White Sox Minor Keys: May 2, 2026

In naming their April Minor League Players of the Month on Saturday, the White Sox showed how hard it is to come up with a pitcher worthy of an honor.

Caleb Bonemer ended up getting the nod among a stacked field of position players, while Hagen Smith led a flawed body of arms.

Bonemer hit .284/.396/.750 in April, which was good for a 1.146 OPS, but somehow not good for the team lead in that category. Colby Shelton led the way at 1.205, but between Bonemer's prospect pedigree (Sox Machine's No. 1 prospect, if you haven't heard) and the fact that he led all of Minor League Baseball in April homers with 11, he still rates as a worthy selection.

Smith finished April with a 2.33 ERA and a .162 batting average allowed, but he's averaging barely more than three innings a start. Part of that is due to organizational restrictions early on, but he's also issued 13 free bases over his last 13⅓ innings, so he hasn't yet established an upward trajectory. That said, it's hard to come up with a more deserving choice since Noah Schultz was promoted to Chicago. Connor McCullough was named Fortnight's Finest here on Tuesday, but he's also been mostly limited to three-inning starts, and had his first tough outing of the season his last time out.

Charlotte 21, Gwinnett 1

• Rikuu Nishida went 2-for-4 with two walks and a stolen base.
• Jacob Gonzalez's ninth homer of the season was a grand slam; he finished 1-for-5 with a walk and a strikeout.
• Mario Camilletti had an Arby's Night: 5-for-5 with two homers, a double and a walk.
• David Sandlin's Triple-A debut was even more impressive considering the context: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, 36 of 48 pitches for strikes.
• Riley Gowens: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 17 of 22 pitches for strikes.

Notes and highlights:

*Sandlin sat 96-97 mph and topped out at 98, and 40 percent of his pitches were whiffs or called strikes per Statcast.

*Gonzalez's grand slam was courtesy of Truist Field: 94.2 mph off the bat and 340 feet, but it was the opposite way.

Birmingam 11, Chattanooga 4

• Samuel Zavala went 2-for-5 with a walk.
• Braden Montgomery, 2-for-4 with a homer, walk and strikeout. He was also caught stealing.
• Jeral Perez struck out three times during an 0-for-5 night.
• Lucas Gordon: 6 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, 1 HR, 56 of 92 pitches for strikes.

Highlights:

*Montgomery's homer:

Greensboro 9, Winston-Salem 7

• Caleb Bonemer doubled, walked, got plunked and struck out twice.
• Colby Shelton was 1-for-3 with a double and two walks.
• Anthony DePino homered, double, struck out twice and got plunked once.
• George Wolkow was 0-for-4 with a strikeout and an HBP.
• Kyle Lodise went 0-for-3 with two walks and a strikeout.
• Boston Smith homered, singled, walked and struck out twice.
• Grant Umberger: 0.1 IP, 4 H, 7 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 HR, 22 of 34 pitches for strikes.
• Seth Keener stepped up: 3.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 WP, 35 of 53 pitches for strikes.

Highlights:

*You can really get a sense of DePino's unusual hand position here:

Kannapolis 3, Augusta 2 (11 innings)

• Abraham Nunez went 0-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts.
• Billy Carlson was 0-for-5 with a strikeout.
• Jaden Fauske, 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.
• Javier Mogollón was 1-for-4 with a double and a strikeout.
• Matthew Boughton, 0-for-4.
• Max Banks: 6 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 49 of 72 pitches for strikes.

ACL Royals 5, ACL White Sox 0

• Jordan Rich went 0-for-3 in his professional debut.
• In his third year in the White Sox organization, Alexander Albertus played his first full game for them: 0-for-2 with two walks, a strikeout and a CS.
• Yordani Soto was 0-for-4.
• Alejandro Cruz went 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
• Eduardo Herrera caught, going 0-for-2 with two walks.
• Frank Mieses singled and struck out twice.
• Reinder Gomez: 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K