Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith both got their first brush with the big leagues -- or the White Sox's version of it, anyway -- when they made their Cactus League debuts against the Padres on Wednesday.
Both threw scoreless innings during the White Sox's 3-1 loss to the Padres at Camelback Ranch, and both had to pitch around iffy defense to make it happen. Sean Burke wasn't as lucky because Miguel Vargas booted a grounder with two outs to allow an unearned run to score, but he also showed what was hoped for in his first outing of the spring after his surprising emergence in September.
So when it came to intriguing young pitchers, the White Sox went 3-for-3. It didn't stop them from falling to 0-5 in spring training because they had twice as many errors as hits, so the only winless team in either preseason league should take the victories where they can.
Schultz didn't appear in a Cactus League game in either of his first two springs with the White Sox, so the biggest stage he'd appeared on prior to Wednesday was last year's Futures Game, in which Schultz retired just one of the six batters he faced due in large part to unlucky contact.
Wednesday's game opened just as uneasily with a firm one-hopper that skipped past Vargas, who ended up in a rather unusual position. The CHSN broadcast did not show a replay, opting instead to shift to Brooke Fletcher talking to Larry Schultz, Noah's father, so why Vargas tried smothering the ball in this fashion will require some imagination.
That said, the Fletcher report had some value, because that's how we first learned that Schultz woke up with a fever and chills. Fortunately, Jacob Amaya and Chase Meidroth combined to turn a pretty slick double play two pitches later to clear the slate, and one flyout to left later, Schultz ended up finishing the scoreless fifth on just eight pitches.
The leadoff single and the limited mound time kept Schultz's fastballs to the sinking variety, accounting for half of his eight pitches and generating the double-play ball he sought. The sinker averaged 97.3 mph on Statcast, followed with a couple of 91-mph cutters, one changeup and one slider. If he was under the weather -- and in a subsequent in-game interview with Fletcher, he attributed it to nerves -- it didn't show, and the circumstances of the game didn't push him into "Flu Game" territory.
Hagen Smith followed for his debut in the sixth, and the White Sox's other imposing left-handed pitching prospect immediately suffered the same treatment from his defense. Smith hung a 2-2 slider to lefty Forrest Wall, whose sliced one-hopper evaded Jacob Gonzalez's sliding attempt. That was just a tough play not made, but Wilfred Veras' throw back into the infield ended up bouncing away from whoever tried to catch it -- again, a Fletcher interview took priority over a replay -- and Wall advanced to second on the third White Sox error of the game.
Wall then grabbed another 90 feet on a steal of third when Smith didn't look him back, and he slid in without a tag attempt as Smith missed high on a two-strike fastball to Leodalis De Vries ("That was just dumb," Smith said after his appearance).
Smith responded with a perfect back-foot slider for a swinging strike three to give him some footing.
The infield came in against Gavin Sheets, but while Smith got ahead 0-1 on a slider in the dirt, Sheets took the next four pitches for a walk that put runners on the corners. That heightened the tension temporarily, but Smith worked his way out of trouble by striking out Ethan Salas and Connor Joe on nine pitches.
The pitch chart shows a pretty simple formula: 96-mph fastballs up, and the slider that he could toggle between strike-grabbing and whiff-inducing modes. The Padres swung and missed on four of their seven attempts.
While both prospects only threw an inning apiece, they provided a fairly representative sample of their present states. Schultz can pound the zone and induce ordinary contact, but he's still working on his bat-missing ability when situations call for it. Smith could probably survive in the majors solely on the strength of the two pitches he showed, but just like Carlos Rodón, it might take him some time to figure out how to round out his arsenal into something more efficient.
Then there's Burke, who would've had two scoreless innings to his name had he been able to register a win on his 11-pitch battle against Oscar Gonzalez with two outs in the second. Instead, Miguel Vargas boxed it, and that was the error on his record.
Burke ended up throwing 40 pitches in his first outing of the spring, including an extra five to strike out Mike Brosseau after the Vargas E5. He hung a few breaking balls, which is to be expected when applying the conventional wisdom about the desert's effect on curveballs, but he was able to get Jackson Merrill to swing under an elevated curve for a strikeout in the first.
Outside of a five-pitch walk to Xander Bogaerts in the first that only took four pitches due to a timer violation, Burke lived in and around the zone while averaging 96 mph with his fastball. He also mixed in a few two-seamers, which he said was still in the learning curve stage, but was good enough to get a weak comebacker for an out.
Burke spent all of 2023 battling through a shoulder problem, and then didn't appear in any Cactus League games in 2024 due to a slower-than-usual ramp-up period, so it's a welcome development that he was able to follow up his outstanding September with a normal offseason and a healthy start to his spring.
"I feel like I’m not even close to peaking and being where I could be in midseason form, and I'm OK with that right now," Burke said after the game. "I don’t think anybody wants to peak in February. As far as how I’m building up, I couldn’t really complain about anything."
