The Kannapolis Cannon Ballers open their season ahead of the other three affiliates, as they're staging their three-game series against Hub City Thursday through Saturday and taking Easter Sunday off.
Ahead of their opening series, they scrimmaged against the Winston-Salem Dash in an extended spring training "Future White Sox Showdown" on Tuesday. The hierarchy was preserved, as the Dash won 6-1 in seven innings, and the Ballers were cool enough to stream the whole thing on YouTube for your convenience:
If you're waiting until the start of the regulation schedule to follow the on-field exploits of the Ballers, here's who you'll see:
Coaching staff
- Manager: Jayson Nix
- Hitting coach: Charlie Romero
- Pitching coach: Rob Hardy
- Bench coach: Xavier Fernández
Romero has been a member of org coaching staffs for years, while Hardy worked his way up from his ACL debut last year. Nix and Fernández are new to coaching, but not to the organization. The former played 118 games for the White Sox from 2009 to 2010, and the latter spent three years catching for three White Sox affiliates after the pandemic.
Pitching staff
- Max Banks
- Marco Barrios
- Trey Cooper
- Riley Eikhoff
- Pierce George
- Jeremy Gonzalez
- Jackson Nove
- Caedmon Parker
- Anthony Patterson
- Truman Pauley
- Landen Payne
- Ryan Schiefer
- Nick Weyrich
- Daniel Wright
- Garrett Wright
- Blaine Wynk
It's hard to separate projected starters from relievers when so many members of this pitching staff have yet to throw a professional pitch. Wynk signed for nearly eighth-round slot value ($246,200) after an injury-wrecked season with Ohio State, leading the way for the seven pitchers representing the 2025 draft class here. Pauley merited an even bigger bonus as a third-day draft pick, as the Mets gave him $397,5000 in the 12th round before sending him to the White Sox as the secondary player in the Luis Robert Jr. deal.
Catchers
Galvan, the 13th-round pick out of Texas, got a little bit of run with Kannapolis in his draft year, although he struck out 14 times over 30 plate appearances. Flores spent the last two seasons with the ACL White Sox, where he showed better plate discipline (16 BB, 18 K over 200 PA) in his second go-around. Boston Smith is not a WWF jobber from the 1980s, but a $50,000 senior signing taken in the sixth round by the Washington Nationals out of Wright State, before they sent him to the White Sox in the Curtis Mead deal on Saturday. Smith popped 45 homers in his last two years in college but is also older than Edgar Quero.
Infielders
Carlson is the main attraction, given that he's the team’s first-overall pick who hopes to follow in Caleb Bonemer's footsteps by acing an aggressive assignment. Perhaps the hit tool will take some time to arrive, but keep an eye out for defensive derring-do. Mogollón returns after a dynamite start to his 2025 was halted by a repeatedly strained hamstring, and now he'll be largely relegated to second base after earning lots of praise in spring. Freeman, a 16th-round pick out of Georgia State, is listed as an infielder despite playing there the least with Kannapolis. He made one appearance at second base, compared to 12 in the outfield and four at catcher.
Outfielders
Fauske is the center of the outfield conversation in both senses of the word, as he's going straight from Nazareth Academy to Kannapolis with only unrecorded bridge league games in between. It wouldn't be wrong to expect him to hit right away, but visions of immediate power or center field staying power might be stretching it. Taussig is a large left-handed bat who got a cup of coffee with the Cannon Ballers after signing as an undrafted free agent last year. Alcala showed some power and speed as a 19-year-old in the Arizona Complex League, but with equally big questions about his hit tool (.233/.325/.479, 37.5 percent strikeout rate). Nuñez didn't stick in Kannapolis as a 19-year-old (.204/.279/.278) in his first crack at Kanny, and Archer didn't impress with his second exposure to the Carolina League (.219/.305/.327).
