AL DIVISION SERIES: WHITE SOX VS GUARDIANS

October 2, 2026

Stephen Vogt

Progressive Field

Cleveland Guardians

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Stephen, when you look at Chase DeLauter the way he entered the postseason last year compared to this year, how can you evaluate that?

STEPHEN VOGT: I'd never really seen Chase play before the postseason last year. Obviously now we've seen him with a full body of work. He knows what the postseason feels like and now he knows what 162 feels like. And I think we're going to get a very confident really good version of Chase because he's been here, done that, and now has a full season under his belt.

Q. Talk about how excited you were for Jo Adell to play in the postseason, but now the game is in front of you, how excited are you to pencil him in the lineup to see what he can do productivity wise?

STEPHEN VOGT: As soon as he came over here. We've known from a distance, but when you get to watch him go about it every day, the way he interacts with his teammates, the cultural fit that he has been on our team, just the joy that he brings on a day to day. Now he gets to play in the postseason.

He's been like a kid in the candy shop during the celebrations. I mean, just looking at the smile on his face showing up every day ready to win. I think we're all excited to see what Jo is going to do in a postseason game.

Q. Had a chance to talk with Chase just now. He talked a little bit last year getting thrown into it, like I was there, but I didn't really have a chance to earn it.

How have you seen him kind of earn it in his first full postseason in the big leagues?

STEPHEN VOGT: We've asked him to do something impossible and that's hit at the top to the middle of the order for a full season as a rookie.

Whether he was 0 for 4 or 4 four 4 the next day, he was right back in that same spot in the lineup. I think just watching him navigate 162, keeping himself healthy, and the ability that he has to change a game every time he comes up to the plate. That's very rare in somebody in their first year. So given all that experience, we're going to see a very good version of Chase.

Q. They announced that Hagen is going to take the mound for them. Just understanding how he came into the league this year, what can you expect from facing a guy like that?

STEPHEN VOGT: We've seen him a couple of times now. This is a very talented pitcher. We saw him at Spring Training and then saw him in Chicago and at our place. They've used him as an opener. They have used him in the middle of the game. They've used him all over the place.

And he's somebody that can throw up to 50 pitches. So obviously you don't know how they're going to deploy from that moment on, but we know that we're facing one of their best pitchers to start the game for some period of time. So we need to come out and have some good at-bats and get him out of there as quickly as possible.

Q. It's been now three straight years you've faced a divisional opponent in the postseason. And after playing against them multiple times throughout the regular season, you now have experience with that.

How does that experience help you in terms of managing and understanding the opponents and kind of getting the message to your ballpark?

STEPHEN VOGT: Yeah. I think there's familiarity there, and they have it with us. This is three straight years we've been fortunate to get to the postseason and found our way into playing a divisional opponent, which you know them well. You've played them a lot. There's a little bit of a rivalry there because all three years that's who you've been racing with to get in. There's emotion. There's a lot of things that make this series really exciting.

I do think there's no secrets. We know them. They know us. So it's just go out and execute and let's see who can win three games before the other team.

Q. Stephen, have you seen any progress with José Ramírez during this bye week and the way he's swung the bat?

STEPHEN VOGT: José took a couple of rest days, let the wrist calm down, and he got four or five plate appearances yesterday. Hit two balls really hard. So he's ready. José looks ready, bouncing around like he always does, and very confident. So José finished the year strong and expect this break is going to really help him be in a good position.

Q. Either this week or looking back to last year, do you find yourself like late at night turning things over in your head a little bit more or do you kind of try to keep that all the same with the regular season?

STEPHEN VOGT: I think every day, every moment, is a little bit different. You kind of find yourself in moments thinking about things or revisiting moments.

I kind of spent the last four days until we knew who we were playing, so I kind of got two or three days to kind of just reflect on the regular season and kind of how we got here, what were the good things, what were some things we can learn from, what were some of the mistakes that I made, what were some of the good things that we did.

So you kind of take those few days until you know who you're preparing for to kind of enjoy the regular season and a little bit of a breather. And as soon as that final out happened the other night, it's been thinking about this series, how are we going to navigate it, how are we going to go about it, how do we combat their moves.

So it's a little bit of both. Your brain never turns off in this role. You're always going.

Q. You mentioned the excitement around this series. Obviously for Game 1, both teams have two rookies taking the mound. How intriguing and interesting can that be for this kind of setting?

STEPHEN VOGT: I think you look at this series, there's so many exciting young players that are about to take the field tomorrow, on both sides. I think you guys have heard me, I love watching their young guys play. This division as a whole has a ton of really good young talent and the baseball world is going to get to see that with this series.

There's a lot of excitement with two rookies taking the ball in Game 1, ton of rookies in both lineups. This is really exciting for the game of baseball.

Q. Parker mentioned that last White Sox series could be a benefit, not just how recent it was, but also the stakes that were going into it. It felt like a playoff atmosphere. How much of a benefit was that series?

STEPHEN VOGT: I think especially for our guys that haven't necessarily played in the postseason or been through a pennant chase like we've been a part of right now, getting to play the games that we played in September are going to be huge going into the playoffs because we have been playing playoff games for a few weeks.

It's been, hey, we gotta win, we gotta keep playing well. We gotta do this. And our guys have answered that.

So I think they all have experienced playing in big games. They've seen Progressive Field now with a playoff-like atmosphere. Probably nothing like it's going to be tomorrow. I know our fans are going to show up and show us a ton of support, and we can't thank them enough for that. But our guys have been here, and our guys have played in big games.

Q. Travis had a good rookie year and ups and downs that come with that. September stood out for sure. What stood out to you about watching how he played last month?

STEPHEN VOGT: Yeah. He stepped up. I mean, he did. He stepped up in June after the injuries and went through some ups and downs that most rookies go through.

And I think the cool part for me is that when it mattered, when the heat got turned up, so to speak, he answered. He's come through for us. He's been a big part of why we're here, and couldn't have asked anything more from Travis. I'm really excited to watch him play some postseason baseball.