Chicago White Sox Dynasty Sleepers, Breakouts, and Busts

With dynasty season ramping up, I figured it was time to talk about some sleepers, breakouts, and busts for each team. You can find my rankings and reports to see how I value players for your dynasty leagues, but I also feel like it’s helpful to truly identify whether I believe a player can be a breakout or not. Here is where I call my shots on players I think require a call to action in dynasty, whether it be to buy or sell that player.

While you are here, be sure to check out the updated Chicago White Sox top prospect list, updated with new international prospects:

Chicago White Sox Dynasty Sleepers, Breakouts, Busts

I won’t lie to you, but this practice was tough for me when picking players on the White Sox MLB team.

MLB Sleeper: Sean Burke, RHP, 25, 6’6”/230

After a rather mediocre Triple-A season, the White Sox called up Burke in September, and suddenly, he looked like a different arm. Part of the reason? His home ballpark in Triple-A Charlotte is a launching pad, and the International League, in general, is quite hitter-friendly. Also, the ABS and tight zone have led to walk rates that are pretty high in Triple-A.

Burke ran a 17 percent walk rate in Triple-A before the ABS system changed to the challenge system full-time. Afterward, a 9.9 percent walk rate. Burke came to the Majors and walked 9.2 percent of batters, and while most are skeptical given the historical walk rates, 2024 can be explained by the ABS.

Having solid bat-missing ability most of his career, Burke struck out 33 percent of hitters in Triple-A and 29 percent in the Majors. This starts with a slider that had a 43 percent whiff rate against MLB hitters and a 36 percent chase rate. The 87 mph offering has good carry and late horizontal movement.

The fastball sits around 95 mph and tops near 100 mph. It has plus induced vertical break, with 18.5 inches of ride from a six-foot release height. There is an elite extension, just shy of seven feet, while also having a pretty flat VAA.

Burke rounds out his arsenal with a curveball and changeup that have both shown flashes and have solid traits. The struggles with feel for command of the changeup is a major issue and leaves it a decent fourth offering at this point.

An important thing to note is Burke added a sinker this offseason. He also has been working with a physical therapist all offseason to help with the durability of his arm. Burke has reportedly been working on game planning and film study to help with his goal of being on the mound for the full 2025 season.

There is a chance that Burke could be a solid, mid-rotation type of arm, especially if the control and strike-throwing sticks. The cost is pretty low on Burke, making him a solid target for fantasy managers.

MLB Breakout: Bryan Ramos, 3B, 23, 6’3”/225

The fact that Ramos is not listed on the Opening Day lineup for the White Sox by Roster Resource is a little concerning. I get the team signed Josh Rojas and they have plenty of bodies. But I am not sure there is any reason why a team like the White Sox should not play their young hitters.

It was a strange start to the 2024 season for Ramos, who struggled out of the gate in Double-A before being pushed to the majors, where, to no surprise, the struggles continued. Upon his demotion to the minors, Ramos was sent to Triple-A, where his performance was fine but nothing like his 2023 season. He wound up playing the final three weeks of the season in Chicago, where Ramos hit three home runs and looked the part.

While it was a strange season, Ramos showed some good things. The exit velocity data took a step back, and the 90th percentile exit velocity of 103.5 was much closer to the MLB average. The average exit velocity was solid, with a mark near 89 mph, while showing strong exit velocities on pulled fly balls, with a mark north of 97 mph.

Ramos has strong discipline and does not expand the zone often, with a chase rate of around 24 percent between all levels, including the majors. His contact skills are fringe-average, with an overall mark of around 70 percent and 80 percent in-zone.

Lifting the ball easily, Ramos hits it hard enough to be a consistent 20-home-run bat. That projection is lower than I thought after seeing his 2023 data, so there is always a chance we will see the exit velocities tick back up in 2025. Given the MLB experience, Ramos should be in the White Sox lineup on Opening Day in 2025.

MLB Bust: Andrew Benintendi, OF, 30, 5’9”/180

With just one White Sox in the top 300 ADP on NFBC, it makes it really hard to identify a true bust. You can’t even classify Benintendi as a bust given his ADP north of 450. Literally, no one believes in he hits 20 home runs again like he did in 2024. Considering he combined for ten in 2022 and 2023, what led to the jump?

The barrel rate did jump to 6.3 percent, which is fascinating, considering his sweet-spot rate dropped four percentage points from 2023. The exit velocities werein the 25th percentile and below Benintendi’s career norms. The only answer to this question is that Benintendi learned how to pull fly balls to perfection. His 46 percent pulled fly-ball rate had a 95.6 mph average exit velocity on that demographic of batted balls.

Benintendi is not going to bust relative to ADP, that is impossible. But does he repeat his 2024 performance? Probably not.

Chicago White Sox Prospect Sleeper: Aldrin Batista, RHP, 21, 6’2”/185, A+

I saw Batista pitch several times in 2024 and was always impressed by his pitching ability and the east-west movement he generates. Throwing 110.2 innings between Single-A and High-A, Batista posted a 2.93 ERA with 116 strikeouts and 39 walks.

Having a lanky 6’2” frame, Batista still has plenty of room to add weight for someone who just turned 21 earlier this season. He has long legs and gets good extension toward the plate in a delivery that generates good torque from his upper half.

His fastball was consistently 93-95 with a ton of arm-side movement, often registering north of 18 inches. Batista works east-west with his arsenal, and I think adding a pitch to change the hitter’s eye level could go a long way. He locates it well down in the zone and can work both halves of the plate. The fastball gets whiffs and called strikes.

The slider ranges from 83-85 mph and is a tough look for hitters, both lefties and righties. It has heavy sweeping action and was his highest whiff rate of the arsenal. Batista also consistently mixes an 83-86 mph changeup that shows nice fade and depth, playing off his fastball well. It gets up to 20 inches of fade, and when it does not get whiffs, it keeps the ball on the ground. Increasing the usage of this pitch is something I would like to see from Batista in 2025.

At this point, the arsenal feels pretty average, with potential for more growth. He has a strike rate of 63 percent, which is, you guessed it, the league average. The swinging strike rate for the year is near 12 percent. Batista is a watchlist guy for now, but if he keeps performing in High-A and beyond, he might be someone to watch, especially with a full off-season for the arsenal to take a step forward. He is young and has the potential to add a pitch that works more north-to-south.

Chicago White Sox Prospect Breakout: Samuel Zavala, OF, 20, 6’1”/175, A+

Zavala is such an interesting player, but I struggle to feel great about my evaluation. Even seeing him live quite a bit in 2024, I saw such a mixed bag of results. There is a lot of movement going on during the swing, and while he has improved the strikeouts and contact rates this year, the results have been subpar.

Starting with a narrow and open stance, Zavala uses a huge leg kick to create a wide base. The swing is quite long, but surprisingly, he made significantly more contact in 2024 than in the past.

The overall contact rate was north of 77 percent for the season, up from a 70 percent zone-contact rate and just a 67 percent overall clip. He has a patient and maybe even passive approach, swinging at 34 percent of pitches and running low chase rates. He walked in nearly 18 percent of plate appearances in 2024.

The slash line of .187/.340/.301 is strange, and Zavala hit just eight home runs with 25 extra-base hits. While the prospect stock has fallen, there is still a lot of name value there, which means you could trade him. Better days are likely ahead, though, But I don’t see Zavala ever reaching the top 100 status, which he was at by some outlets previously.

Why the breakout pick then? Well Zavala has undergone a swing change this offseason that has quieted the pre-swing movement. If Zavala finds that nice blend between his improved contact skills and power, he could take a large step forward.