Another potential wild card for the White Sox playoff push has taken another step towards his return on Thursday night.
Right-hander Drew Thorpe, who last pitched in the Major Leagues on July 31, 2024, faced the minimum in a four-inning rehab start with Double-A Birmingham, his third to date.
Thorpe, limited to just 43 pitches (31 strikes) as he builds back from a long absence, struck out five batters on the night. His one hit allowed, a first-inning single, was subsequently erased via a caught stealing.
A second-round pick in the 2022 Draft, Thorpe was acquired by the White Sox in March 2024 as part of the deal that sent Dylan Cease to the Padres. (He'd been acquired by San Diego from the Yankees four months earlier in exchange for Juan Soto.)
Thorpe made his Major League debut on June 11, 2024, but he made just nine starts for the White Sox before suffering a flexor strain in his right elbow. A month later, he underwent surgery to shave down a bone spur in his pitching elbow. The original flexor strain suffered in mid-2024 eventually necessitated Tommy John surgery in April 2025.
After all of that (plus a May 2026 appendectomy), Thorpe, still only 25 years old, is hoping to be back on a Major League mound sometime in 2026, possibly a tall order considering the now two-year absence and multiple arm surgeries since his last appearance. But with the White Sox sitting two games up on the Guardians in the AL Central, he could return at the best possible time to contribute.