The White Sox called up pitching prospect David Sandlin ahead of Noah Schultz landing on the injured list with right knee patellar tendinitis after a rough stretch of starts.
On Monday night, the news broke that the Chicago White Sox were calling up pitching prospect David Sandlin to make his MLB debut.
Sandlin, the No. 18 prospect in the White Sox farm system, has a 0.55 ERA in the minor leagues this season after being acquired in an offseason trade with the Boston Red Sox.
He has an explosive fastball and sharp stuff that plays when his control is dialed in. And now that he's healthy and stretched out to 71 pitches in his most recent start with Triple-A Charlotte, the White Sox are giving him a chance to show what he can do in the big leagues.
But of course, if Sandlin is joining the White Sox starting rotation, someone is being displaced. And on Tuesday, it became clear why Chicago felt compelled to call Sandlin up.
Rookie starting pitcher Noah Schultz, who has a 5.82 ERA in eight starts this season, was placed on the injured list with patellar tendinitis in his right knee.
Schultz got off to a fantastic start in his big league career with multiple quality outings against the Athletics, Washington Nationals, and San Diego Padres. But his control has suffered, and he's gotten knocked around over his last four starts, raising his ERA from 2.53 to 5.82 after allowing 19 runs over his last 17.1 innings pitched.
I'm still not particularly concerned about Schultz long-term. Even with the rough start to the season, he's looked the part of a big league pitcher outside of a few mistakes and some issues working from behind in the count.
But there have undoubtedly been some hiccups. And given the fact that he's now landed on the IL, you can't help but wonder if some of those struggles were related to the knee issue.
Persistent knee problems plagued Schultz in 2025 until he was promoted to Triple-A. He lost his release point, didn't have the same consistency, and his numbers reflected those struggles. One of the big reasons I was so bullish on Noah Schultz entering 2026 was the fact that the stuff never wavered, and with a fully healthy knee, he looked capable of returning to the dominant form he showed a few years ago. We've seen flashes of that guy this season.
But now, it seems like the knee is once again getting in the way of Schultz reaching his full potential.
According to Schultz, it's only a minor injury. He described it himself as "annoying" and said that he plans to throw a bullpen later this week.
The reset can't hurt. Hopefully it won't be long before Schultz is back on the mound looking like the pitcher he was a month ago. The White Sox need him healthy and pitching at a high level if they have legitimate hopes of stabilizing this rotation and making a playoff push in 2026.
For now, it's Sandlin's gig. He'll make his MLB debut against the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night.
