The 2024 season for the Chicago White Sox was one of the worst in modern day baseball history. They were 41-121 and the worst team in the league by far. The bright spots were few and far between, as the team was very hard to watch for many White Sox fans.
However, down on the farm, the White Sox have some very intriguing players that can give fans a glimmer of hope for the future. We will be recapping the seasons of some of the best prospects in the White Sox system, starting from #30 and going in order to #1 as MLB Pipeline has them ranked. As you’ll see, there are some very intriguing prospects that can help bring the White Sox back to relevance.
Ranked at 19 on the White Sox top 30 prospect list is starting pitcher Tyler Schweitzer. The White Sox selected Schweitzer with their fifth-round pick in the 2022 draft out of Ball State. Since then, Schweitzer has been extremely impressive, especially for a fifth-round pick.
This past season, Schweitzer pitched at two different levels. Schweitzer started off at High-A Winston-Salem, where he would go on to start nine games for the Dash. In 45.2 innings, Schweitzer struck out 47 batters, which helped him to an extremely solid 3.74 ERA. He kept the walks down, as he only walked 14, but was hit around more than he’d like, as he had a .263 batting average against and a 1.31 WHIP. He was able to limit the damage, as he still had a very good ERA.
The White Sox liked what they saw from Schweitzer, and they promoted him to AA Birmingham after the members of that rotation were getting promoted to AAA and to Chicago. Schweitzer would finish the year in Birmingham, where he ended up starting 16 games, throwing 86.1 innings. While his ERA in those starts was 4.17, a tad higher than it was with the Dash, the rest of his stats improved.
In those 86.1 innings, he struck out 89 batters while walking 27. Hitters had a much tougher time against him, as they only hit .237. His WHIP also improved, as it was 1.20. This was good to see for Schweitzer, as when the competition got better, he did too.
Schweitzer has very good stuff, and as a lefty he can get it up into the mid-90s, which is very nice to see. He will likely start in AA again, but since he is 24, he could make an appearance in Chicago in 2025, especially if he continues to pitch like he did at the end of the year.
To get him some innings in Chicago, the White Sox could transition him to a reliever, but I’d like to see him stick around as a starter, as he could be a valuable back of the rotation lefty for the White Sox.
