PHOENIX — If there’s an everyday job there for the taking in center field for the White Sox, Luisangel Acuña wouldn’t miss his infield glove too much.
“To be honest with you, I feel more comfortable playing in center field,” Acuña said via interpreter. “Ever since I started playing in the outfield and center field when I was with Texas, I just noticed the difference. It was more comfortable for me playing there.”
Acuña has only appeared in the outfield twice in 109 career major league games, but split his time more evenly between center and short in recent Venezuelan winter league action. With the Mets, Acuña was a utilityman who was deployed where needs arose, rather than developed for a specific spot. The White Sox are touting his versatility — and frequently overdoing it in that regard — but a higher order outcome for Acuña might be one where his swing tweaks to stay loaded in his back leg more allow him to elevate the ball for consistent power, and make him enough of an essential presence in the lineup to carve out a regular role.
After hitting .282/.397/.542 with eight homers (18 extra-base hits) in 39 games in Venezuela, Acuña feels like his production is taking on the correct shape.
“That was one of the main reasons I played in Venezuela, because I really wanted to get comfortable with that,” Acuña said via interpreter. “The results were there, right? I feel very comfortable. I think [the swing tweak] was natural, I didn’t have to actually do much. It was more an adjustment of me not trying to jump in front of the ball.”
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If anything, Brooks Baldwin sounds philosophically opposed to a future where he’s not some sort of utilityman, and said he spent another offseason practicing all of the six positions he appeared at in 2025 (LF, CF, RF, 3B, SS, 2B) in equal measure. But he would stand to be one of Acuña’s competitors for center field opportunities, especially if he can build upon hitting .253/.310/.459 after the All-Star break, for which Baldwin cites an adjustment that sounds like the opposite of chasing more power.
“My head stayed a lot more still from spreading out a little bit, widening out, shortening everything up,” Baldwin said. “It allowed my eyes to be more still and was able to see pitches better. That led to making more contact, putting more balls in play, which ultimately led to more hits. The power was there all year, kind of the same. It just showed up a little bit more when you put the ball in play more.”
Despite having the speed and athleticism for center, Baldwin put up poor defensive numbers in the outfield, though strangely more so in the corners. But he felt his jumps and routes improved down the stretch as he carried over some ideas from his infield work.
“My first step in my jump off the ball was a lot better toward the end of the year,” Baldwin said. “I kind went back to something very similar to what I did in the infield [for pre-pitch movements]. It’s kind of a right-left, mini hop. It kept my eyes still so I could see the ball better from that far away and also gave me an opportunity to get off the ball a little quicker with my reaction time.”
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New assistant general manager Carlos Rodríguez (there are three Sox AGMs now) has been regularly out observing practice on the backfields this spring after Sox Machine first reported his hiring in December. After working in international scouting, player development, 40-man roster management, and in countless other capacities over a 16-year run with the Tampa Bay Rays, the Sox touted that Rodríguez will wear a lot of different hats as needed in his new gig, and certainly cuts the figure of someone who’s taking advantage of spring to get acquainted with a wide swath of the organization.
If you found Chris Getz talking about infrastructure improvements to the organization to be off-putting when the major league team was floundering at historic levels, Rodríguez’s arrival suggests that the Sox GM was talking to more than just the fan base with those comments.
“One thing that was very clear, even publicly from the outside looking in, he was focused on not just improving the roster and the talent, but really the infrastructure and the process,” Rodríguez said of what drew him to the Sox. “That was something that was really appealing to me. It was not just to blitz in and just be all about the players, but also how to sustain that. Obviously, we see these waves and cycles that teams go through and it was just really important to me. I think we are very aligned on that, and building something that the fans and the city of Chicago can really be proud of and we can sustain over time.”
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Kyle Teel departs on March 1 to join up with Team Italy and prepare for the World Baseball Classic, and his origin story for being recruited onto the roster reminds us that jacuzzi was originally just an Italian surname.
“[Former White Sox catching coach] Drew Butera was originally one of the people on staff for Team Italy, now he’s with the Blue Jays and can’t go,” Teel said. “But he’s the one I talked to. We were actually hanging out in the hot tub one day after a game, we were talking and he kind of really set it up. Same thing with [former Sox hitting coach] Marcus Thames, he helped me reach out to who I needed to, to do it.”
It’ll be an unusual build-up for the newly 24-year-old Teel to transition from sleepy Cactus League games to international competition, but if you’re familiar with his generally upbeat and enthusiastic demeanor, it’s no surprise that he’s all about it.
“It’s going to be cool,” Teel said. “Usually in the spring, you ramp up, you’ve got backfield, spring training and then you’ve got games in the big stadium. But it’s like zero to 100 and that excites me. I love that feeling, I love that excitement.”
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Shaun Rubin has the fancier title of manager, baseball strategy and integration, but is regularly in uniform assisting with practice, just like bullpen catcher Bennett Markinson. But both are staff members that White Sox fans — and most media — probably have never heard speak out loud, but may have seen in the last two days walking around Camelback Ranch wearing “a big, awful chain.”
#whitesox Bullpen catcher Bennett Markinson was rocking the “Cash Money Coach of the Day” chain at camp today. 💰
Asked Will Venable about it…he said they’ll present it daily this Spring to recognize a coach who’s done something worth highlighting.
It’s something he picked up… pic.twitter.com/rJubToC0XK
— Brooke Fletcher (@BrookeFletcher) February 16, 2026
“That’s a Cash Money Coach of the Day chain,” Venable explained. “It might look a little different tomorrow. That one was our backup. We have our chain here. When I was with the Cubs, Anthony Iapoce was the hitting coach introduced that to me. It’s just something we give to our coaches on a daily basis where we will present it in the morning staff meeting. Designate a Cash Money Coach of the Day for someone who has done something we want to recognize.
“It’s a nice moment to talk about in there and then you have to wear the chain. Hopefully, people are asking you why you are wearing this big, awful chain.”
It remains to be seen if the other chain is also big and awful.
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Chris Getz acknowledged early in the offseason that the Sox couldn’t anticipate Andrew Benintendi being able to man an everyday workload in left field after back-to-back seasons of left Achilles tendinitis, which clearly hampered his defensive performance even when he soldiered through the pain.
But having spent his offseason losing 12 pounds to put less stress on his leg, and working through the regimen of calf exercises the training staff gave him to strengthen the muscle, Benintendi didn’t hear no bell.
“Wherever they want to play me and obviously there are going to be times where I’ll DH or whatever it may be, but I’m preparing like I’m going to play left field everyday,” Benintendi said. “I went all offseason and I didn’t have any issues with [my Achilles]. They gave me exercises to do all offseason, which I did and the range of motion is better now. It’s feeling good. Obviously we’ll monitor over time, with spikes on everyday, but I feel confident.”
Benintendi says he feels just as strong as he did at a heavier weight, though he noted that losing weight over the course of the season is typical and something to closely manage. Following up with him about his interest in becoming less power-oriented, Benintendi sounds more dissatisfied with the rate he’s been getting on base (.309 in three seasons with the Sox) than anything else, and wants to take advantage when pitchers try to avoid his pull power by working the outer half of the plate. With Munetaka Murakami and full seasons of Colson Montgomery and Kyle Teel hopefully unseating him from being the Sox’s top power threat, Benintendi thinks he should be taking his chances to slap those outside pitches for singles to left field when they’re provided, even if he ends up taking fewer A-swings overall.
Because, to go back to his primary point, Benintendi thinks he’ll be able to do more with those singles to left.
“I don’t know where I’m going to hit in the lineup, but it’s just about getting on base and scoring runs. I feel good now where I can score from first on a gapper.”