White Sox prospect Hagen Smith has been impressive in the Arizona Fall League

GLENDALE, Ariz. — As the Arizona Fall League winds down, White Sox pitching prospect Hagen Smith noticed something different as he arrived at Camelback Ranch for his fifth start Tuesday night.

‘‘I had an idea,’’ the left-handed Smith said while pitching in front of more than two dozen Sox officials, including general manager Chris Getz, manager Will Venable and Hall of Fame adviser Tony La Russa. ‘‘Especially when I came to the parking lot and it was full.’’

The 6-3, 235-pound Smith, who is rated as the Sox’ No. 5 prospect by MLB.com, gave team evaluators less to stress about as he posted his most dominant performance of the AFL season.

The inconsistent starts stemming from bouts of wildness vanished. His velocity topped out at 97 mph, and his control occasionally caused opposing batters to chase competitive pitches barely out of the strike zone.

Smith’s smooth mechanics led to four consecutive strikeouts in two hitless innings. It was the first time Smith failed to pitch three innings in the AFL, but his workload was curbed so he could pitch in the All-Star Game on Sunday night at Sloan Park in Mesa.

‘‘When you have shorter outings, you can have an inning that can go a little bit sideways in the overall numbers, but his process is much better,’’ Getz said as Smith threw a 96.8 mph fastball past Enrique Bradfield Jr., the Orioles’ No. 4-ranked prospect, to start the game. ‘‘Ever since late August through September and in the playoffs, he’s been able to continue to do that. We’ve still got work to do. He knows that, but he’s a great competitor.’’

Smith, the No. 5 overall pick in the 2024 draft out of Arkansas, is determined to earn an eventual promotion to the Sox, despite pitching only 75 2/3 innings this past season at Double-A Birmingham (not including a five-inning performance in the Southern League playoffs in which he struck out 10 and yielded no hits).

‘‘I’ve still got to work on my mechanics,’’ said Smith, who walked 56 and had a first-pitch strike rate of only 48.3% at Birmingham, according to FanGraphs. ‘‘I’m throwing the changeup more. I used it a lot in my last outing.’’

Smith said he tripped on his cleat while throwing a changeup Tuesday and stuck primarily with fastballs and sliders after that. That proved to be a devastating mix, as he threw 16 of his 23 pitches for strikes.

That was a considerable improvement from his previous four starts, in which he walked six in 12 innings and posted a 60.8% strike rate.

In each of those four starts, one wild inning skewed his numbers. In one start, he needed 11 pitches to strike out the first two batters of an inning, but a wild pitch on a third strike led to a two-run home run.

On Tuesday, Smith said he focused on staying ‘‘slow and smooth.’’ That was evident, as he went to a three-ball count on only one batter.

After Smith struck out Cam Collier, the Reds’ first pick in the 2022 draft, on a foul tip on an 83 mph slider to end the second inning, many of the Sox’ officials — who were in town for meetings before the GM gathering next week in Las Vegas — left their seats and conversed on the concourse before leaving the park a few innings later.

‘‘He’s continuing to work on his changeup, just to have that third-pitch weapon against right-handed hitters and, on occasion, against lefties,’’ Getz said. ‘‘But that fastball and slider are two very impressive pitches that are going to serve him well.

‘‘It’s been fun to see how his season has progressively gotten better, and it should only give him more confidence going into spring training.’’

Pitching in a controlled setting with three-inning limits has enabled Smith to make up for some of the innings he lost during the regular season while staying in a starting routine.

‘‘I’m still treating it like a normal start,’’ Smith said. ‘‘You can’t think you have only two or three innings because then you can become unfocused.’’

With top pitching prospect Noah Schultz shut down because of discomfort in his right knee, Smith has seized the pitching attention this fall.

Sox officials spent the first part of the offseason scouring free-agent lists and scouting potential free agents and Rule 5 candidates playing in the AFL.

But the fulcrum of the Sox’ long-term hopes lies in its starting-pitching prospects, and Smith is aware that the organization isn’t afraid to accelerate the paths of players to the majors.

‘‘They don’t say, ‘You’ve got to pitch X amount of innings to get promoted,’ ’’ Smith said. ‘‘You prove that you’re pitching well, they move you up.

‘‘As a player, that’s really good to hear. I think it’s every player’s dream to get up fast. And I think it’s cool that we’ve got an opportunity to do that.’’

Competition doesn’t intimidate Smith, who credits that to playing in the SEC for three seasons before being drafted by the Sox. He was picked before fellow SEC players Jac Caglianone (Florida) and Christian Moore (Tennessee), who already have reached the majors.

He also was drafted seven spots ahead of outfielder Braden Montgomery (Texas A&M), whom the Sox acquired from the Red Sox in the blockbuster trade for left-hander Garrett Crochet last winter.

‘‘My freshman year, I was lucky enough to throw a lot and got to fail a lot,’’ said Smith, who was the Razorbacks’ No. 2 starter as a freshman. ‘‘Just working with failure [and] being able to deal with that helped me.’’

In Schultz and Smith, the Sox have two front-line starting pitchers accustomed to the big stage. Smith struck out 161 in 84 innings and earned SEC pitcher-of-the-year honors in 2024.

‘‘He does seem like a guy that performs well under the lights,’’ Getz said. ‘‘When you know there’s something at stake, he really seems to elevate his game. I think that a lot of that goes back to college and being the Friday night starter.’’