Farm Fortnight: An uneven but productive first half for White Sox farm system

The MLB season isn't yet at the 81-game point, but the minor league season is officially halfway over, as all full-season leagues are entering the second halves of their seasons this week.

None of the White Sox's top four affiliates secured a postseason spot with a first-half title, but they kept their heads above water overall, finishing with a combined record of 139-137. As you might expect from a .500-ish record, it's been a mixed bag. Sam Antonacci and Braden Montgomery both produced walk-off hits the past two weeks for the White Sox instead of the Charlotte Knights, which is exactly the way a farm system should be helping to fill out a contender. On the other hand, the White Sox lacked sufficient upper-minors pitching to produce even so much as a spot starter the past week, so the arms shortage has been felt.

Baseball America's J.J. Cooper produced an overview of the first half this morning, and offense continues to be up across the board, at least below the Triple-A level. That provides a partial explanation for why the hitting is ahead of the pitching here, but maybe the previously suppressive environment, particularly in the Southern League, covered for some deficiencies, or created some bad habits.

Before we examine the performances of said affiliates at the turn, let's take a moment to honor the...

Fortnight's Finest

Position player: Kyle Lodise. It's been a disappointing season to date for Lodise, as you wouldn't expect a third-round pick out of Georgia Tech to be hitting under .200 three months into a High-A season, especially when the South Atlantic League is one of those surging offensive environments. That isn't the case anymore, as Lodise raised his average from .186 to .216 after hitting .341/.442/.636 over the last two weeks. The Dash's other three starting infielders from Opening Day have all been promoted to Birmingham, so perhaps this is when Lodise catches up.

Pitcher: Blaine Wynk. It's still hard to find pitchers with distinct upward momentum in the system, but Wynk seems like he's due for a promotion to Winston-Salem after throwing three scoreless three-inning outings in the last two weeks. He's up to 38⅔ innings in 2026, which is 30 more than he threw for Ohio State last year.

Charlotte Knights

• Last three series: 3-3 vs. Oklahoma City; 4-2 @Buffalo
• Record: 42-33
• Next two series: vs. Rochester, @Memphis
• Individual stats

With Braden Montgomery promoted to Chicago and Kyle Teel finally seeing a rehab stint all the way through, the position-player side of the equation is a little light right now, at least in terms of prospects. The lineup is still productive enough to support a team that finished the first half in third place in the International League East, and the hope is that Edgar Quero will add to it when he reports for duty after his demotion. William Bergolla Jr. still doesn't have a timetable -- he's hitting and throwing, but the leg activity remains behind.

The pitching is trying to turn the corner, even without Hagen Smith, but the picture is always rosiest when the Knights are away from Truist Field. They have the IL's second-lowest road ERA (3.99), but home is a different story (5.58).

Position Players

*Rikuu Nishida hit safely in all six games of the Buffalo series as he adjusts to life back in Charlotte. The drawback to his major league callup is there's a much firmer idea of how his game translates to the majors despite whatever Triple-A success he enjoys, which is to say it likely doesn't. He does have some skills that might factor into 26th man activities, or 28th man come September.

*Ryan Galanie is back on the board after hitting .395/.458/.744 with three homers and six doubles over 11 games the last two series. That last stat might be most important, as he started playing nearly every day after the White Sox released LaMonte Wade Jr. at the start of the month. He's responded by hitting .373/.424/.529 in June.

Pitchers

*Hagen Smith looked like he was a rainout away from joining the White Sox. Instead, he was roughed up for eight runs over 4 ⅓ innings against Oklahoma City on June 13, then went on the injured list with a shoulder impingement. He's expected to miss a month of game action.

*David Sandlin is back in Charlotte after three starts in Chicago showed his emergency call-up was premature, and he's responding well, throwing six innings of two-run ball against Oklahoma City, and five effective innings against Buffalo. The peripherals don't jump off the page yet, but minor league hitters haven't been able to square him up.

*Noah Schultz is ramping up after missing a month due to right knee patellar tendinitis. The stuff looks fine, but the command is lacking, as evidenced by three walks in his first inning against Buffalo on Tuesday, and three free bases (one walk, two HBPs) over 2⅔ innings against the Bisons Sunday. He's scheduled for at least one more rehab start.

