Forgotten White Sox Prospects: Where Are They Now?

Prospects break your heart. It’s a lesson every Major League Baseball fanbase learns at some point — some just learn it harder than others.

The last iteration of the Chicago White Sox rebuild left fans with a bitter reminder of that reality, showing once again why nothing is guaranteed when it comes to top prospects.

The White Sox had a loaded farm system after selling off their big-league assets for a full organizational reset. At one point, they had an astonishing 10 Top 100 prospects in baseball, a feat that garnered significant national attention.

Unfortunately, many of those prospects failed to find their footing in Major League Baseball. Some showed flashes of greatness, others quickly flamed out, and a few are still hanging around the game today.

So where are some of those prospects you may have forgotten about? I went back through old prospect rankings to create a list of former White Sox prospects who once received national recognition, but haven’t been heard from in years.

These are players who were either Top 100 prospects while in the White Sox organization or Top 5 prospects within the system at some point.

Here are some forgotten White Sox prospects — and where they are now.

The White Sox selected Carson Fulmer with the eighth overall pick in the 2015 MLB Draft out of Vanderbilt University.

He was viewed as a can’t-miss arm and looked the part during the early stages of his minor-league career. Fulmer entered the 2016 season as the No. 38 prospect in baseball and the top prospect in the White Sox organization. He remained a Top 100 prospect heading into 2017, despite already having appeared in the big leagues.

Fulmer made his MLB debut in 2016 at just 22 years old, but struggled across four seasons with Chicago, posting a 6.56 ERA over 94.2 innings.

In July 2020, Fulmer was designated for assignment and claimed off waivers by the Detroit Tigers. He bounced between Detroit, Baltimore, and Cincinnati over the next few seasons before re-emerging with the Los Angeles Angels in 2023.

Over the past three seasons, Fulmer has posted a 4.43 ERA across 126 innings with the Angels, setting a career high in innings pitched in 2024.

He is currently a free agent looking for a home for the 2026 season. While he never lived up to his first-round pedigree, there’s something to be said for carving out a decade-long professional career.

Zack Collins was another White Sox first-round pick, selected 10th overall in the 2016 MLB Draft.

Collins was a consistent producer in the minor leagues. While his long-term future behind the plate was often questioned, there was little doubt that his bat would translate to the major-league level.

Entering the 2017 season, Collins ranked as the No. 81 prospect in baseball and a Top 5 catching prospect overall.

He debuted with the White Sox in 2019 and appeared in 119 games across his first three MLB seasons, hitting just .195. As Chicago pushed deeper into its competitive window, Collins was squeezed out of the picture.

In April 2022, the White Sox traded Collins to the Toronto Blue Jays. He appeared in 36 games split between Toronto and the Pittsburgh Pirates that season, then played in just two MLB games for the Cleveland Guardians in 2023.

Collins has not played professional baseball since the end of the 2023 season. He is now a luxury real estate agent.

Alec Hansen was selected by the White Sox in the second round of the 2016 MLB Draft out of the University of Oklahoma.

He posted a 1.31 ERA over 54.2 professional innings during his draft year, immediately establishing himself as an intriguing pitching prospect. That was followed by a dominant 2017 season in which Hansen struck out 12.2 batters per nine innings and posted a 2.80 ERA over 141.1 innings, reaching Double-A.

Those performances earned him a No. 54 ranking on MLB.com's Top 100 prospects list entering 2018.

From there, however, things unraveled. Hansen struggled mightily with his control, never advanced beyond Double-A, was eventually released by the organization, and retired from professional baseball.

Dane Dunning came to the White Sox as the third piece in the blockbuster trade that sent Adam Eaton to the Washington Nationals. Initially an afterthought behind bigger names like Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López, Dunning pitched his way onto the Top 100 prospects list by 2018.

Dunning appeared in just one season with the White Sox, finding success during the shortened 2020 campaign with a 3.97 ERA before being traded to the Texas Rangers for Lance Lynn.

He spent four and a half seasons in Texas, won a World Series in 2023, and posted a respectable 4.36 ERA over more than 500 innings pitched.

Dunning finished the 2025 season with the Atlanta Braves and is currently a free agent at 31 years old.

