White Sox option Opening Day starter Burke to Triple-A

ATLANTA -- Sean Burke earned the Opening Day starter honor when the White Sox began their 2025 season on March 27 at home against the Angels.

On Monday, prior to the series opener against the Braves at Truist Park, the right-handed rookie was optioned to Triple-A Charlotte. It was a surprising move, just as it was when the White Sox made the same move with Jonathan Cannon 10 days ago.

But the team focused solely on making these talented young hurlers better for the future as opposed to what they did or didn’t do in the past.

“We obviously have high expectations for Sean, and he's got high expectations for himself,” general manager Chris Getz said. “We had reached a point, and our assessment thus far is he needs to take another step. He's obviously done a nice job, first year in the Major Leagues for a full season. We think he can be an impactful Major League starter at this level. 


“Now, there's going to be steps that need to be made to get there. And we were having a tough time making those strides here with the Major League club. This is not unique to other situations where we've taken other players and put them in different environments to focus on certain things.”

Those players spoken of by Getz include shortstop Colson Montgomery, right-hander Jairo Iriarte and left-hander Hagen Smith, who is the sixth-best left-handed pitching prospect in the game per MLB Pipeline, being moved from their respective Minor League squads and given a short-term reset at the team’s Camelback Ranch facility in Glendale, Arizona. Now, it’s Burke’s turn for this re-focus.

Burke is 4-10 with a 4.28 ERA, producing 110 strikeouts over 117 2/3 innings covering 24 games (20 starts). It’s certainly a respectable first full season, as Getz mentioned. Even in his last five games, Burke has a 3.92 ERA with 30 strikeouts in 20 2/3 innings.

But he also has walked 11 during that time and not been as efficient as needed. Burke worked 3 1/3 innings against the Guardians on Aug. 9 and 3 2/3 innings against the Royals on Aug. 16, needing 88 and 85 pitches, respectively, in those two outings.

Covering those sorts of innings proves to be taxing on the bullpen.

“He’s able to spin the ball, that never seems to be a problem,” manager Will Venable said. “Every outing, the slider, the curveball is good, good enough anyway. It’s really about fastball command.

“When he’s been good, he’s been aggressive with the fastball in the zone -- specifically to lefties. He’s able to drive that thing in there, both sides of the plate, top of the zone, down and away, whatever it might be. And for him to be at his best, that’s what he needs to get locked in.”

Much like Cannon, this move to Charlotte is not seen as a long-term proposition for Burke. When asked if he sees Burke as a starter in the future, Venable said “100 percent” without hesitation.

“These are real changes, real adjustments, things we expect him to go down and execute and then come back,” Venable said. “Both of those guys are big parts of our future, it’s 40% of our starting rotation there. And towards the top of it, too. These guys are very much part of the future. We have expectations for what it means to throw strikes and we need those guys to meet those expectations.”

Yoendrys Gómez started Monday in Atlanta, followed by Shane Smith and now Martín Pérez in Wednesday’s series finale. Aaron Civale will move back against the Twins on Friday, beginning a 10-game homestand, with Davis Martin coming off a one-hit effort Sunday in Kansas City. Burke will get to work on his overall approach with the Knights.

“This stuff is never easy when you get sent down from the Major Leagues,” Getz said. “When you want to be great, you've got to be willing to take steps back before you make those strides, you know, strides forward to be that frontline type pitcher. We clearly believe in him. He was our Opening Day starter.

“If he's going to have long-standing success at the Major League level, he's going to have to improve first-pitch strikes. He's going to have to have an improved arsenal against left-handed [hitting].”