2025 Winston-Salem Dash season review

By record, the Winston-Salem Dash were the least successful White Sox affiliate. They finished with the third-worst record in the South Atlantic League at 56-74, which was also good for the lowest winning percentage in the Sox system, but just like the major league club, an ugly record in one-run games (12-23) skewed the perceived quality of the product.

The Dash ultimately served their purpose to the chain in 2025. Even while they struggled, they still managed to efficiently matriculate ascendant prospects like Braden Montgomery, Tanner McDougal and Sam Antonacci, and when they started playing their best baseball of the year toward the end of the season, they could credit a healthy mix of recent arrivals and hard-earned developmental gains.

The offense came away from the 2025 season as a slightly above-average unit for the South Atlantic League, and in pretty much all respects.

The same couldn't be said about the pitching staff, and in a way that, again, resembled the parent club. The Dash were never bereft of pitching prospects over the course of the year, but they also had their share of relievers who had a hard time throwing strikes, and since bullpens are routinely tasked with covering half the game in A-ball, high-leverage opportunities would inevitably find them.

But ultimately, they benefited from the strange concoction of success, stability and stagnation above them at Birmingham. The lack of crises at Double-A meant the Dash players who were called up to supplement the Barons generally tended to earn their promotions, however much time they needed to do it. That allowed the ones who stayed behind to learn at their own speed.

Hitters

Caleb Bonemer: He only played 11 games with Winston-Salem, but the production in that small sample with the Dash (.278/.409/.611) just about mirrored what he did in Kannapolis (.281/.400/.458), except that seven of his 10 hits went for extra bases. It was an exclamation point on a season that landed him on most national top-100 lists, as he did all of that damage as a 19-year-old. There are some doubts about his final defensive home (probably third base), and whether he can generate more power since his frame is filled out and his swing has fewer moving parts than usual, But it's a compliment to the state of his game that he's already made the conversation about the finer points before turning 20, which he did earlier this week.

Jeral Perez: Perez spent all 125 games of the 2025 season in Winston-Salem, but at least it seems like he shouldn't have to open the 2026 season there. He hit .244/.315/.448 over 537 plate appearances, which doesn't reflect a mastery of HIgh-A, but at some point at the second half of July, he suddenly started making more contact, and the South Atlantic League opened up for him:

• First 85 games: .222/.296/.434, 7.8 BB%, 24.0 K%
• Last 40 games: .295/.360/.487, 9.1 BB%, 14.3 K%

That finishing kick means he's still ahead of schedule since he doesn't turn 21 until next month, and the 22 homers and .204 ISO make it easy to overlook that he didn't appear anywhere besides second base and DH over the last two-plus months of the season. Will that power translate to Birmingham? If not, can he expand his defensive skill set? Those are open questions, not leading ones.

Kyle Lodise: The third-round pick out of Georgia Tech was handed the most aggressive assignment of the White Sox 2025 draft class, and he didn't quite rise to the challenge. He won Player of the Week honors for his series against the Wilmington Blue Rocks in August, going 7-for-14 with a double, three homers, five walks and no strikeouts. In the 23 games around it, he hit .115/.237/.205. At least he better knows what lies ahead, and he'll enter the offseason with the goal of adding strength to survive the rigors of a professional season.

Samuel Zavala: 2025 was Zavala's second full season at Winston-Salem, but his profile shaped into something workable over the second half. He hit .279/.391/.389 over his last 53 games dating back to July 1, with 34 walks against just 37 strikeouts. Pair that with an ability to handle center field, and there's a path to fourth-outfielder work if it can hold up against more advanced pitching. The counterargument is that while 2025 was his age-20 season, he turned 21 midway into July. He's also up to 244 games of High-A under his belt, so he's not as precocious as it seems.

Ryan Burrowes: He's still trying to figure out how to hit for anything resembling power in full-season ball, but he's compensating by attempting to do more of everything else. Burrowes hit .255/.342/.355 over 111 games in 2025, the last 36 coming at Winston-Salem, and while he only totaled 23 extra-base hits, he swiped 47 bases in 53 attempts while expanding his utility infielder profile into left field. That alone isn't enough to make him relevant, although if he can build upon the power uptick he put forth with the Dash (.132 ISO, as opposed to a .085 ISO with Kannapolis), there may still be some hope yet.

Lyle Miller-Green: He hit .245/.381/.376 with just seven homers against 118 strikeouts over 99 games and 405 plate appearances, most of which came with Kannapolis. He also turned 25 at the end of the year, so I'm mostly wondering whether he's going to start earning the two-way player designation he was tagged with on draft day.

Pitchers

Christian Oppor: He opened his season with 10 strikeouts over 4 ⅔ scoreless hitless innings in Kannapolis, setting the course for a season over which he made as much progress as anybody could possibly expect. He shredded Carolina League hitters for five starts before the White Sox promoted him to Winston-Salem, and he eventually got the handle on High-A. He made his final 17 starts of the 2025 season for the Dash, posting a 3.31 ERA and striking out 82 batters over 65⅓ innings, and he started gaining a feel for his breaking ball -- and with it, greater efficiency -- over the final month of the season. If he finds that reliable sweeper to pair with high-90s velocity and a changeup that's approaching its final form, the only thing he'll be lacking against more advanced hitters is experience.

Aldrin Batista: Hopes of building upon his breakout 2024 season ended one start into his 2025 when he suffered a stress fracture in his right elbow. He returned to make six other appearances, but he only managed to throw 14 innings. He'll try to make up some of the lost time in winter ball.

Grant Umberger: The undrafted lefty out of Virginia Tech became the first pitcher in Kannapolis history to strike out 100 batters in a season. It's unclear why he stayed with the Cannon Ballers long enough to accomplish that feat, as he posted a 2.56 ERA with 113 strikeouts against 33 walks over 102 innings before the White Sox promoted him to Winston-Salem for the final start of the season. He's a tall pitchability lefty in the vein of Shane Murphy, so let's see if he develops the same habit for forcing the White Sox to acknowledge his continued success.

Seth Keener: It was a thorougly disappointing season for the 2023 third-round pick out of Wake Forest. Keener opened the season getting rocked in Winston-Salem's rotation, couldn't rediscover the Low-A success he'd previously enjoyed in Kannapolis after a demotion, then struggled to throw strikes upon a shift to the bullpen. The end result was an 8.06 ERA over 77 innings, including a 11.18 ERA with Winston-Salem over 16 games and 33 innings. Perhaps an offseason designed around a relief role will get him back on track?

Gage Ziehl: It's hard to throw more strikes than Ziehl does, as he walked just 19 batters over 107 innings in 2025, which was his first full professional season after being selected by the Yankees out of Miami in the fourth round of the 2024 draft. He also allowed 116 hits while only striking out 90, so he'll pay a regular tax for living in the zone with a cutter-heavy attack. It balanced out to a 4.12 ERA over 22 starts, 14 of which came with Low-A Tampa before the Yankees traded him to the White Sox for Austin Slater. The initial transition to Winston-Salem was bumpy, but he finished the season with three outstanding starts (15.1 IP, 11 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 11 K).