Farm Fortnight: White Sox hitting prospects moving up, but pitchers are struggling

As the schedule promised, the Arizona Complex League White Sox opened play at the start of the month. They're still not entirely up to speed, but we're now looking at five White Sox affiliates and more than 40 prospects over the course of this exercise.

Regarding the four full-season affiliates, it became apparent over the first couple Farm Fortnights that the hitters were ahead of the pitchers, at least in the leagues we follow here. Sure enough, , Brendan Gawlowski of FanGraphs posted a Bluesky thread last week providing some details for that theme.

Putting the first few posts in text form for revisiting later:

There appears to be something going on with the ball in the minor leagues. Home run rates at most -- but not all -- leagues are up astronomically. To wit:

Midwest League: Up 53% year over year
Cal League: up 65%
Southern League: up 77%
Carolina League: up 101% (!)

The magnitude of that is huge. For reference, in the wild juiced ball year of 2019, homers went up year over year by about 20% from 2018. And that felt enormous.

In the minors this year, these jumps aren't everywhere. The home run rate is down a tiny bit in the Northwest League, for instance. And it's down in the PCL, which makes me wonder if other minor leagues are just using the big league ball now.

All of which is to say, I don't know what's going on, but perusing box scores it's felt like there have been a ton of homers so far, and uh, yeah.

I've talked to a couple sources who have said that hard hit rate is up throughout the minors as well, which adds another wrinkle.

This is also playing out at an individual level. The high-profile bats have been moving up the chain since the season started, but this is now two-straight weeks where there isn't a slam-dunk candidate for the biweekly honor on the pitching side. Nevertheless, we proceed with naming one of each as the...

Fortnight's Finest

Position player: Jacob Gonzalez. With three homers over the last two weeks, Gonzalez reached 10 homers for the first time in his professional career. He hit .306/.443/.492 with eight extra-base hits, 13 RBIs and 12 walks over 12 games. It could all be a Triple-A mirage, but he wasn't taking advantage of the environment last year, and there are material changes to point to.

Pitcher: Gabe Davis. With all due respect to Max Banks allowing one run over 12 innings with Kannapolis the last two weeks, Davis, the 6-foot-9-inch righty selected out of Oklahoma State in the fifth round last year, struck out 16 batters over eight innings one level higher with Winston-Salem. He's limited to four innings per start, but he opened the season with a max of three, so he's reached the next stage seamlessly.

Charlotte Knights

• Last three series: 3-3 vs. Gwinnett; 3-3 @Jacksonville
• Record: 19-20
• Next two series: vs. Norfolk, @Gwinnett
• Individual stats

The Charlotte Knights continue to hover around .500 despite all sorts of turbulence to their roster, good and bad. Braden Montgomery and David Sandlin made their highly anticipated Triple-A debuts, but they lost Tanner McDougal to a flexor strain and Shane Smith to a rotator cuff issue, so it's very much take-a-penny-leave-a-penny when it comes to prospects of note.

They will receive some Triple-A ballast, as Dustin Harris re-signed with the White Sox and will return to Charlotte. He represented himself nicely over six games with the Sox, but failed to take advantage of more run with Houston, hitting .226/.285/.290 over 36 plate appearances before the Astros outrighted him.

Position Players

*Braden Montgomery has had a relatively quiet start to his Triple-A career after producing some of the loudest contact in the minors during his award-winning month in Birmingham. Still, he's hitting .292/.370/.375 over six games, which is fine for "quiet."

*Jacob Gonzalez started the season floating around the infield, including taking the lead at first base, but he's played exclusively shortstop because...

*William Bergolla Jr. has missed more than a month since being carted off with a shin injury after his collision with Sam Antonacci. Chris Getz said Bergolla "hasn't really been able to get over the hump" in his recovery due to nagging soreness.

*Rikuu Nishida hasn't been broken by Triple-A. He's hitting .329/.444/.378 over his first 22 games with Charlotte, and the strikeouts have calmed down after a clump of multi-K games early. He's bouncing between second base and right field.

*Ryan Galanie is another guy who started acclimating to Triple-A after a rocky start. He hit .324/.405/.703 over the past two series, with seven of his 12 hits going for extra bases, including three homers. Statcast has only tracked four batted balls 100 mph or hotter, although Jacksonville's park tends to take some games off for some reason.

Pitchers

*Tanner McDougal lasted only one inning in his most recent start, departing with a trainer due to a flexor strain. He's out for a while.

*Hagen Smith walked eight batters and plunked another over 11 innings distributed over three starts, two against Gwinnett and one against Jacksonville. It's less reflective of general control problems, and more a result of one inning getting away from him, making him consistent with his inconsistency.

*David Sandlin made his Triple-A debut after a pair of tune-up starts with Winton-Salem. He threw four shutout innings against Gwinnett, which appears to be his max at the moment, but control problems limited him to half that many against Jacksonville on Friday.

