With the White Sox breaking the wrong kind of records in 2024, it has been hard for fans to get excited about anything White Sox related. However, there is good news on the horizon, as the White Sox have some promising prospects getting close to making their major league debuts.
I would expect a few of the White Sox top-100 prospects make it to Chicago in 2025, as Kyle Teel, Colson Montgomery, and Edgar Quero are the likely candidates to get playing time in the major leagues. But, there has been some historic news on the pitching side of their prospect list, as the White Sox have accomplished something done just one other time in the last 15 years.
According to MLB Pipleline’s updated prospect list, they have ranked Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith as the top two left handed pitching prospects in all of baseball.
For just the second time in the 15 years, spanning 120 lists, the Nos. 1 and 2 prospects at a position belong to the same team.
Here's the 2025 Top 10 LHP Prospects list: https://t.co/odh11F1CDN pic.twitter.com/hKQX4T9ZWE
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) January 23, 2025
This is historic, as MLB Pipeline points out that this is just the second time in the last 15 years this has happened, which has included over 120 different left handed pitching prospects lists.
This bodes well for the White Sox, as having two of the top left handed pitching prospects in baseball can help them form the best rotation in all of baseball, as left handed starting pitching is arguably one of the most valuable assets a team can have.
Noah Schultz likely has the higher ceiling of the two pitchers, as he Schultz made his way to AA Birmingham after 27.1 very solid innings at Winston Salem in 2024. Once he got to Birmingham, he threw 61 innings, pitching to a 1.48 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP. He struck out 73 batters while walking just 17. Hitters didn’t fare too well against him, as they only hit .202 off him.
Noah Schultz is coming off a season in which he posted a 2.24 ERA in 88.1 IP. He was dominant after his promotion to Double-A. It's an impressive fastball/slider combo with an impressive command from a 6'9" frame. Schultz is firmly a tier 1 SP prospect. pic.twitter.com/hsWo0OnHeU
— Chris Clegg (@ChrisCleggMiLB) January 14, 2025
On the other hand, Smith likely has the higher floor, as the White Sox selected Smith with the 5th overall pick. He would make his minor league debut at High-A Winston-Salem. He pitched in just 7.2 innings, striking out 7 batters. He had a very solid 3.52 ERA and a 1.174 WHIP. These are solid numbers but he showed the potential in an extremely small sample size.
🌟 The D1 Dozen: Top Plays of 2024 🌟
No. 3: Pitching performances don't get much more dominant than Hagen Smith's 17-strikeout game vs. Oregon State 🔥🔥@hagensmith32 x @RazorbackBSB pic.twitter.com/pG2kVCRhw6
— D1Baseball (@d1baseball) December 29, 2024
Having two left handed starters that many prospect lists think will become top of the rotation arms is something that White Sox fans can look forward to, as it is something that clearly doesn’t happen that often. On top of Schultz and Smith, the White Sox have plenty of other starting pitching prospects that can form one of the best rotations in all of baseball.
Well this encouraging. The Sox seem fairly loaded with pitching talent and have been the last several years, it’s with position players and hitting where we seem to be clueless in evaluating and/or developing talent. Ultimately though, when you have the Dodgers with a $375M payroll, what’s the point. Reinsturd will never try to compete with that.