It hasn't exactly been a smooth second half, but no matter the road they took to get here, it's still a pretty remarkable thing that the Chicago White Sox enter the final days of the regular season on the precipice of a playoff berth. This is a team of which very little was expected back in the spring, a year away from being a year away, and yet — thanks to some shrewd acquisitions (Miguel Vargas, Munetaka Murakami) and rising young stars (Colson Montgomery, Chase Meidroth, Sam Antonacci, Tristan Peters) — the South Siders proved to be way ahead of schedule.
Now the question becomes: Can they finish the job? They've come back to Earth a bit in August and September, much to this long-suffering fan base's consternation. But they still have a Wild Card berth — or heck, even a division title — staring right at them with four games left in the regular season. Here's what Chicago needs to get across the finish line, and what could await them in October.
What is the White Sox magic number to make the playoffs?
After the Texas Rangers lost to the New York Mets on Wednesday night, the White Sox' magic number to clinch a playoff berth is down to just 1. That's right: Any Chicago wins or Texas losses from here on out punches their ticket back to October for the first time in five years. (The Rangers are still tied with the Houston Astros atop the AL West, but because Houston owns the head-to-head tiebreaker there, Texas is the team Chicago has to worry about for magic number purposes.)
Chicago enters play on Thursday in possession of the No. 6 seed in the AL at 81-77 — three games up on Texas a 78-80. The White Sox also own the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Rangers by virtue of winning the season series, meaning that they just need to finish even to earn the final Wild Card spot.
There equation to determine magic number, per MLB.com, is: Games remaining +1 - (Losses by second place team - losses by first place team). For our purposes here, we can remove the "+1" from the mix, since the White Sox have already clinched the tiebreaker over the Rangers. That leaves us with 4 games remaining - (80-77) = 1.
How the White Sox can clinch the AL Central
Of course, that's far from the only thing at stake for the White Sox over the next few days. They're also very much still alive for the AL Central, entering play on Thursday just one game back of the Cleveland Guardians. And Chicago owns the tiebreaker there, too, by virtue of winning the season series seven games to six.
All of which means that the Sox just need to pick up one game on Cleveland between now and the end of the regular season on Sunday. After finishing up a series in Kansas City on Thursday, they finish with three against the cellar-dwelling Rockies. The Guardians, meanwhile, have one more game left against the Boston Red Sox on Thursday at Fenway before heading to Kansas City for a series of their own against the Royals.
MLB playoff picture: Every potential White Sox opponent
There are two possible paths for the White Sox: If they win the division, they'll be the No. 2 seed and earn an automatic bye to the ALDS, where either the No. 3 seed or No. 6 seed will await. If they have to settle for a Wild Card spot, they'll be the No. 6 seed and will travel to the No. 3 seed in the best-of-three Wild Card Round.
If the White Sox win the division, the 3-6 matchup in the AL will likely pit the AL West champs (probably Houston) against the Guardians. If not a trip to Houston for a Wild Card series against the Astros is the most likely outcome. Chicago would of course like to get a first-round bye for a whole host of reasons, but they'd also love to avoid the Astros, who they went just 2-5 against this season.
When was the last time the White Sox made the postseason?
It's been a while since White Sox fans have been in this position. In fact, Chicago hasn't made it to October since 2021, when Luis Robert Jr., Jose Abreu and Co. won 93 games to capture the AL Central crown. Unfortunately that playoff run was a short one, as the White Sox got bounced from the ALDS in four games by the Astros.
It's been a long and winding road back to contention ever since. The core that looked so promising at the time, from Robert Jr. to Eloy Jimenez to Tim Anderson to Yoan Moncada to Andrew Vaughn to a pitching staff that featured Lucas Giolito, Dylan Cease and Carlos Rodon, slowly but surely fell apart due to a mix of development failures and Jerry Reinsdorf's own penny-pinching. GM Chris Getz has done his best to put the pieces of a new contender in place, with the hope that this new crop of homegrown talent will stick around a bit longer than their predecessors.
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