White Sox GM Chris Getz on His Team’s Top Pitching Prospects

The Chicago White Sox have two of baseball’s most promising pitching prospects. Noah Schultz, a 22-year-old left-hander who was drafted 26th overall in 2022 out of an Oswego, Illinois high school is currently no. 22 on The Board with a 55 FV. Hagen Smith, himself a 22-year-old southpaw, was drafted fifth overall in 2024 out of the University of Arkansas and is no. 81 with a 50 FV. Each possesses a power arm, and both have a lot to prove in the forthcoming season — albeit for different reasons. Schultz was limited to 73 innings this year due to injury, while Smith dealt with command issues and lacks a solid third pitch.

I asked White Sox executive vice president/general manager Chris Getz about the young pitchers during last week’s GM Meetings in Las Vegas.

“For Noah, it was an inconsistent year,” Getz said of the 6-foot-10 Schultz, who struggled to the tune of a 4.68 ERA between Double-A Birmingham and Triple-A Charlotte. “Much of that was related to his knee — he had patellar tendonitis — and he needed be to shut down. He’s doing [physical therapy] and strengthening right now. I anticipate that once the knee is completely healed, once it is healthy and completely strong, we are going to get the version of Noah that made him a top prospect in our game.

“In regard to his proximity to the big leagues, I think a lot of that is going to [depend on] his knee,” continued Getz. “If he’s healthy and ready to go, I’m very confident that he’s going to be able to get major league hitters out.”

The arsenal Schultz employs is four pitches deep — fastball, slider, cutter, changeup — with the second of those offerings profiling as his best weapon. Delivered from a low arm slot (as are his other pitches), Schultz’s slider has been assigned a 70 on scouting scale by our lead prospect analyst, Eric Longenhagen. According to Getz, the White Sox like where he’s at in terms of his repertoire — at least for the time being.

“We’ve identified the pitch mix that is best for him,” Getz told me. “Of course, that could evolve based on where the game is, hitters, where his body continues to go. Those are all factors. In regard to his command and the power that he has, those are things he wasn’t able to fully utilize last year. We anticipate them coming back.”

For Smith, command isn’t something to be rediscovered so much as it is a work in progress. When the youngster recently pitched in the Arizona Fall League, it was his main area of focus, along with changeup development. Addressing the former, Longenhagen shared the following when I wrote about the erstwhile Razorback earlier this month: “Smith’s command in the AFL hasn’t been great, but it has been better than it was during the regular season when he was concerningly wild.”

“There are areas in his delivery that need to be more consistent,” agreed Getz. “He’s shown an ability to lock that in better in the Fall League, which has helped his command. It looks like Hagen has also found a changeup grip to where he’s able to locate an effective pitch. A third pitch is important to him, especially against right-handed hitters. His fastball/slider combination is pretty lethal, so adding a quality changeup is only going to help.

“He racks up a lot of strikeouts,” continued Getz, a reference to Smith’s 33.9% strikeout rate this season. “There are going to be opportunities for him to attack for contact from time to time, which will help him limit pitch counts and navigate deeper into games, but he had some stretches toward the end of the Double-A season and in the Fall League where you saw some real dominance. That was obviously encouraging to see. Now it’s a just matter of him having a really productive offseason and being ready to go come spring training. We’ll see where it goes from there.”

Where Chicago’s South Side team goes in terms of pitching success will of course depend on more than just what Schultz and Smith bring to the table. With that in mind, I asked Getz if there are any other hurlers in the organizational pipeline that people should know about. He named three.

“Tanner McDougal is a guy who had a really good year and put himself on the radar,” replied Getz, citing the 22-year-old right-hander who is no. 6 in our White Sox prospect rankings. “He was in Double-A this season. Christian Oppor (no. 9) is another arm worth paying attention to. He’s a lefty who pitched in High-A. Blake Larson (no. 29) hasn’t pitched for us yet — he had Tommy John surgery after we drafted him — but he’s got a chance to be really special. We anticipate him having a productive, fun, first active season.”