*Mason Adams continues to show no ill effects from his Tommy John surgery recovery, throwing five innings for the first time this season against Buffalo, and shutout ones at that (5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K). It took him just 71 pitches.

*Duncan Davitt took lumps out of the bullpen against Oklahoma City, giving up five runs and three homers over two innings, but he served as the bulk boy after Tyler Schweitzer opened at Buffalo and looked like his better self (3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K).

*Shane Murphy also pitched effectively in long relief against Buffalo, throwing 4⅓ scoreless innings on Sunday after Schultz departed. He's leading the system in innings even though he's far less successful this season, so he's found a niche as a starter who can take a beating. It sounds like a knock, but those guys are always useful to have in the high minors.

*Jairo Iriarte is alive? It looks like it, because he's back to sitting 95 with his fastball, is suddenly getting grounders nearly 60 percent of the time, and the strikeout rate isn't bad, either. Statcast has him toggling between a four-seamer and a sinker, and his slider has turned into a harder pitch that now classifies as a cutter. In other reliever developments, Ben Peoples has been unscored upon in six of seven outings this month, and Peyton Pallette picked up where he left off in Charlotte (8 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 0 HR, 4 BB, 11 K).

Birmingham Barons

• Last two series: 3-3 vs. Biloxi; 2-4 @Pensacola
• Record: 26-42
• Next two series: vs. Knoxville, vs. Montgomery
• Individual stats

Over the last two weeks, the Barons have added one new player to the lineup, but two new names. Caleb Bonemer received a promotion from Winston-Salem, which takes care of the former. Meanwhile, Alec Makarewicz, who leads Birmingham in homers with 13, changed his name to Alec Briley. Among other potential benefits of taking his wife's last name, he'll no longer be confused with Alex Makarewich, a high-strikeout, high-walk reliever in the Dodgers system.

On the pitching side, they'll receive the services of high-octane righty reliever Pierce George, who will become the most exciting arm on the Birmingham staff once he throws his first pitch there.

Position Players

*Caleb Bonemer is searching for his first Double-A extra-base hit six games in, but he's producing around the lack of initial power as he finds his sea legs (6-for-19, 6 BB, 7 K).

*Jeral Perez looked like he figured something out against Knoxville, only to go 1-for-18 against Biloxi. He hit safely in all three games he appeared in against Pensacola, but that means he sat in the other three.

*Samuel Zavala is hitting .178 since the start of May, with only four of his 24 hits going for extra bases.

*Colby Shelton continues to run an improbably low BABIP, as it's up one whole point to .170. All of the components are a little worse compared to his work in Winston-Salem, but not so much that the results should be this bad.

*Anthony DePino had a little bit of a mid-fortnight lull, dealing with an 0-for-11 outage at one point, but he reached base nine times over five games in Pensacola and closed out the series with a loud homer to left.

Pitchers

*Lucas Gordon was one inning away from tying together two strong starts, but he hit a wall with two outs in the fifth inning against Pensacola, giving up the first three of 10 runs scored that inning. Eight walks and a hit batter over 10 innings would have suppressed some of the enthusiasm.

*Connor McCullough completed five innings for the second time all season against Pensacola. The Blue Wahoos dinged him for four runs on six hits and two walks, but it was worlds better than what they did to him at Rickwood Field a few weeks earlier.

*Gabe Davis suffered Pensacola's wrath on Wednesday, giving up six runs on seven hits over 3 ⅓ innings, and three of those hits left the yard. He's got a 6.60 ERA at Birmingham, so his rise will probably remain at Double-A for a while.

Winston-Salem Dash

• Last two series: 3-3 @Greenville; 3-3 vs. Greensboro
• Record: 39-30
• Next series: @Hub City, vs. Greenville
• Individual stats

The Winston-Salem Dash finished the first half of the season 38-28, which was both a fine showing and nowhere close to first place. The Bowling Green Hot Rods ended up taking the first-half title in the South Atlantic League South by a 9½-game margin at 47-18, which is best record in any league. If you're wondering what team made it possible to prop up a .723 winning percentage, look no further than the Asheville Tourists, who finished the first half 17-48.

