As the rebuild gains credibility around the league, Chicago’s top left-handed arms could become the next true catalyst toward contention.
The baseball world is starting to get a clearer idea of what the Chicago White Sox are building. The perception of the organization around the league is slowly—but definitively—beginning to change.
After the second half of the 2025 season, I don’t think the White Sox are viewed as a true bottom-feeder anymore.
There’s something brewing on the South Side.
And it has a chance to get even better if star power arrives in 2026, as a few key White Sox prospects reach their true potential.
I’m mostly referring to the left-handed pitchers.
Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith both had some hiccups in 2025, but each still carries legitimate star power and ace-level potential somewhere in their repertoire.
We saw flashes of that late in the year from Smith. And internally, the White Sox believe Schultz can return to form—the same form that once had him viewed as the highest-rated left-handed pitching prospect in all of baseball.
Yet the most recent prospect rankings continue to undersell Chicago’s lefty arms.
Schultz entered the 2025 season ranked as the No. 6 left-handed pitching prospect in baseball by MLB.com. Hagen Smith somehow missed the Top 10 entirely, checking in at No. 11.
Meanwhile, Kade Anderson and Jamie Arnold are ranked ahead of Schultz despite not having thrown a single professional pitch. They were selected No. 2 and No. 11 overall in the 2025 MLB Draft, respectively.
Liam Doyle—the No. 5 overall pick—is also ranked ahead of Schultz, despite having just 3.2 professional innings under his belt.
That’s flat-out disrespectful, even if you’re bullish on the upside of those arms.
Schultz posted a 1.48 ERA across 16 Double-A starts in 2024, when he was just 20 years old.
Smith, also a former fifth overall pick, struck out hitters at a 12.8 K/9 clip in Double-A this season, finishing with a 3.57 ERA across 20 starts. He was even better in the Arizona Fall League.
Both pitchers still have things to refine. That’s fair. But this is the same level of pedigree—paired with far more proven production—than many of the arms currently ranked ahead of them.
Recent bias toward draft position and theoretical upside seems to be creeping into these rankings, and it’s masking how close the White Sox might be to striking gold if this pair of southpaws hits.
We could see both Schultz and Smith reach the big leagues at some point in 2026. If that happens, Chicago could suddenly be staring at a future rotation anchored by Shane Smith, Hagen Smith, Noah Schultz, additional young arms, and—critically—plenty of payroll flexibility.
If Schultz and Smith become productive big leaguers as early as 2026, the White Sox would have an embarrassment of riches at one of the most valuable positions in baseball. That alone could push the rebuild another step forward—and potentially launch the club into contention by 2027.
I do believe the White Sox’s left-handed pitching prospects are being underrated. And it’s impossible to overstate the role they could play in Chicago’s next competitive window.