It’s probably a bad analogy, Shane Smith said by phone from Charlotte, North Carolina, which is only 100 or so minutes by air from Chicago but might as well be on the other side of the moon in his current state of not being able to pitch.
Smith was trying to describe what it has been like to be away all these weeks from the White Sox, recovering from biceps tendinitis, while they have blossomed in his absence.
“It’s kind of like with an ex-girlfriend,” he said, “where you’re like, ‘I want to keep in touch, but we’re not together.’ Obviously, when they have great games, and even when they don’t have great games, I text them, ‘Good job,’ or whatever it is. But I think a big part of it, too, is like, ‘Hey, I want to be there in person, and I want to be with you guys.’
“They’re doing great things up there. It stinks to see it happen when I’m not there, but I couldn’t be happier for that group of guys, obviously. They work their asses off, and they’re winning games. This is something that in spring, I certainly felt that we could be in the position that they’re in now, and so to watch, it sucks, but it doesn’t take away my happiness for them.”
Entering the season, there was no part of the Sox’ plan that had Smith relegated to spectator. He was one of the guys driving the bus, named the team’s Opening Day starter. He was the first rookie All-Star pitcher in club history, a Rule 5 castoff that hit in a big way for the Sox in 2025.
Smith made 29 starts last season and gave up three runs or fewer in 22 of them. He struck out 145 batters, the most by a Sox rookie since Gary Peters in 1963. He was knocked around in four straight starts just before the All-Star break, giving up five runs in each of them, but rebounded strongly in the second half, going 4-1 with a 3.17 ERA and 64 strikeouts in 59‰ innings. And he ended his season on a high note, taking a perfect game into the sixth inning against the Nationals in Washington before giving up a hit.
But this season quickly went sideways for him. The Brewers knocked him out in the second inning of a 14-2 rout in Milwaukee in the opener. The Marlins skewered him for eight runs in three innings in his second start, a 10-0 loss in Miami. And in his third start, at home against the Orioles, Smith gave manager Will Venable no choice but to lift him with two outs in the fourth after he ran his pitch count to 99.
The Sox could ill afford to have Smith continue to tax their bullpen in that fashion. They demoted him to Triple-A Charlotte, a huge comedown from last summer’s All-Star spotlight, primarily to work on his fastball command and get his mechanics more in line with the pitcher he was last season.
Smith figured it would be a short stay. But then he was diagnosed with the tendinitis in his biceps, which is often a marker for damage to a pitcher’s rotator cuff, the stabilizing joint in the shoulder. Smith, who underwent Tommy John elbow surgery in 2021, the same year the Brewers drafted him, underwent both an MRI exam and CT scan and consulted multiple doctors. The decision was made to shut him down and plan a recovery based on rest, rehabilitation and anti-inflammatory medication.
Smith said all is going according to plan. He resumed throwing last week, he said. The next step is to throw bullpens, which he says will happen soon. A rehab assignment would follow.
When will he be back in Chicago? If it were up to Mike Vasil’s magic wand, he’d be back at the Rate tomorrow. But it certainly is plausible that Smith will be back sometime next month. A healthy Smith, one resembling the ’25 version, rejoining the rotation would be the equivalent of the Sox making a deadline trade for pitching help.
“I would say a larger focus is to make sure that when I come back, that I’m throwing the ‘right way,’ air quotations, so that you’re not pushing the ball and putting more stress on your elbow as you come back,” Smith said. “Make sure that we’re moving right, throwing the ball clean, clear and free. That way you’re not putting any extra stress on the elbow.”
Smith is 26 now. He is well-acquainted with the occupational hazards of being a big-league pitcher. The goal right now is simply to resume pitching again.
“The big thing I look at is getting back in the games, whether it’s here [Charlotte] or there [Chicago]. But I most certainly can say that I want to help this team win games in the second half.”
And if he has been a bit forgotten in the interim?
“I was never a big-name guy before,” he said. “Nobody knew who I was before. So this isn’t new to me.”