The Dash roster shows four active catchers after the promotions of Rylan Galvan and James Taussig the past two weeks, as they joined incumbents Boston Smith and Kaleb Freeman, but Smith and Galvan are the only ones sharing the position now. Freeman did spot duty behind the plate when needs arose, but Taussig's status appears to be a vestigial error, as he transitioned away from catching early in his college career. He's hitting .263/.378/.632 over his first 10 games at Winston-Salem after being an old-for-the-level masher in Kannapolis. If he has another two series like that, we might have to add him to the board.

Position Players

*Kyle Lodise, coming off a fortnight where he went 4-for-41 with 16 strikeouts, made up the ground he lost against Greenville and Greensboro, hitting .341/.442/.636. He showed pop, what with four homers and a double, but more importantly, he regained control of the strike zone, drawing six walks against just nine strikeouts over 52 plate appearances.

*George Wolkow more or less matched his season line over two weeks, hitting .224/.321/.388 with a smattering of extra-base hits.

*Boston Smith led the Dash in OPS by hitting .259/.487/.741, beting four homers over eight games, because he's splitting time behind the plate with ...

*Rylan Galvan, who played his first four games at High-A. He's only Two True Outcomes thus far, going 4-for-12 with four walks and five strikeouts.

Pitchers

*Juan Carela aced his pair of rehab starts the last two weeks, posting a quality start between the two of them (6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, 52 of 78 pitches for strikes). Birmingham could be his next stop, as he'd started figuring it out there at the end of the 2024 season before Tommy John surgery got in the way.

*Grant Umberger is allowing a .280/.342/.481 line to South Atlantic League hitters because most of them are right-handed (.306/.382/.604 line allowed).

*Max Banks has been a nice story so far, but he'll have to avoid being the next Umberger, an old-for-the-level pitcher who dominates Low-A but meets his match one level higher. He's allowed 11 runs on 12 hits and four walks over eight innings in his two starts with Winston-Salem.

*Seth Keener made one effective two-inning appearance against Greenville, and one ineffective appearance against Greensboro before being placed on the development list.

*Pierce George will soon be found in Birmingham, both when play resumes tonight and when the next Farm Fortnight rolls around. He's too much for A-ball hitters of either variety.

*Mathias LaCombe may join George there eventually, but he was scored upon in three straight appearances over the last two weeks, so there may be a little more left to learn at High-A.

Kannapolis Cannon Ballers

• Last two series: 3-3 vs. Fredericksburg, 3-3 @Fayetteville
• Record: 35-34
• Next two series: vs. Columbia, @Wilson
• Individual stats

Unlike Winston-Salem's division, parity reigned in the Carolina League South, where the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers went 33-33 in the first half and finished four games out of first place, yet also finished in the fifth place out of six teams.

The Cannon Ballers have validated the White Sox's strategy of piling shortstops on top of shortstops. They lost Billy Carlson to a thumb injury, then Javier Mogollón's hamstring starting acting up again, but that merely provided an opportunity for Matthew Boughton to step up and start suddenly playing the best ball of his very, very young career.

Position Players

*Billy Carlson, for those who missed the last Farm Fortnight and are wondering what happened with last year's first-round pick, suffered a non-displaced fracture of the tip of his left thumb back on May 23, and it's expected to take 4-6 weeks to heal.

*Jaden Fauske slumped terribly over the previous fortnight, but he turned it around the last two weeks, hitting .313/.377/.563, including three of his four homers. There have been a couple other sudden reversals in the lineup, so time will tell how much opponent quality had to do with it.

*Javier Mogollón saw his 2025 season halted by hamstring injuries, and another one has prevented him from taking the field since June 12. The hope is that this one is more minor in nature, as he hasn't been placed on the injured list yet.

*Abraham Nunez was placed on the injured list, conversely, after making his most recent appearance against Fredericksburg on June 13. He'd struck out in his final at-bat.

*Matthew Boughton figured something out. Through June 12, he'd been mired in a 2-for-38 slump. He's hit safely in the eight games since, going 17-for-36 with two homers, a triple and three doubles while only striking out six times. Between him and Fauske, it's fair to wonder if Fayetteville pitching was responsible, so let's check in throughout the next two weeks.

