White Sox Surprise Season Powered by AL Central's Shortstop Renaissance

The Chicago White Sox stack up as Major League Baseball’s most unlikely surprise through the opening third of the 2026 season, what with all the homering and winning and firm grasp (for now) of the American League’s second wild-card spot.

The White Sox already own 29 wins going into Friday’s visit from the Detroit Tigers. In 2024, the Sox didn’t slay their 29th victim until Aug. 12.

Yet don’t be fooled into thinking the AL Central has made dramatic improvement just because the White Sox (29-27) and the Cleveland Guardians (33-25) boast two of the top four records in the league.

The AL Central remains the weakest division in baseball. Collectively, it continues to feature the sport’s tiniest payrolls, smallest home crowds and the worst percentage chance to win the World Series (just 6.1%, if you add the calculations found on Baseball-Reference.com).

But while we’re talking about the AL Central as a collective, it’s important to acknowledge this fact: The division suddenly boasts the finest collection of shortstops in the big leagues — and they could help make a divisional renaissance possible.

Of course, the AL Central has a head start on every other division because Bobby Witt Jr., the best position player in the sport, continues to wear Kansas City’s royal blue. Per Fangraphs, Witt and Shohei Ohtani share the MLB lead through Thursday’s games with 3.5 Wins Above Replacement.

But Witt isn’t the only shortstop in the division who’s playing at a level worthy of an All-Star Game nod. Detroit’s Kevin McGonigle, the 21-year-old rookie who made his debut this year, ranks among the sport’s top 15 players with his 2.4 WAR.

McGonigle, who has split his time between short and third for the Tigers, boasts a .291/.394/.422 slash line. Not only does he own a 10-year vet’s sense of the strike zone — he’s one of the eight regulars in MLB who has amassed more walks (33) than strikeouts (31) — Baseball Savant lists McGonigle as one of the sport’s top three value-add baserunners alongside Tampa Bay’s Chandler Simpson and Washington’s Nasim Nunez.

Meanwhile, the White Sox’s Colson Montgomery quickly has developed into the shortstop with the most pop. He and Baltimore’s Gunnar Henderson lead all MLB shortstops with 13 homers this season, though Montgomery has batted 24 fewer times.

While his streaky power stroke is impressive, Montgomery is deemed as twice as good of a fielder as a hitter. Of Montgomery’s 2.1 total WAR, Fangraphs gives him a 7.9 fielding rating (the best for any MLB shortstop not named Bobby Witt) versus a 3.9 hitting rating. The 6-foot-4 Montgomery doesn’t appear to own amazing range and he rarely, if ever, showcases his arm, but the 24-year-old makes every play.

In Fangraphs’ WAR ratings as of Thursday night, Witt (No. 1), McGonigle (No. 9) and Montgomery (No. 25) rank among the top 25 position players in the game. But Cleveland’s Brayan Rocchio isn’t far behind at No. 31.

The 25-year-old Rocchio was a darling of the prospect gurus for years, but he flopped in his 2023 cameo (.600 OPS in 23 games) and didn’t change many opinions as a regular in 2024 (.614 OPS) and 2025 (.630 OPS).

But this year, Rocchio has bumped up his OPS nearly 200 percentage points (his slash line is .298/.379/.421) by mastering the strike zone. He has chopped his strikeout rate in half while improving his walk rate from 5.7% to 9.3%. Throw in his nine stolen bases and Rocchio paces the Guardians in WAR — slightly ahead of future Hall of Famer Jose Ramirez.

If the Minnesota Twins ever decide to promote 23-year-old Kaelen Culpepper to the big leagues — the 2024 first-round pick owns 11 homers, 11 steals and an .811 OPS for Triple-A St. Paul — then the whole division could feature elite players.

Is that too much to ask? It’s certainly no harder than asking the White Sox to pull off their quixotic quest for a playoff berth.