CHARLOTTE -- Want to make the White Sox farm system laugh? Make plans to watch it.
The final day of my back-and-forth between Kannapolis and Charlotte offered the opportunity for a doubleheader of Sox pitching prospects who have endured a demotion this season. Tanner McDougal was scheduled to start the first half of two seven-inning games in Kannapolis, just 3 1/2 hours before a resurgent Nick Nastrini was set to face the Toledo Mud Hens for the second time this week.
But they were both pushed off the figurative front page of White Sox minor league news by two more highly-rated prospects. A source confirmed and then the team announced that fifth overall pick Hagen Smith will join High-A Winston-Salem next week and make his de jure professional debut on Saturday. He's been pitching in bridge league games in Arizona, and friend of the site Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs informs that Smith sat 95-98 mph with his fastball in his last tuneup outing, and also looked "very good."
If Smith simply pitches once per week, there would be three starts for him left on the Winston-Salem schedule. While that doesn't sound like much less than what the White Sox have in mind for him, an appearance in the Barons' playoff run would be the next logical step up in difficulty. An appearance in the Cannon Ballers' playoff run would be the next logical step up in human cruelty.
While there will be more later on from an interview that Edgar Quero was nice enough to grant this weekend, the prospect catcher hasn't played since Tuesday due to what he described as a sore back. Quero said on Friday that he hoped to return to game action on Sunday as a DH, with the goal of returning to catching next week.
That timeline seemed to be a typical athlete level of overambitious at the time, since Quero was being held out of batting practice when he said it, and sure enough the White Sox formally placed him on the seven-day IL on Sunday rather than in the lineup. Even after a pair of 0-fers as the soreness picked up in his final two games, Quero is hitting .313/.408/.506 in 23 games at Charlotte.
The placement is retroactive to Friday, so Quero could still technically live up to his goal of catching by the end of next week. But the incentive level for the White Sox to rush the 21-year-old Quero back into action for the tail end of the Triple-A season is somewhere between zero and -10.
Not that I was trying to, but any attempt to make Quero concerned about how this setback would affect his major league trajectory, and the exact timing of his reunion with former offseason training partner Miguel Vargas, would be fruitless.
"I don't think about that, I'm just trying to play baseball," Quero said. "I know I can hit anywhere. Everyone knows me and knows I can hit, so I'm just trying to play baseball."
I really only had time to take in three or four innings of Nastrini before heading to the airport on Sunday, and he obliged by getting ejected by umpire Tyler Jones with one out in the third inning, after arguing a safe call on a stolen base by Ryan Vilade.
Nastrini sat 95 mph comfortably, lining up with his claim that he's felt stronger the farther he's moved away from his case of pneumonia. But his mid-80s slider did the heavy lifting, generating all of six of his swinging strikes while being thrown the plurality of the time. Nastrini drilled the second hitter of the game with a fastball to the back, but otherwise flashed improved control.
Newly acquired lefty reliever Trey McGough--who had a crossing the field to the other dugout moment when he was traded by the Orioles last month--cleaned up Nastrini's inning with no runs scored.
Former 2021 fifth round pick Tanner McDougal is the third-youngest member of the current Kannapolis pitching staff. His raw tools--96-97 mph velocity, a high raw spin curveball, and a natural feel for pronating a changeup from throwing it throughout childhood--would make him an intriguing developmental project were he a recently drafted college junior, rather than simply the same age as one.
Instead, he's a Cannon Baller again after being demoted a little less than three weeks ago, owing to 44 walks in 65 2/3 innings with High-A Winston-Salem this season. With those recent struggles, putting his current development pace in perspective, even in the wake of losing the 2022 season to Tommy John surgery, does not come easily. Even if his family and private coaches try to stress that he's not running late to achieve his big league dreams.
"It hard for me, honestly and it goes back to me being very eager," said McDougal. "You only get one shot at this. So, it's tough at times."
McDougal said the message upon being demoted was generally to improve his command, but that it entailed some pitch-mix tweaks. He's been working on adding a slider, but is still clearly most comfortable with his ~80 mph curveball, especially as Low-A Charleston was pelting him with left-handed hitters.
Perhaps the central hurdle is that despite the above-average velocity, the Sox want McDougal to be someone who only occasionally jabs with his fastball, increasing his need to command all his secondaries for strikes. McDougal throws a four-seamer but on a downhill plane from his six-foot-five frame, such that it plays best lower in the zone. Sure enough, watching him grapple through 4 1/3 frustrating innings on Sunday, it was clear that his velocity was enough to alter the timing of opposing hitters, but was not nearly the bat-missing weapon that someone who can hit 98 mph would expect to wield at this level.
Back during his draft combine showing, McDougal turned heads by hitting 3,000 RPMs with his curveball, so confidence that he has the spin talent to develop a plus slider is high. Even if he never settles upon a mix that works for starter-level strike-throwing, projecting these raw tools to coalesce into an effective reliever one day doesn't take much effort.
Projecting these tools to rebound into a starting pitching prospect again will simply take time, and patience.
"He has high expectations and rightfully so: he's got big-time stuff," said Kannapolis manager Patrick Leyland. "I'm a big Tanner McDougal fan. I know some things this year haven't gone exactly his way but this guy is still young, and this guy's got big-time power stuff, and he's got a chance to pitch for a long time.
