This spring, the White Sox anticipated having what would amount to nearly a second major-league rotation at Triple-A Charlotte, with top prospects Noah Schultz, Hagen Smith, Tanner McDougal and David Sandlin all in tow and all expected to reach Chicago by midseason.
Fast-forward to mid-August, and all four have debuted for a Sox team that’s surprising everyone — including their own front office — with how quickly they’ve gone from rebuilding to competing for a division title.
But since a scuffling Schultz was optioned back to Triple-A on Aug. 8, not one of these pitchers is filling slots in the rotation. In fact, since Davis Martin went on the injured list last week for a blister, the Sox rotation has two open spots to work around.
In his 4 2/3 scoreless innings behind opener Bryan Hudson in a 4-3 loss to the Cubs on Tuesday night — a contest decided when Alex Bregman drove in Carson Kelly for the walk-off run in the bottom of the ninth — right-hander Erick Fedde did as well as the Sox could have hoped for after they moved him to the bullpen at the start of August. They’ll need to pull off a similar trick in the series finale Wednesday, likely centered around recent call-up José Urquidy, with reliever Sean Newcomb scheduled to open the game.
“just kind of treating every pitch today like it was the most important pitch I’ve thrown this year,” Fedde said postgame. “My goal there too was to go deep for the guys and give us a chance to win some ballgames.”
“It’s all hands on deck right now,” said Will Venable of a bullpen that’s become taxed from picking up the slack. “We’re thin back there.”
It’s ultimately a good problem for the Sox to have: a surprise contention year accelerating their major-league pitching needs. But the fact that none of their ballyhooed prospects has stepped forward to seize a rotation spot — with Opening Day starter Shane Smith and former mainstay Jonathan Cannon lingering in Triple-A — is reason to look inward.
“We’re not where I want us to be,” senior pitching adviser Brian Bannister said. “I truly believe in the next couple years we’re going to be a top-five pitching development organization. But we’re not there yet.”
Not everything related to Sox pitching should be reflexively attributed to Bannister. He learned of the Aug. 1 trade for starter Luis Castillo via social media like most everyone else. Injuries also have played a clear role in the shortfalls in starting pitching. Sandlin’s season was delayed by a month because of soreness in his back and elbow. Smith and McDougal moved to bullpen roles for the rest of 2026 because of a shoulder impingement and a flexor strain, respectively. Schultz’s struggles with another bout of tendinitis in his right knee have fueled an internal theory that the delivery mechanics that make him most effective and the ones that take stress off his lead leg are two different things.
Moreover, after the Sox struggled to land marquee position players while shopping right-hander Dylan Cease on the trade market in 2024, the last two Sox drafts have leaned heavily toward adding bats to the farm system. Bannister endorses this approach, having seen it when he was with the 2018 Red Sox, who won the World Series.
“I’m the biggest proponent of starting with a position-player core, and this is truly how I believe to win, especially if you’re operating on a lower payroll,” Bannister said. “Your pitching will feel like it’s behind the hitting. That’s actually the healthier way to build a multi-year championship window.”
In the last two years, the Sox have installed Hawk-Eye motion tracking technology at their minor-league affiliates and incorporated biomechanical information like never before. Bannister thinks their starter shortage reflects the fickle nature of pitching development and an organization with a ways to go.
“It’s still happening right at this moment — massive overhauls behind the scenes in what our [research and development] capabilities are, and the tools that we can provide to both myself and the coaches,” Bannister said. “We haven’t even gotten to the point where we’re actively employing the biomechanics, the Hawk-Eye data.”
That process takes time, but the Sox’ immediate playoff ambitions are now setting the tempo.