White Sox Minor Keys: May 20, 2025

For the White Sox farm system, 2025 is the year of in-season off-site work.

Colson Montgomery was rerouted to Arizona at the end of April to work with Ryan Fuller after an awful start in Charlotte, and the returns since his return have been encouraging. He overlapped with Jairo Iriarte at the complex, as Iriarte was also sidelined in the fight to restore his delivery to the one they traed for.

Now it's Hagen Smith's turn, although to a less severe degree. Paul Janish confirmed to James that Smith is getting a break for "biomechanical work" although unlike the first two cases, that work will occur in Birmingham.

Smith has walked 20 batters and plunked four others over his first 25 ⅔ innings in Birmingham. He's been able to mitigate the damage by allowing just 11 hits while striking out 42, which is how his ERA sits at 2.10 despite the troubles, but it's not a formula for upward mobility.

He threw just two innings his last time out against Columbus on May 10. While the start was severely delayed by rain, but Smith also threw just 21 of 41 pitches for strikes with reduced velocity. The White Sox first responded by skipping Smith in his next turn through the rotation, and now here comes some work on the side.

If you missed it the first time, here's how Josh Barfield described the task at hand in Cincinnati:

"It's feel, right?" Barfield said. "In some ways we went through it last year with [Garrett] Crochet in the big leagues and trying to navigate not having a ton of workload. Hagen's in his first full year. I think he only threw like 80 innings last year, so we want to make sure we're managing that workload. It won't be just him. A lot of the young arms, we've got a lot of young, talented arms in the minor leagues, and we'll make sure that we build in some rest for them. During those rest periods, too, you're able to get good work on and off the mound and continue to work and develop your pitches, so it's mutually beneficial for him and for us."

Round Rock 5, Charlotte 1

• Andrew Benintendi opened his rehab stint at DH, going 0-for-4 with a K.
• Mike Tauchman is now in an 0-for-20 skid, but he drew a walk along with two strikeouts.
• Colson Montgomery singled thrice, struck out once and was caught stealing.
• Kyle Teel was 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
• Bryan Ramos went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.

Birmingham 6, Pensacola 2

• William Bergolla went 2-for-5 with a stolen base.
• Wilfred Veras was 1-for-4 with two strikeouts, and got picked off.
• Ryan Galanie, 1-for-4 with a K.
• Jacob Gonzalez singled, hit a sac fly, struck out twice and stole a base.
• D.J. Gladney, 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
• Riley Gowens: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
• Grant Taylor: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, 7 of 11 pitches for strikes.

Highlights:

*Taylor is a lot to handle when he's only throwing an inning at a time.

Winston-Salem 6, Hudson Valley 1

• Jeral Perez hit his 10th homer of the season during a 1-for-4 night, striking out once.
• Braden Montgomery was 0-for-4.
• Samuel Zavala was 2-for-4.
• Tanner McDougal: 2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 27 of 55 pitches for strikes. He threw 39 pitches in the second inning, which eliminated the chance of a third.

Columbia 8, Kannapolis 1

• Ryan Burrowes went 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
• Caleb Bonemer doubled, walked and struck out twice.
• Lyle Miller-Green was 1-for-3 with a sac fly and a strikeout.
• Ronny Hernandez was 1-for-3 with a walk.
• Abraham Nuñez, 0-for-4 with a K.

ACL White Sox 4, ACL Padres 0

• Adrian Gíl went 0-for-3.