*Alexander Albertus had another one of those abrupt turnarounds. He went from failing to draw a walk over the previous fortnight to drawing 12 walks in 11 games against Fredericksburg and Fayetteville.

*Nick McLain hit his first professional homer on Sunday, which isn't ideal for a college bat drafted in the third round in 2024. In his defense, it was only his 29th professional game, and he has to start somewhere.

*Jurdrick Profar had hit .267/.450/.567 over 14 games with the ACL White Sox before getting promoted to Kannapolis, where he's hitting .194/.242/.226 thus far. He's just 19 years old, but his success at the ACL came after repeating the level, so I'm more curious about what he does from here.

Pitchers

*Blaine Wynk has allowed just one unearned run over his last five starts that weren't affected by illness, including four straight after throwing a complete game's worth of innings in three starts the last two weeks (9 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K). He's walked just one batter over his last 22 innings.

*Truman Pauley snapped a streak of four consecutive disappointing outings with five innings of two-run ball against Fayetteville. The line looked refreshingly conventional.

ACL White Sox

• Record: 11-25
• Individual stats

The four full-season White Sox affiliates are a combined two games over .500, but the entire org's record is well in the red due to the rookie-league showings. The ACL White Sox have lost nine of their last 10 games, thanks to the combination of the league's lowest OPS (.700) and an 8.07 ERA in June. At least Blake Larson is pitching now, which is cool.

Position Players

Hodge made his first homer count with a grand slam, but otherwise any progress he's made this season hasn't come easily. Soto had been the hottest bat in the ACL White Sox lineup, but he cooled off some the last two weeks, and outside of Mendoza's pop, nobody has quite stepped up. The team's stolen-base success rate remains a marvel. They're 51-for-86 this year, a 59 percent success rate. The ACL Guardians are the only team that's been cut down more (43 times), but they've stolen 100 more bases.

Pitchers

Larson, a second-round pick back in the 2024 draft, made his Tommy John surgery-delayed professional debut on Friday and looked good doing it. The 20-year-old has about one month of ACL play left to build up some innings. González is returning from a lat injury that interrupted what had been a strong start to his season in Charlotte. Otherwise, the less said about the ACL White Sox's pitching the better, particularly Oppor, who has walked 20 batters and plunked five others over eight innings in the ACL.

DSL White Sox

• Record: 5-11
• Individual stats

The DSL White Sox have lost eight of their last 10 games, thanks to a pitching staff that's allowing 11.36 runs per nine innings, which is the second-highest mark in the Dominican Summer League. It's a little easier to tolerate when considering the pitching staff is the league's youngest at 17.2 years old. The DSL White Sox have gotten similarly ugly results from far more seasoned pitchers in the past, so at least they're trying something different this time around.

Position Players

Romero moved into a tie for second in the Dominican Summer League when he hit his sixth homer of the season on Sunday, while Vielma has the sixth-highest OBP in the DSL. Graterol didn't play over the last two weeks, as he's dealing with a lower-body injury that has interrupted the start of his season.

Pitchers

Marté continues to hold his own as a 16-year-old in the DSL, which is all the more impressive when considering the DSL White Sox as a whole are sporting a 9.21 ERA. Kelly threw one of the team's best starts back on June 9, posting four shutout innings to help lower an ERA that was 16.20 after his professional debut.

White Sox Minor Keys: June 22, 2026

ACL Mariners 14, ACL White Sox 3

• Jordan Rich went 1-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base.
• Jose Mendoza went 1-for-5 with a double and two strikeouts.
• Landon Hodge wore the golden sombrero.
• Yordani Soto replaced him his last time up and drew a walk.
• Eduardo Herrera was 2-for-3 with his first homer.
• Alejandro Cruz went 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
• Christian Oppor: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 1 WP, 1 HBP

DSL Arizona Black 16, DSL White Sox 7

• Carlos Vielma went 1-for-2 with a double and two walks.
• Felix Lebron walked twice and struck out twice.
• Sebastian Romero went 2-for-3 with a homer and a walk.
• Ronald Cardozo was 1-for-4 with a K.
• Samuel Luis was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
• Yordany Marté: 3 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 HBP