The White Sox have five prospects ranked inside MLB Pipeline’s updated top 100, with all five landing in the top 53 as Chicago’s farm system continues to take a major step forward.
Now that a significant chunk of the 2026 regular season is behind us, we have new prospect rankings from MLB Pipeline that highlight the future stars of baseball.
The Chicago White Sox have five players featured on the latest iteration of the top 100, and all five of them are ranked in the top 53. It’s a massive improvement across the organization that highlights a lot of the progress being made in Chicago’s farm system.
Infielder Caleb Bonemer is the new top prospect in the White Sox organization. The 20-year-old was one of the biggest risers on the updated list, shooting all the way up to No. 15 in baseball after his monstrous start to the 2026 season in High-A Winston-Salem.
Before the 2026 season, there was buzz that Bonemer could become a top-10 prospect in the sport if he continued to show more of what he did in his first professional campaign. We’ve seen that and then some, with Bonemer already beating his 2025 home run total with 13 homers in his first 34 games of 2026. He currently has a 1.087 OPS and has impressed defensively as well. Scouts have confidence that Bonemer could stick at shortstop or play a competent third base at the MLB level in the future.
Bonemer comes in just nine spots ahead of outfielder Braden Montgomery, who is the No. 24 prospect in baseball. Montgomery also moved up the board a bit with a strong start to 2026 and a promotion to the Triple-A level.
In 35 games between Birmingham and Charlotte this season, he’s batting .295 with a .958 OPS, seven doubles, three triples, and seven home runs. And if he continues to hit in Charlotte, we could see Braden Montgomery roaming the outfield for the White Sox by the start of July.
There are some concerns about Montgomery’s plate coverage and swing and miss. He has 43 strikeouts in 35 games this season, but the plus-plus raw power, elite bat speed, and elite arm from the outfield override a lot of those concerns. The production speaks for itself.
Coming in just behind Montgomery as the No. 27 ranked prospect in baseball is left-handed pitcher Noah Schultz, though Schultz won’t maintain prospect status for much longer as he has established himself as part of the White Sox starting rotation.
The last few big league starts for Schultz have been somewhat rough. Batted ball luck in timely situations has inflated his season ERA to 4.91, but he still maintains a .186 opposing batting average and has looked the part of a talented big league starter with a really bright future.
Schultz was miles ahead of the competition in Triple-A, opening the season with a 3-0 record and a 1.29 ERA before getting promoted for his MLB debut. That early-season success is the reason for his resurgence in the prospect rankings, with his current ranking being a much better reflection of his upside.
Rounding out the top 50 as the No. 4 ranked prospect in the White Sox organization is left-handed pitcher Hagen Smith, who has once again had dominant flashes with 35 strikeouts in 26.1 innings this season, but has yet to really extend himself for a full-length start.
Smith has overall numbers that are good, not great, due mostly to a concerning high walk rate.
The final White Sox prospect in the top 100 is shortstop Billy Carlson, the 10th overall pick from the 2025 MLB Draft. Carlson is at No. 53 in the updated list and has played in 31 games in Low-A Kannapolis this season while struggling a bit offensively with a .655 OPS.
That being said, the scouts who studied Carlson in high school knew that the offensive game was a work in progress and that he was a bit of a project who may not see tremendous professional results right away. The ranking here and the optimism the White Sox have about Carlson’s future are based more on his physical tools and upside.
Fortunately, the White Sox have plenty of infielders at the big league level, a surging prospect in Caleb Bonemer, and the chance to add an elite college shortstop in Roch Cholowsky, who could be a top-10 prospect in baseball as soon as he’s drafted. That depth throughout the organization allows Chicago to be as patient as necessary with Carlson and his overall development.
Five of the top 53 prospects in baseball is really strong, especially when you consider another infusion of talent that could be coming to the White Sox through the draft.
This updated ranking goes to show that 2026 has been a huge success for the White Sox, not just because the big league team is exceeding expectations, but because many of their key minor leaguers are living up to the hype. There’s another wave of players coming that can supplement this current core.