No, the White Sox won't target Andrew Vaughn in free agency this offseason. They are happily spoken for at first base with Munetaka Murakami.
It's unlikely Vaughn is even thinking about the Sox right now, unless it's in gratitude for trading him last season to the Milwaukee Brewers. Thanks to that deal, Vaughn is about to play in the organization's first World Series in 44 years – only two years off the length of time the Sox had to wait between World Series berths in 1959 and 2005.
Since the trade, Vaughn has thrived in Milwaukee, slashing .306/.384/.466. Although he has yet to match the power numbers and run production he had in Chicago, most fans will tell you that they'd rather have someone who gets on base than someone commonly associated with the three true outcomes. That's what Milwaukee has gotten in him.
Vaughn may have been good for home runs in Chicago, but he didn't provide much else. He struck at least 100 times in three of his four full seasons and had a career slash line of .248/.303/.407 at the time of the trade.
In 2025, he completely fell off with the Sox, slashing .189/.218/.314 and having the worst bWAR on the team at the end of the season (-1.8), despite finishing it with the Brewers. By contrast, his bWAR of 1.3 in Milwaukee that season was eighth on the team.
All of this points to only one possible conclusion: Vaughn was not going to figure it out with the Sox, and a change in scenery was absolutely necessary for him to get his career going. Besides that, the Sox were in the middle of being reconstructed as a competent organization at the time he was traded, and the Brewers have demonstrated that they're one for years. It also did not help that most of Vaughn's Sox tenure came before Chris Getz was named general manager.
In other words, don't feel like Vaughn was a great hitter that the Sox let get away. He was far from it at the time they traded him, though he has since demonstrated that the talent was always there. The Sox just couldn't unlock it the way the Brewers could.
So, it's all right to root for Vaughn to get a World Series ring. He deserves it for the journey he's been on since making the bigs, and both he and the Sox are in far better places now.
While it would be bittersweet to see him spray champagne one last time this season, he would have earned it just like the Sox earned a playoff berth. Those are the moments worth celebrating.
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