White Sox director of amateur scouting Mike Shirley knows what Sox fans have been through over the last three seasons, with the team losing 100-plus games in each, including a record 121 in 2024.
So he was glad to have the Sox’ top two draft picks at Rate Field on Sunday: Roch Cholowsky, the No. 1 overall pick, and Landon Thome, Jim’s son and a Chicago-area native.
“The first pick overall was something we wanted to bring excitement to our fans and show the gratitude that we have for them,” Shirley said. “You have to remember the appreciation for what our fan base has done to live with this moment. You don’t get the first pick without some hard times. It’s a reward for our fan base, for those guys to show up at the stadium and understand this is yours. This is part of the White Sox Nation. Now let’s celebrate this together.”
Cholowsky and Thome threw out ceremonial first pitches, Cholowsky to Harold Baines, the Sox’ last No. 1 overall pick in 1977, and Landon to his dad, a special assistant to Sox general manager Chris Getz.
But those were just the first two of 21 picks the Sox made over the weekend, 16 coming Sunday. Overall, the Sox drafted 10 pitchers (nine right-handers and one left-hander), six infielders, four outfielders and one two-way player.
Here are Shirley’s thoughts on many of the second-day selections:
OF/RHP Alex Weingartner, St. Augustine Prep, New Jersey (sixth round)
“This guy was an elite tester at the combine. The bat speed, the power, the force production. I think he had the third-fastest time at the combine. I went to see him late in the year in the New Jersey State championship game. He’s actually pitching that day, and he’s been handling that dual role in high school. He’s a special athlete. I thought the kid and the makeup are right. [Director of hitting Ryan Fuller] was really big behind the decision because he feels like the swing has the traits we’re looking for, in terms of the contact, decisions, damage. [He] can play center field.”
OF Clay Burdette, Xavier (seventh)
“Burdette has been this unknown piece we’ve been hearing about all year. J.D. Heilmann, our area scout, has been screaming about this guy all year. There was a point, David Keller, our international director, was at Georgia Tech watching Xavier vs. Georgia Tech. And you know what that roster of Georgia Tech looked like this spring, right? David Keller walked out of that weekend and felt like that Burdette was the second-best player on the field besides Vahn Lackey [No. 3 overall pick to Twins].”
RHP Luke Craytor, Virginia Tech (ninth)
“[He’s a] 100-mile-an-hour thrower. He’s got the power; he’s got the closer mentality. Answered that role at Va. Tech.”
RHP Kyle Casteel, Butler (Pa.) Area High School (11th)
“Casteel was really an important move because we believe in the strikes, the stuff and the makeup. He does it really easy. Former Chicago Cub Matt Clement is his high school pitching coach. So it’s been pretty substantial to watch this kid develop and grow. And we really like how easy the operation works.”
OF Braden Holcomb, Vanderbilt (12th)
“Our area scout Harold Zonder was screaming at us from about the fifth round on to take this guy. And the price point in the 12th round was different. He’s got power. The guy actually moves really well for the frame, because he’s not a small human. It’s real right-handed power; he can hit it out of sight, and he actually runs pretty good. You believe in the Vanderbilt pedigree; you know he’s been educated right on baseball. We want to see what [director of hitting Ryan Fuller] can do with him to get him locked in just because I do think the power can function in both directions: opposite gap, pole gap.”
1B Grayson Fitzwater, Virginia Military Institute (13th)
“The VMI bat, so it was interesting because VMI is not the powerhouse. So different area scouts had seen him at different points. These guys are jumping up and down because you’re on a Zoom call in the room. These guys are jumping up and down about the hitter. So it was great. He does [what] we’re looking for.”
LHP Cameron Johnson, Oklahoma (15th)
“That’s our lottery ticket. This guy’s one of the power left-handed arms in the game, to be honest with you. The strikes have been a little bit mischievous for him. He was a big-time prospect out of high school, but we felt like it was worth the risk to take a chance at this.”
RHP Darin Horn, Coastal Carolina (16th)
“Horn is a sidearm guy who we think’s unique, and that’s one thing [senior advisor to pitching Brian Bannister] wants to try to do: We’re looking for one unique-trait guy every draft, because if you hit on one of these unique-trait guys, it can make a huge difference. So we take some risk each year, trying to secure a low-slot guy to see if we can find some gold in there, and Banny really believed in this kid.”
OF Crew McChesney, BYU (17th)
“That guy can fly; he’s a 70 runner. It’s big-time raw power, it’s the body, the athlete, center fielder that we’re trying to acquire. It’s like a power-speed combination that you’re taking a little bit of risk on.”
RHP Jackson Bergman, Indiana (18th)
“[He] was injured this year, recently had a Tommy John brace inserted. But this was a guy whose stuff was accelerating. At the price point, we just couldn’t turn it down. It was a must-select. And we really believe once we get him back healthy, there can be some huge upside with that.”
RHP Connor Fennell, Vanderbilt (20th)
“[He] is a little bit of an insurance policy, shall we say, in case something… you know, always medical, MRIs, all the things we have to do to secure contracts, right? So Connor Fennell gets to be a little bit of an insurance policy for us at the moment because we’ve tried all day to secure services. You know, the financial demands are a little bit out of our pool space right now, so he’s a little bit of a reward in case something bad happens on a medical.”