AL WILD CARD SERIES: WHITE SOX VS ASTROS

September 28, 2026

Joe Espada

Daikin Park

Houston Astros

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Do you have any idea how you'll piece together your pitching tomorrow?

JOE ESPADA: We're working through that right now. It will be a bullpen day.

Q. Was there any consideration of pitching Hunter on short rest?

JOE ESPADA: We're working through that right now.

Q. Is there a possibility you could have oak Rick back for this series?

JOE ESPADA: He is throwing off the mound again today. I don't want to jump to any conclusion. We're working through our roster. We're working through a bunch of things right now. I can't give you guys specifics.

Q. Did Paredes come out of yesterday playing third base and okay with the knee?

JOE ESPADA: Yeah, he did. We expect him to be pretty sore, but I expect him to be ready to go.

Q. Yordan's coming off a great season. Obviously battle title, probably going to win the MVP. A player like that in the lineup for your postseason, I guess how far can he help just take you guys where you want to go and just with what he's able to do with the at-bat and the guys around him being better as well?

JOE ESPADA: You just think about what he did for 162 season, right? We couldn't be in this position without him. So just having him on a short series, postseason series, not only what he can do to help you win a short series, but what he brings to the opponents, like working through Yordan and having Paredes behind him, just having a great season.

We don't really talk about him, but Zach Paredes is a really, really good hitter. So the year he has and what he brings to our team, having him on our side, he's a game changer. He did it -- MVP season, batting title. He plays a huge role on our club.

Q. Bigger picture question. Obviously with ABS this year, you guys did a pretty nice job on both sides of the ball. In the playoffs, how do you envision maybe the strategy or just being more conscientious of when you use challenges? How do you envision that changing?

JOE ESPADA: It doesn't change. You're not just going to change something just because you're in the postseason when actually we were really successful doing that in the regular season. We're going to continue to talk to our guys who are processing, go through our process of when to do it -- umpires, zone. Our strength and weaknesses as hitters, all those boxes we check prior to a series, we'll continue to do that, but we won't change anything, especially once we have so much success doing it.

Q. You guys obviously had a lot of ups and downs this season, went through a lot of difficulty. What does it mean to you personally to help the team back to the playoffs after missing out last year?

JOE ESPADA: I've been here for almost a decade and just how this team just rallies around adversity, they don't run from it. They actually run to it. They know that it's going to happen. And watching them choose not to fold, they choose to fight, they choose to help one another, is very satisfying. It brings joy to see these guys just -- you see their best version when things get tougher.

As a manager, that's what you want. As a leader of a group, I want to make sure that I'm doing everything possible to put these guys in a position to succeed, but especially when things are not going well, that's when you really see the true character of your team.

Once again, here we are, winning the West, and I'm super excited because the adversity this season was different, right? It was missing some big pieces early, down early in May, but they just don't -- they don't fold. They just choose to move forward. That makes me really proud.

Q. Kind of a follow-up to that question, what did this season do for you as a manager? What did you have to dig deep? What did you have to find out about yourself? Did any of this surprise you? Did you know who this team was?

JOE ESPADA: No, I'm not surprised. To the first part of your question, my faith, when stuff like this happens, I just lean closer to God, and I lean on him. Despite the outcome of the game, I feel like there's joy and there's peace. Ultimately, I just believe in this team. I believe in the culture that we have developed for so many years that at the end of the day, that's what I'm protecting.

It's the not panicking in the clubhouse. These guys just know how to play this game. My job is to make sure that we're doing the things correctly. The things that we do to prepare for a game, let's make sure we do those things. Let's make sure that the leaders are leading not only by example, but just having conversation with those younger players.

Those younger players really stepped up for us, and it's credit to our veteran players who allow them to be successful by be you, and me as a manager, I'm just showing that I trust them. As a team, it's going to take everyone -- front office, player development, the training staff. We're all in it together. That's what makes me come to the ballpark every day and grind with this team.

