After three inefficient starts to open the season, the White Sox option Shane Smith to Triple-A as they look to stabilize a taxed pitching staff.
Just a few weeks ago, the Chicago White Sox named right-handed pitcher Shane Smith their Opening Day starter and were excited to see him build off a successful rookie season in 2025.
Now, just 11 games into the 2026 regular season, the White Sox have made a transaction that would have been hard to believe back then.
On Wednesday morning, Chicago optioned Smith to Triple-A Charlotte and recalled left-handed pitcher Tyler Schweitzer, who is set to make his MLB debut in the coming days and take Smith’s place on the active roster.
Smith made three starts to begin the season, but completed just 8.1 innings combined in those outings. He posted a 10.80 ERA with 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings. Even though he finished his start on Tuesday with 3.2 scoreless innings and a career-high eight strikeouts, his lack of command has been a major problem for the White Sox pitching staff to begin the regular season.
Smith threw 99 pitches in just 3.2 innings on Tuesday. He also failed to get through the third inning in either of his previous two starts. Over those 8.1 total innings, Smith has issued nine walks and hit another batter.
On Tuesday, the stuff looked impressive and at times nearly unhittable, but it felt like he would go from being completely dialed in against one hitter to totally out of control against the next. It was either a dominant strikeout or a non-competitive walk. And as the pitch count kept climbing, Smith had no chance to work deep into the game.
That has really started to take a toll on the White Sox bullpen. But we saw over the weekend in the home opener series against the Toronto Blue Jays — and even in Monday’s game against the Orioles — that this team can be competitive, and the pitching staff can get the job done when the starters are able to get deep into games and shorten things for the bullpen.
"Just killing our bullpen," said Smith after his start on Tuesday. While frustrating I'm sure, I can't imagine this comes as a huge surprise to him after what he's done so far in 2026.
This now makes three straight starts where Smith has forced the bullpen to cover significant innings, and it finally caught up to the White Sox when Baltimore took the lead in the eighth inning and never gave it back.
Now the question becomes whether Smith is going to spend a significant amount of time in Triple-A, or if this is more of a short-term roster move to help manage innings.
A pitcher that is optioned to the minor leagues must remain there for a minimum of 15 days before he can be recalled again. The White Sox are bringing up Tyler Schweitzer, a former starting pitcher turned left-handed long reliever, to eat innings out of the bullpen.
But I don't have Schweitzer as a starting pitching option for the White Sox at this point in time. So it will be interesting to see how they handle Smith's rotation spot when it comes around and how long Smith ultimately stays in Charlotte.
He could benefit from a longer reset, but there’s also a path where this ends up being more about roster flexibility than anything else and he's back up by the end of the month.