The storyline that is 2025 White Sox is simultaneously routed to a path of one of the worst teams in franchise history while also having extreme volatility as to the player base that will comprise that group. The position and roster battles are voluminous and one of the more interesting ones is how their rag tag bullpen will settle and who will be assigned the “CLOSER” aka the save catcher at the back of this relief corps. The White Sox of recent vintage haven’t really been racking up the victories and consequently they have lacked a true fireman in the back that has accumulated notable amounts of saves.

The 2024 White Sox Saved ONLY 21 Games

The 2024 White Sox while winning only 41 games (a miniscule total) also racked up only 21 saves. Imagine that, bad team, with few wins also has few saves. When Michael Kopech was bad, injured or given a plane ticket to Los Angeles, the White Sox were willing to really hand out saves to any man standing there. The team had 9 other save catchers, including starting pitcher Jonathan Cannon, the discarded Deivi Garcia and John Brebbia, the traded Tanner Banks and the demoted Jordan Leasure. Whatta mess, almost as bad as the 2023 White Sox.

The 2023 White Sox Saved ONLY 28 Games

Amongst the stench of the record setting 2024 White Sox, we forget how musty the 2023 vintage was. This team also leaned on 10 different players to record at least one save and once again none with double digits. Gregory Santos was coming into the role late in the season before he was traded in the off-season. Reynaldo Lopez faced every high leverage situation possible in route to his 4 saves. Liam Hendriks emotional comeback from cancer notched his only save before succumbing to Tommy John surgery. Even journeyman emeritus Bryan Shaw got 4 saves, while starter Jesse Scholtens snuck out a save amongst the chaos. The last White Sox team to have a double digit closer and to save a reasonable amount of games was the 2022 squad lead by Liam Hendriks.

The 2022 White Sox Saved 48 Games – Liam Hendriks SZN

That looks more like it. However, without the highly paid closer playing for the highly paid manager that goes to the highly paid closer, how will the White Sox pick from the current group to find their save catcher?

How Do Teams Choose Their Closer These Days?

The 2024 MLB Saves Leaders

Given that the White Sox definitely don’t have an abundance of former closer candidates AND they have a new manager with zero track record which to base a projection on who they might choose, I thought it might be helpful in our quest to find the most likely White Sox Closer in 2025 to take a look at the MLB’s 2024 saves leaders.

Above is a cutout from Fangraphs that shows us the group of pitchers that were top 20 in saves collected in the 2024 season. Now we can’t tell much from this list on it’s face, there are familiar names, there are teams that went to the playoffs and ones that didn’t. In fact the 2 of the top 3 saves leaders were on non-playoff contenders. However, I figured it might be worth while to look at what type of pitch repertoire teams are generally choosing in the lord’s year of 2024 and overlay it on the fractious White Sox bullpen. Let’s use Stuff+ to help us.

Stuff+ by 2024 Save Leaders

You are probably asking right now, what is Stuff+? Stuff+ is a measure of pitch quality that I talk about in detail in this blog about Michael Kopech. READ IT or don’t, regardless, over 100 means good and that should be enough for this discussion. As you can see from the graph, many teams favor closer that has a killer slider “Stf+ SL“, Ryan Helsley and Jhoan Dran lean on outstanding curveballs “Stf+ CU“, Mason Miller and Robert Suarez have top notch four seam fastballs “Stf+ FA” and there are even outliers like Kenley Jansen that lean on a sinker / cutter combo to get the job done “Stf+ SI” & “Stf+ FC“. But predominantly, it seems like having a big ole hair, nasty slider is the way to becoming your team’s closer. Most of the group has one to varying degrees and even if you aren’t Emmanuel Clase that use of a good one seems to be base rate for the closer in 2024.

Presenting, the White Sox 2025 Nominees…

Let’s look at the veritable PILE of White Sox potential bullpenners

Here is how Fangraphs Roster Resource projects the 2025 White Sox bullpen. Truthfully, their guess is as good as yours. I could see that happening or any number of innumerable combinations. It’ll be fun to watch it play out in real time, but for now we are here to take a guess on the best save catcher. Oh wait, I forgot to add the guys meandering around in AAA Charlotte (or thereabouts) that could figure into the calculation. Let’s go get them.

Jordan Leasure is the owner of 2 career saves before he predictably imploded in a heap of hittable stuff. Steven Wilson adeptly cleared waivers to be here….Penn Murfee and Brandon Eisert were acquisitions with intent to use (and options)…..James Karinchak was good a long time ago. Whatta list!

Well, let’s make this analysis apples to apples and review the potential 2025 White Sox pens men by 2024 Stuff+ (for those that pitched in the major leagues in 2024). Voila!

Not nearly as exciting as the top savesmen of 2024, but given what we have to work with here’s my top contenders…..

Prelander Berroa is the Leader in my Clubhouse for Saves

Prelander Berroa’s very tasty 129 Slider “Stf+ SL” is the stock with which modern closers are made of. He even managed to find the strike zone more than not at the end of the season and according to reports he’s already in spring training hitting 97 MPH on the gun in mid-February. I think this was the desired outcome when Berroa came here in the swap with Gregory Santos last off-season so it’s not hard to see it happening. However, this group seems incredibly volatile, so let’s pluck a few more.

Steven Wilson was DFA’d, but Now He’s Back and Ready to Close

If Steven Wilson could get his shit together his cutter “Stf+ FC” and slider “Stf+ SL” combo working together would make a lot of sense to be the save collector. Not only that, given that he’s already 30 and arbitration eligible, meaning a lot less team control than the rest of the pile, I think the White Sox would be thrilled if he could be effective and bang out a dozen or so saves before the trade deadline so they could send him packing for their next 23rd ranked prospect that you’ll hate.

Justin Anderson is the Most Boring and Most Likely Choice

Justin Anderson is just good enough at just enough stuff and just durable enough that I could see him kinda getting the closer spot almost by default. This one struggles to find the strike zone, that one is home run prone…BOOM Justin Anderson is your closer. I wouldn’t expect great results given his mid-ness at mostly all aspects of pitching, but in a season when development will be prioritized, I could see this being the choice of least resistance.

Who do you think will lead the 2025 White Sox in saves????

-BeefLoaf