Q. What are some of the challenges of working through a White Sox lineup with three 30-home run guys?

JOE ESPADA: We actually led the American League in home runs. We have guys that hit the ball out of the park. OPS and slug, so our offense is really good also. For me it's attacking the areas of weakness for those guys. Our pitchers pitching to their strength. We have to take care of the baseball, not only to hit home runs, but we also have some guys that are pretty athletic that can run the bases.

Once you're in the postseason, it's all about who plays the cleanest game. It's all about fundamentals. It's all about execution. It's about who's more prepared. My job is to make sure these guys are prepared to go tomorrow.

Q. Obviously with the state of your baseball operations department, in a normal sense, it would be the GM and you consulting about the roster, but how is it going now? Is it more of a collaborative effort? Can you kind of take us through if that's been challenging to navigate this without a general manager?

JOE ESPADA: No, it has not been challenging. Again, going back to my years here, we have always collaborated through this process. As the manager, I've always -- and as a bench coach, I've always had a seat at the table, and I'm able to raise my opinion and put the best players on the roster. It's all of us together having these conversations.

So not having a GM, no, has not played a role in how we go about our process. I have a good relationship with the AGMs that are in there right now, and we're allowed to speak our mind. We all come in together to try to put the best roster on the field.

Q. Obviously Lucas Spence has taken on a mythical proportion here. What's going on behind the scenes for him, big personality, makeup, all those things that make those contributions from him possible?

JOE ESPADA: He's tough. This kid's tough. He's built right. Mental toughness is definitely there. What I'm really proud of Lucas is how he came up early in the season, and that first taste of the Big Leagues he saw that there's some adjustments that he needed to make to stick, especially offensively. Defensively we know he's capable of playing at a high level, center field.

But it's how can I stay in the Big Leagues and be a productive defensive player is I need to be on time with the fastball, I need to make good swing decisions, I need to make some adjustments maybe in my stance. Some things I could be more direct and short coming to the ball and he did that, right? He came to the Big Leagues, and my goodness, did he make an impact.

Credit to our player development, our line of communication with player development, where we talked to those, when those guys, we send those guys back down, we have a plan, a specific plan, things that we see, our coaching staff does a nice job just working through those things with our player development staff. He made the adjustment needed to get up here and be productive.

We could say the same thing about some of our pitchers, Ullola, VanWey. They go down there and there's a mission and a purpose, and they come up here and they're able to perform at a high level.

Q. The White Sox, like you guys, kind of improbably have made it to this point, had some struggles this season. What do you think this series is going to be like just having two clubs who had to fight through that adversity and both of you have that fighter mentality?

JOE ESPADA: In my opinion, it's going to be a competitive series. Once you get to the postseason, everybody is 0-0, and there's a different level of energy that goes into what happened in the regular season. Regular season is over. These guys come in with a different level of energy and focus and desire to win postseason baseball.

I could speak for our team where since '17 we have played in the most postseason games. These guys are thirsty to get back in the postseason. We drive up our energy and our ballpark. All those things play a factor into how you play postseason baseball.

But they're a good team. You can't deny how they're a postseason team. They did a lot of things very well. They can to pitch. They have a pretty good back end of the bullpen.

But we're going to focus on our game and do what we do well, and if we do those things, we should be in good shape.

Q. Fastball velocity in the majors seems to rise -- not seems to -- has been rising year after year. What do you think about the priority of pitching velocity?

JOE ESPADA: I like pitching velocity honestly. Yeah, it's real. Throwing hard and spinning the baseball and for me is you could do all those things, but you've got to throw the ball in the box. If you could do all those three things, you could have success in the Big Leagues. I think that the key ingredient to be a successful Major League pitcher is you could have all those tools, but you've got to be able to be a competitor, be mentally tough to challenge hitters. When you don't have your stuff, you've still got to find a way to get people out.

At this level, a lot of teams are doing different things to try to create elite offenses where they could beat you with speed, contact, swing decisions. So hitting is completely different and pitching is completely different than it was 15, 20 years ago.