S-C’s Plymell at Spring Training with White Sox
Chase Plymell is learning what he can control and to be at peace with what he cannot.
A member of Smith-Cotton High School’s Class of 2016, Plymell is in Arizona for Spring Training with the Chicago White Sox after pitching the bulk of last season with the Charlotte Knights, the Sox’s AAA affiliate.
He signed with the White Sox organization in 2021 after pitching for State Fair Community College and the University of Central Missouri. He is currently ranked 69th among White Sox minor league prospects. Life in the minor leagues poses an array of challenges.
“It really is a job. You're there to do a job and it's performance based, so there's a lot of weight put on your shoulders to obviously perform, but it's a game, it's baseball, and there's so many things that can happen that are out of your control,” Plymell said. “But you feel like you still need to be in control of everything all the time."
While technology helps him remain connected with his family in Sedalia, maintaining relationships can be challenging in a team setting, since players are trying to stand out so they can move up through the minor league system and on to the majors.
“These guys are my best friends, a lot of them,” Plymell said, “You spend every day with these guys (from) the first week of February until the first week of October; you're around these guys every single day. So, you're competing with them, but then you're also keeping that friendship dynamic. Being a good teammate, pulling for guys, is kind of how you get through that grind.” That daily grind, the pressure of knowing that every pitch matters, weighs heavily.
“The most important pitch is the next one I'm going to make,” Plymell said. “And especially when you're in AAA, those guys are good, really good. Most if not all of them that you face in a lineup … will have some kind of major league experience, whether that's one week, or seven years and they're just rehabbing, so there is never a pitch that you can take off -- ever. You need to be on your best every single pitch … There's no letdown.”
That performance pressure cooker drains players physically and mentally. Plymell is grateful that Major League teams and their affiliates have mental health services readily available for players and staff, but teammates also are daily sources of support.
“You're competing with (teammates) for a job, but they're also your closest friends, so it's an odd dynamic. But when you're together, it doesn't feel like you're competing with them, it feels like you're going through something hard with them together,” he said. “We (pitchers) talk every day; we're communicating together, we're venting, we're having dinner together. We're talking about baseball, we're talking about life. It could be anything, but it really helps you.” Spring Training is going well for Plymell. One highlight: He faced Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, who led MLB in home runs last season, and struck him out swinging.
Before leaving for Arizona, Plymell reflected on what he learned during the 2025 season. “As much as you want to be in control of everything going on around you, as soon as you step in between the lines, it is what it is. … What happens is going to happen,” he said. “All you can do is make your best pitch, prepare your best, check all your boxes every single day, the best you can. And then after that, it's out of your control. You've done everything you can.”
Plymell continues to put in the work needed to succeed, and approaches each day as an opportunity to be not only a better player, but a better person. “You want to be the best that you can be every single day as a person, as a human being, as an athlete,” he said. “But it's really learning to just turn off the human instinct of wanting to be in control of everything all the time, because you just really can't (be) and I attribute a lot of that to my faith, too, just letting it be in God's hands. It's going to be what it's going to be.”
--Submitted by Sedalia School District 200
Photo credit - Laura Wolff/Charlotte Knights -- Chase Plymell spent most of the 2025 season as a relief pitcher for the Charlotte Knights, the AAA affiliate of the Chicago White Sox.
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