heyday of Ohtani and Trout, but I’d say that’s impossible. However, the 2019 Angels, who finished 72-90, had Ohtani and Trout, and their third-best player was… Fletcher, David? Robles, Hansel? I’ll take the under on 72 wins since the Chicago White Sox are truly in a league of their own and won’t have Ohtani, Judge, or Skubal this season. In fact, they might not even have Luis Robert Jr. by the time the season starts. To be honest, I’ll go with the under on 50 wins. However, I believe they will most likely surpass last year’s 41 victories at random.