This spring, the White Sox anticipated having nearly a second major league rotation at Triple-A Charlotte, with top pitching 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, all four have debuted for a White Sox team that’s surprising everyone–including their front office–with how quickly they’ve gone from rebuilding to competing for a division title. But since a scuffling Schultz was optioned 10 days ago, none are filling slots in the rotation. Indeed, since Davis Martin was placed on the injured list last week for a blister, no one is filling those two slots in the Sox’ five-man rotation, and they’re banking on veteran swingmen Erick Fedde and José Urquidy to handle bulk portions of glorified bullpen games for the remainder of the Crosstown series.
“We really are day-to-day here with this, just because of the usage we have had over this last series and then just not having really starters,” said manager Will Venable.
That a surprise contention year is accelerating major league pitching needs is a good problem for the White Sox. That none of their ballyhooed prospect arms have stepped forward to seize a rotation spot, with both opening day starter Shane Smith and former mainstay Jonathan Cannon lingering in Triple-A, is cause to look inward.
“We’re not where I want us to be,” said Brian Bannister, White Sox senior advisor to pitching. “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 White Sox pitching-related should be reflexively attributed to Bannister, as he learned of the Aug. 1 trade for starter Luis Castillo trade via social media like the rest of us. Injuries have also played a clear role for starting pitching shortfalls. Sandlin’s season was delayed by a month due to back and elbow soreness, shoulder impingement and a flexor strain respectively are what triggered Smith and McDougal moving to bullpen roles for the rest of 2026. Schultz’s struggles around another bout of right knee tendinitis 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 different.
Moreover, after struggling to land marquee positional talent as they shopped Dylan Cease on the trade market in 2024, the last two White Sox drafts have leaned heavily toward adding bats to the farm system, with top picks like Billy Carlson and Roch Cholowsky. Bannister, having seen it benefit the 2018 Red Sox World Series winners of which he was a part, endorses this approach.
“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.”
The past two years have seen the White Sox install Hawk-Eye motion tracking technology at their minor league affiliates, and incorporate biomechanical information into their pitching instruction like never before. But as someone brought on to overhaul Sox pitching development that had become badly outmoded, Bannister thinks the team’s starter shortage reflects both 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. We’ve added it to four levels, but we don’t actively have access to that data on a regular basis the way that I did at previous orgs.”
That process takes time, but the Sox’ immediate playoff ambitions are now setting the tempo.