No. 1 overall pick Roch Cholowsky begins his professional career with High-A Winston-Salem on Tuesday night.
Tuesday night marks an important milestone for Chicago White Sox fans. It is the night that Roch Cholowsky, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft, makes his professional debut in the White Sox organization.
Cholowsky has officially been assigned to and activated by the High A Winston-Salem Dash and will be in the lineup for his first minor league game on Tuesday night. The Dash will be at home hosting the Asheville Tourists, with first pitch scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Central Time.
It was just earlier this spring that Cholowsky was captaining the best team in college baseball, his UCLA Bruins, be while batting .320 with 21 home runs and a 1.088 OPS. But after being drafted by the White Sox and signing for a record-breaking $10.35 million, Cholowsky is wasting no time getting started and beginning his professional career.
Part of the appeal of drafting a player like Cholowsky is not just his high ceiling and superstar potential, but also how quickly he should be able to move through the minor leagues.
That proximity to the major leagues, along with other traits such as his makeup and consistency, helped separate Cholowsky from other top draft prospects like high school shortstop Grady Emerson.
With that in mind, the expectation among White Sox fans is that he will hit the ground running in Winston-Salem and produce over the final stretch of the 2026 season.
Vahn Lackey, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft by the division rival Minnesota Twins, has already played four games in Low A with the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels. But Cholowsky has a chance to outperform Lackey over the final 30 games of the Dash’s schedule this season and remind everyone why he was the runaway favorite to be selected with the top pick.
A productive month to close out 2026 would also position Cholowsky well to begin the 2027 season in the upper levels of the minor leagues and potentially make his Major League Baseball debut by the end of the year. And it all gets going on Tuesday night.
Cholowsky spent time at draft camp with the White Sox in Charlotte, then went to Arizona and donned a White Sox uniform for the first time in the Bridge League. It did not take him long to turn heads on the backfields, as he launched a home run and recorded multiple hits in only a few appearances before receiving his official assignment. But now is when it counts, and now is when the world is watching.
For White Sox fans who want to tune in, the Winston-Salem Dash can be watched on Tuesday evening through MLB.TV or the MiLB app.