Blake Rutherford was a first-round pick by the New York Yankees in the 2016 MLB Draft.

His professional career got off to a promising start, but after being traded to the White Sox in 2017 as part of the deal for Todd Frazier, David Robertson, and Tommy Kahnle, his bat never produced consistently enough to earn a promotion — until 2023.

The Washington Nationals signed Rutherford to a minor-league deal ahead of the 2023 season, and he played his way onto the MLB roster, making his big-league debut that August.

He has not been affiliated with an MLB organization since, instead playing professionally in Mexico during the 2024 and 2025 seasons. Still, it was a cool story to see a familiar name finally break through and reach the big leagues.

Drafted fourth overall, Nick Madrigal hit .317 over his first two seasons with the White Sox, seemingly cementing himself as a future table-setter at the top of the lineup.

An injury ended his 2021 season early, and Chicago made an all-in push by trading Madrigal to the Cubs for reliever Craig Kimbrel — a steep price considering Liam Hendriks was already in place as the closer.

Kimbrel didn’t work out in Chicago, and Madrigal struggled after returning from injury. He appeared in 202 games for the Cubs from 2022–2024, posting a disappointing .251 batting average and .616 OPS.

Madrigal signed an MLB deal with the New York Mets for the 2025 season but fractured his shoulder in spring training and missed the entire year. He’s now on a minor-league contract with the Los Angeles Angels for 2026, hoping to return to the big leagues at age 29.

Once viewed as the next great White Sox outfielder, Oscar Colás generated significant buzz after signing out of Cuba in January 2022.

By the start of 2023, he ranked as the No. 85 prospect in baseball following a 23-home-run minor-league season. The White Sox anointed him their Opening Day right fielder in 2023, but he struggled mightily, hitting just .216 with a .571 OPS as a rookie.

As Chicago’s rebuild began to unravel, Colás looked overmatched at the major-league level.

He found moderate success in Triple-A Charlotte in 2024, but the organization’s confidence in him appeared to wane. Colás spent nearly the entire season in the minors while MLB opportunities went to players like Corey Julks, Dominic Fletcher, Tommy Pham, and Zach DeLoach.

Chicago released Colás in May 2025, and he later joined the Angels organization. While he showed flashes of power in Double-A, he struggled to make consistent contact and never advanced beyond that level.

Colás played in the Mexican Winter League this offseason and remains unsigned by an MLB organization.

Jared Kelley entered the 2020 MLB Draft with first-round buzz as one of the top prep right-handed pitchers in the class. The White Sox landed him in the second round and signed him for $3 million.

Drafted just after Garrett Crochet, Kelley ranked just behind him as a Top 5 prospect in the organization entering the 2021 season.

His professional career has been a roller coaster. Kelley went just 3–20 as a minor-league starter despite flashes of dominant stuff and high strikeout totals. The White Sox moved him to the bullpen in 2024, a transition that has begun to stabilize his development.

In 2025, Kelley spent most of the season in Double-A Birmingham’s bullpen, posting a 3.19 ERA with 9.9 strikeouts per nine innings.

He will be 24 for the entirety of the 2026 season and remains in the organization, likely headed to Triple-A Charlotte. The door isn’t completely closed on Kelley contributing at the MLB level, but this could be his final opportunity to do so with the White Sox.

Remember José Rodríguez?

The Dominican shortstop was called up by the White Sox shortly after his 22nd birthday in 2023. He spent one week on the MLB roster in June and another single day in September — without recording a single at-bat.

Rodríguez appeared in one game as a pinch runner, scored a run, and hasn’t seen MLB action since.

He ranked as the No. 3 prospect in the White Sox organization in 2022, earning that distinction through a blend of power and speed at advanced levels for his age. That potential never translated into meaningful major-league opportunities.

After the 2023 season, Rodríguez ran out of options and was designated for assignment. The Philadelphia Phillies claimed him off waivers, and he has remained in their minor-league system ever since.

While the production hasn’t been disastrous, the power has largely disappeared from his bat. Rodríguez is no longer on the 40-man roster but remains with the Phillies at just 24 years old and has enjoyed some success in the Dominican Winter League this offseason.