*Duncan Davitt avoided the IL after a late scratch two weeks ago, but he was relegated to a couple of relief appearances against Gwinnett, both of which conspired to ruin his ERA (3 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 0 BB, 5 K, 3 HR combined). He then returned to the rotation against Jacksonville and threw four scoreless innings on just 54 pitches.

*Shane Smith started against Gwinnett on April 30, lasting two innings and throwing just half of his 48 pitches for strikes. He's been sidelined since with a rotator cuff strain.

*Ben Peoples has been Charlotte's most successful reliever, with a 0.92 ERA and 24 strikeouts against 22 baserunners over 19 ⅔ innings. Zach Franklin has also settled in after a rocky start to the season, with an impressive five games over the last two series (5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 1 HR).

Birmingham Barons

• Last two series: 4-2 @Chattanooga; 1-5 @Knoxville
• Record: 14-19
• Next two series: @Chattanooga, @Knoxville
• Individual stats

Montgomery was promoted to Charlotte after a successful series in Chattanooga against the first-place Lookouts, and the lineup appeared to miss him, as the Barons were outscored 32-16 over six games in Knoxville. It's not entirely the absence of the top position-player prospect, but independent ball signing Adam Fogel and his .938 OPS were put on the injured list, taking another early producer out of the equation. Colby Shelton and Anthony DePino will provide a little more length to this section after they make their Double-A debuts this week.

The pitching isn't doing much better, as Shane Murphy ascended to Charlotte, and David Sandlin skipped Double-A on his way up to the Knights. There aren't such name-brand reinforcements with the Dash on that side of the ball, so improvement will have to come from within.

Position Players

*Jeral Perez is slipping, going just 4-for-36 with a double over the last two series. That's not too far off from what he did the fortnight before, making him .131/.232/.238 over Birmingham's last four series. He sat the last two games against Knoxville.

*Samuel Zavala also cooled off considerably, batting .174/.333/.196 over the previous two sereis. He's still drawing a lot of walks (10 in 12 games), but with one double and a batting average that starts with ".1", he's flirting with reverting to his Winston-Salem self.

Pitchers

*Christian Oppor didn't give up a hit his last time out. The problem is that he walked seven batters and plunked another, and five came around to score. His line from the last two weeks is rather worrisome (7 IP, 4 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 12 BB, 2 K, 3 HBP).

*Lucas Gordon is also trading hits for walks, which is something he's done in the past. The South Atlantic League hit just .180 off him two years ago, and he's holding Southern League hitters to a .190 clip this time around, but it's tougher to pull off when the baseball is livelier and he doesn't get grounders.

*Connor McCullough has been Birmingham's steadiest starting prospect, and he's fared well since his restrictions were eased to four-inning starts.

Winston-Salem Dash

• Last two series: 2-4 vs. Greensboro; 2-4 @Hudson Valley
• Record: 18-15
• Next series: vs. Wilmington, @Greensboro
• Individual stats

The Dash lineup will lose Shelton and DePino, and their promotions are slightly surprising in the sense that Paul Janish expressed some intent of keeping a productive lineup together for a bit back on April 29 ...

"There’s a lot of value to keeping that core group together for a little bit just so they can continue first of all to play well and get to know each other over the course of time."

... and it's hard to say what an extra 12 days accomplished. Then again, when he said that, the Dash were tied for first with Bowling Green atop the South Atlantic League South standings. Now they're four games behind the Hot Rods. There isn't a playoff berth to protect, and there isn't as much to gain in chasing a spot versus advancing older players to age-appropriate levels.

One of the vacancies should go to Kaleb Freeman, the 16th-round pick out of Georgia State who is hitting .261/.528/.565 over 36 not-quite-regular plate appearances with the Dash.

Position Players

*Caleb Bonemer hit six homers over the last two series, but he also struck out 22 times. He's maxing out the Three True Outcomes lifestyle, but that's not supposed to be his game, and he's trying to figure out how to handle being somebody around whom pitchers tread carefully.

*Kyle Lodise hasn't had a multi-hit line in the last 17 games, which is why he's still struggling to get his batting average over the Mendoza line. More than half of his seven hits the last two weeks have been for extra bases, including his first two homers.

*George Wolkow went 6-for-42 with no extra-base hits and 18 strikeouts against Greensboro and Hudson Valley, so he's missing the "all" part of his all-or-nothing profile.

*Colby Shelton will be one section up the next Farm Fortnight, as he was promoted to Birmingham after an award-winning month in the South Atlantic League. He hit just .200 over the last 12 games, but his OPS was .800 because he drew 14 walks over 10 games, and six of eight hits were for extra bases (five doubles, one homer). James talked to him, and you can read about it.

*Anthony DePino is moving with Shelton, and when he opens the Birmingham portion of his season, he'll be attempting to end a 0-for-14 slump. He had a greats series against Greensboro before that. James talked to him, and you can read about it.

