ORLANDO, Fla. -- After striking gold in last year's Rule 5 draft with the selection of Shane Smith and the subsequent claim of Mike Vasil, the White Sox will be hard-pressed for an encore. Still, they're trying their hand with a pair of right-handed pitchers, selecting Jedixson Paez and Alexander Alberto in the final event of the Major League Baseball Winter Meetings.
The White Sox selected Paez from the Boston Red Sox with the second overall pick in the Rule 5 draft, and then were the only team to participate in the second round of the Major League phase, nabbing Alberto -- who is hopefully healthier than Alexander Albertus -- from the Tampa Bay Rays.
"I’ve got a tremendous amount of confidence in our pitching group," said White Sox GM Chris Getz. "Candidly, it’s a lot easier after making the selections last year and watching how that played out. Our group had conviction on these two, so it’s a comprehensive process.
"You look at how their bodies move. See if there’s some tweeks to their arsenal or any sort of adjustment and we feel like with the pedigree, these guys have the makings of being effective Major League pitchers in the short term."
Both were on Baseball America's list of players with the potential to be taken. For Paez, BA said that he "has arguably the best control among the Rule 5-eligible pitchers." He appeared in just seven games for High-A Greenville in 2025 due to a calf injury, striking out 23 against just three walks over 19⅓ innings. For his career, he's issued just 49 walks over 307⅔ innings, but all of that experience has taken place below Double-A.
The same can be said for Alberto, who struck out 64 batters against 21 walks over 48⅔ innings in 2025, most of them coming with High-A Bowling Green. Unlike Paez, who stands 6'1" and works with a five-pitch arsenal while only sitting 91-92 with his fastball, the 6-foot-8-inch Alberto brings standout height and velocity. Per BA's report:
Where Alberto really stands out is with his pitch mix, as has a cache of desirable traits. He throws a true cut-fastball that sits 97-99 mph and touches 101.4 with just a hair under seven feet of extension on average. He commands his fastball well (56.1% zone rate) and generates high rates of whiffs in-zone. His primary secondary is a sweepy, mid-to-high-80s slider with a little drop and 5-10 inches of horizontal break, as Alberto shows the ability to manipulate the pitch. He shows true swing-and-miss stuff running a swinging-strike rate of 15.67% in 2025. His combination of whiffs and ground balls give him true versatility in getting outs.
They're vastly different profiles, but the lack of upper-level experience is the leading reason why they probably won't be asked for the kind of production Smith and Vasil provided, where the former was the White Sox's best starter in 2025, and the latter their most useful reliever. For now, the White Sox look at Paez as a multi-inning reliever a la Vasil, with starting potential down the road, while Alberto is a pure reliever with some leverage ceiling.
"We’ve been talking about them for the last couple of weeks," said White Sox GM Chris Getz. "In Paez, for one, multiple weapons. A lot of different pitches. He’s got an arsenal to navigate to both-sided hitters. He obviously hasn’t pitched at the upper levels, but in terms of the command and the amount of pitches he has, our group was really excited about it. Long-term wise, we view him as a real starter for us. In the meantime, obviously navigating a season with a Rule 5, have to have pitchers oftentimes that have some versatility. Mike Vasil comes to mind, where he can really help in a lot of different ways. Paez is very similar in that sense.
"Alberto, the guy’s got big-time stuff. It’s a unique pitch with his cutter. Obviously he hasn’t pitched at upper levels. When you’re going through the Rule 5, you look at some of the candidates, there’s always a reason why there’s availability on some of those players. Some of it is just the gap between where they’ve pitched and the big leagues, injury history, what have you. In this sense, we feel like this is a chance worth taking on both of those guys and we’ve proven last year that we were able to navigate with two Rule 5 picks, three at one point. We’re excited to see what these guys can do for us."
The White Sox's 40-man roster is now at 37, and Paez and Alberto must be part of the active roster for at least 90 days. They can be placed on the injured list for legitimate reasons, but can't be optioned to the minors. Instead, they have to be placed on waivers, and then have to be offered back to their original teams, who can purchase them back for $50,000, or half of the original $100,000 purchase price.
While the White Sox added two players, perhaps the lede of this story should've been the fact that the White Sox lost a player, as the Cleveland Guardians selected Peyton Pallette with the 21st pick. It had been 10 years since the White Sox saw one of their prospects poached in the Rule 5 draft, and if you can readily recall the name of that player, you're either related to him or a cheater.
(The Padres took Blake Smith with the second-to-last pick in 2015, but returned him to the White Sox at the end of spring training. The last White Sox prospect taken in the Rule 5 draft who wasn't returned to the club? Jay Marshall, who spent all of 2007 with the A's, albeit with a 6.51 ERA and 18 strikeouts against 22 walks over 42 innings.)
Pallette was a notable omission at the protection deadline, given his second-round pedigree, workable three-pitch mix and decent performance with Birmingham and Charlotte in 2025. Yet it wasn't a total surprise, since the White Sox bypassed multiple opportunities to add him to the major league bullpen over the last two months to get out ahead of it.
"We knew that Peyton was at risk of being taken. It wasn’t an easy decision for us," Getz said. "Obviously he’s got to stick on a roster for a full season, but tough to see him go. But really excited about the guys that we’ve brought in.
The White Sox also made a selection in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft with the 21st pick, taking right-handed pitcher Jackson Kelley from the Rangers' Double-A Frisco roster.
