Left-hander Sean Newcomb, a 32-year-old veteran with nine MLB seasons, has joined the Chicago White Sox on a one-year, $4.5 million contract. He will vie for a starting rotation position during Spring Training, bringing experience to a young pitching staff. Manager Will Venable expressed excitement about Newcomb's versatility in both starting and relief roles.
CHICAGO -- At 32 years old, Sean Newcomb becomes the veteran presence on the Chicago White Sox pitching staff for the 2026 season, with parts of nine MLB seasons and 223 games under his belt. The left-hander signed a one-year, $4.5 million deal as a free agent after a strong 2025 campaign split between the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics, where he posted a 2.73 ERA over 92 1/3 innings in 48 appearances, including five starts. Primarily working from the bullpen, he ranked fifth among left-handed relievers with a 2.19 ERA and tied for seventh with 70 innings pitched.
After joining the Athletics on May 27, 2025, Newcomb excelled in relief, going 2-1 with a 1.75 ERA, holding opponents to a .214 average, and striking out 50 in 51 1/3 innings across 36 outings. His 1.75 ERA since May 29 ranked seventh among MLB relievers with at least 45 innings. A first-round pick by the Angels in 2014, Newcomb has a career 4.41 ERA in 65 starts and 3.84 in 158 relief appearances. Starting allows him to utilize his six-pitch mix, including a sinker and slurve that succeeded in 2025.
"He’s going to come in and compete for a starting job, a job in the rotation I should say, which we are really excited about," White Sox manager Will Venable said during a Wednesday Zoom call. "We know he had some success in both the starting role and the reliever role, so he is capable of doing both."
Newcomb, who maintains a starter's mentality despite recent bullpen work, emphasized his readiness for longer outings. "I’ve always been a starter, starter mentality," he said. "Over the past few years... I’ve done a lot out of the 'pen, but even those outings I’ve had a lot of three-, four-plus innings outings."
Beyond pitching, Newcomb aims to mentor younger staff members like Shane Smith, Mike Vasil, and Sean Burke, with whom he shares Northeast roots and offseason workouts. A Boston native, he consulted Vasil and Smith during free agency and received positive feedback on the team's upward trajectory. "They kind of seem like they're on the up, on the climb right now," Newcomb noted, viewing the White Sox as entering an exciting rebuild phase with mid-20s talent emerging.
Venable praised Newcomb's flexibility: "Having been successful in different ways, he can help our players, which is something that we’ll look to him to take a little bit of that role." Newcomb joins a rotation competition including Burke and Smith, positioning him as an elder statesman in the developing core.