*Boston Smith regressed to a more typical line, hitting .235/.381/.324 over his last 10 games. He came into the fortnight with production to spare, as he's still slugging .615 over the Winston-Salem portion of his season.

Pitchers

*Gabe Davis threw his first two four-inning starts with relative ease, needing just 66 and 50 pitches against Greensboro and Hudson Valley, respectively. The White Sox want to get him up to five innings by the second half, so it looks like he's ahead of schedule.

*Grant Umberger had a calamitous start against Greensboro, allowing seven runs while retiring just one of the eight batters he faced. Then he threw six easy innings of one-run ball versus Hudson Valley. It's been that kind of year for him so far.

*Seth Keener pitched a season-high 3⅓ scoreless innings in relief of Umberger against Greensboro, but then gave up three runs over an inning of work on Wednesday against Hudson Valley, and now he's on the IL.

*Pierce George parlayed his dramatically improved strike-throwing into a promotion to Winston-Salem, which is off to an equally encouraging start (2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K in three games).

Kannapolis Cannon Ballers

• Last two series: 4-2 @Augusta; 4-2 vs. Columbia
• Record: 14-19
• Next two series: @Charleston, vs. Myrtle Beach
• Individual stats

The Cannon Ballers are still in last place in the Carolina League South, but no longer with the league's worst record overall. It's on the strength of their pitching, as their 3.04 ERA in May is third in the 12-team league, and only 0.04 runs behind the leader.

The problem is that the most compelling prospects are on the other side of the ball, and the Cannon Ballers have the worst OPS in May thus far, hitting .199/.290/.336 as a team.

Position Players

*Billy Carlson dropped off Baseball America's Top 100 list in its May revision, and the lack of pop would appear to be a leading reason. He didn't produce an extra-base hit over either series against Augusta or Columbia, resulting in an empty .216 batting average over this most recent stretch.

*Jaden Fauske is showing more signs of progress, albeit of the incremental type. The strikeout rate is coming down gradually, and he also notched his first professional homer.

*Javier Mogollón maintained his torrid pace from the previous fortnight, hitting .323/.364/.645 over his last eight games. He's repeating Kannapolis after a hot start and an injury-riddled finish last year, so a promotion is a possibility.

*Rylan Galvan is Low-A Munetaka Murakami, in the sense that all his extra-base hits are homers. He's striking out 42 percent of the time, and even Murakami would call that severe.

*Abraham Nunez ran into a slump just as I put him back on the board, as he hit .186/.239/.302 over the last two series.

*Matthew Boughton showed a little bit of power with his first professional homer and a pair of doubles, but it's a sleepy start otherwise thanks to a .235 BABIP.

Pitchers

*Blaine Wynk made three starts across the two series, and it amounts to a single complete game with a pretty decent line, at least in terms of strike-throwing (9 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 1 HR).

*Truman Pauley also combined for one complete game over his three starts during the Augusta and Columbia series. The line is a lot grislier (9 IP, 13 H, 11 R, 11 ER, 9 BB, 14 K, 3 HR).

*Max Banks has only allowed one earned run over his last 17 innings after a pair of more-than-quality starts the last two weeks.

*Jackson Nove is now the Kannapolis reliever to watch after George's promotion. The undrafted free agent out of Kentucky is working on an eight-inning scoreles streak, during which he's allowed just four hits and a walk while striking out 15.

ACL White Sox

• Record: 3-3
• Individual stats

The ACL White Sox have been in business for 10 days, but they've only played five games. The record shows six, but one of them was a forfeit victory over the ACL Dodgers. The sample sizes are too small to derive meaning from, both in terms of how they've started their seasons, or even which players are getting the priority at a given position. Let's give it two weeks.

Position Players

The most encouraging aspect of the ACL White Sox offense early on is that Alexander Albertus is playing full games in the field on consecutive days, so he's already ahead of where he was in 2025, when he failed to complete any of the eight games in which he appeared.

Pitchers

The pitching staff has barely been afforded one turn through the rotation, if they even have a rotation. Right now, the biggest development is that Yobal Rodríguez will not be appearing for the ACL White Sox this season, as he was placed on the full-season injured list after undergoing Tommy John surgery. The 18-year-old Cuban posted the most impressive performance among pitchers in the DSL last year, but his stateside debut will have to wait.

White Sox Minor Keys: May 11, 2026

ACL White Sox 11, ACL Mariners 6

• Jordan Rich went 1-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout.
• Alexander Albertus was 2-for-5 with a triple, and was caught stealing.
• Landon Hodge's pro debut: 1-for-2 with a walk and a CS.
• Jose Mendoza replaced him, flying out and striking out.
• Alejandro Cruz went 2-for-5 with a homer, double and strikeout.
• Yordani Soto went 1-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts.
• Frank Mieses, 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
• Cesar Familia: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K