The White Sox are in an interesting spot. They have not fully committed to a rebuild, as they still have plenty of major league talent on the roster, but they aren’t anywhere near competing. Regardless of that, they have done a fantastic job over the last 8 months of restocking the farm system.
The White Sox had one of the worst farm systems in all of baseball in 2023, with only 1-2 “top” prospects and very little depth up and down the system. Now, a few trades later we have jumped into the top half of the league. Let’s take a look at how the 2024 MLB Pipeline list compares to the 2023 list.
The players on these lists are VERY different. When you compare them side by side, it almost looks like a completely different team’s farm system.
I don’t know if it says more about how bad the farm was in 2023, or how much we have improved, but there are only 10 players on the 2024 list that made the list at the beginning of 2023. That means 20 new players are on the list, which is insane turnover from just one year.
Some of the main new additions came through trades at the deadline and the Dylan Cease trade. This netted Drew Thorpe (#3), Edgar Quero (#5), Samuel Zavala (#6), Nick Nastrini (#8), Jairo Iriarte, (#9), as well as a few others scattered throughout the list. To get five new players in your top-10 with only trading one semi-long term piece away (Dylan Cease) is very impressive.
Through the 2023 draft, the White Sox also loaded up on some new top prospects. They added Jacob Gonzalez (#7), Grant Taylor (#13), George Wolkow (#14), and Seth Keener (#15). This is an extremely solid draft, as they were able to add four top 15 players in their system, as well as extra talent scattered throughout their system.
Within a span of six months, the White Sox added 14 new players in their top 30 from the draft or in a trade since July. This is an impressive overhaul from Rick Hahn on his way out the door, as well as Chris Getz in the early stages of his tenure.
The best part about the resurgence of the farm system is the fact that a lot of the prospects are getting close to making it to the major leagues. Now this won’t solve all of the White Sox’s issues, but it can certainly help. Two of the spots where the White Sox are the weakest, shortstop and catcher, should have some help soon, as top prospects Colson Montgomery and Edgar Quero should be making their debuts by the end of the year.
Now, prospects are no sure thing. When the White Sox had one of the best farm systems just a few years ago, as they had seven to eight highly ranked prospects and that got us nowhere. The players still have to perform at a high level once they get to the majors, but it seems that the White Sox are setting themselves up to be in a much better position very soon with the overhaul of the farm system.
Good to see write ups like this. Given the team’s state I’m hoping to
see more articles about prospects during the season.