The Chicago White Sox just recently released their list of players they will be inviting to this year’s spring training, and it features a decent number of their prospects.
Prospects like Noah Schultz, Hagen Smith, and Kyle Teel to name a few will all get a decent amount of looks to see how they all fare against major league caliber hitters, pitchers, and in Teel’s case base stealers.
All three plus three other White Sox prospects made MLB.com and MLB Pipelines’ top 100 prospects list with Schultz performing the best.
Chicago White Sox have six prospects who make the top 100
The six players that were so honored were: left-hander Noah Schultz at No. 16, catcher Kyle Teel at No. 32, lefty Hagen Smith at No. 34, shortstop Colson Montgomery at No. 39, outfielder Braden Montgomery at No. 55, and catcher Edgar Quero at No. 66. All have a chance to possibly be on the White Sox 26-man roster this season, except for Braden Montgomery who was only drafted last year.
Leading the pack is Schultz who is far and away the most exciting prospect of the bunch with been noticeable as soon as he walks into a room with his imposing 6-9 220lbs frame. Schultz was recently rated along with Smith as being the number one and number two best left-handed pitching prospects in all of baseball and it’s not hard to see why.
Drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the first round 26th overall in the 2022 MLB June Amateur Draft from Oswego East HS in Oswego, IL. So far in two short seasons in the minor leagues, Schultz has been exceptional accumulating a record of 1-6 with a dazzling 2.03 ERA, with 153 strikeouts in 115.1 innings pitched. That is good enough for a strikeout per nine of 11.9.
Schultz has an elite mix of pitches with his slider being rated as a plus-plus pitch and grading at 70/80. His fastball isn’t too far behind at 60/80, with a decent changeup at 55/80, and above-average control at 55/80. MLB.com describes Schutlz and his arsenal as:
“With his 6-foot-9 frame and low three-quarters arm slot, Schultz creates exceptional horizontal movement on a wipeout slider that continues to gain velocity — now sitting in the low 80s and reaching 88 mph. He has boosted his fastball from 89-92 mph in high school to 93-97 with a peak of 99 mph as a pro. He blows four-seamers by hitters up in the strike zone but doesn’t miss many bats when he tries to sink heavy two-seamers, generating a lot of ground-ball contact instead.”
Schultz was one of the players who the White Sox will be invited to spring training and will get a ton of looks against major league caliber hitters to possibly make the team for Opening Day.
Hagen Smith
Smith is not too far behind Schutlz with also displaying plus stuff and having the ability to be a top-of-the-rotation piece as well. The 21-year-old Smith was Drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the first round fifth overall of the 2024 MLB June Amateur Draft from the University of Arkansas. In his brief three games started at High-A Winston-Salem had a 0-1 record with a 3.52 ERA, with seven strikeouts in 7.2 innings.
Smith is one of those rare left-handers who throws a splitter as his offspeed pitch, and it is graded at 50/80 and has the potential to be a weapon for him if he can master it. All of Smith’s pitches play well off of each other with his funky three-quarters arm angle being his release point, which especially for left-handed hitters will be hard to pick up. Barring anything amazing in spring training Smith will figure to start this season in either Double or Triple-A to start the season.
Kyle Teel
Teel was one of the players to come over to the White Sox in the deal that sent Garrett Crochet over to the Boston Red Sox. Teel was also listed as one of the players who will be invited to spring training and get more than enough reps to see if he can win the starting catcher role. Teel has a good shot to do so with having a career slash line of .301/.404/.444 with an OPS of .848.
According to MLB.com, they describe Teel at the plate as being a quiet hitter with a simple approach that can be a solid offensive player one day.
“Teel has a sound left-handed swing, a disciplined approach, and a higher offensive ceiling than most catchers. He uses the entire field, with most of his home run power going to his pull side. He should hit for average while drawing plenty of walks and providing 15-20 homers per year.”
Colson Montgomery
I wrote recently of Colson Montgomery with General Manager Chris Getz stating in an interview that Montgomery has as good a chance as anyone to win the starting shortstop position out of spring training.
Braden Montgomery and Edgar Quero
Braden Montgomery has the chance to possibly be an elite corner outfielder one day with MLB having his best grades being his power at 60/80 and having an elite arm at 70/80. Montgomery has average grades for hit-hitting ability at 50/80 and is an average fielder with that being the same grade. Montgomery will start his season in the minor leagues after only being drafted last season by the Red Sox, but he does have an invite to spring training to see what he can do.
For Quero, he is advanced offensively with his bat being decently graded at 55/80 and having average pop at 50/80. The knock on Quero is he is not the best defensively and will start the year next season as the starting catcher at Triple-A so he can work on his receiving ability and figure out how to handle a pitching staff.
Exciting times for the White Sox
Even though the White Sox set Major League Baseball’s historic record for losses in a season at 121, there is so much to be excited for this season.
Schultz, Smith, Teel, and Colson Montgomery all have the best shots at breaking camp with the White Sox and being key contributors to help speed up the rebuild.
Fans should be eager to see what happens this spring and how well all these guys to being they will at some point be on the White Sox roster soon.
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