Taken in the third round last year as a polished college performer but lacking big-time physical projection, Kyle Lodise was sent straight to High-A after last year's draft.
With a new draft now in the books, bridge league games kicking off in Arizona on Thursday, and college players likely making their way to affiliates soon, Lodise remains in Winston-Salem; long after watching former Dash teammates Anthony DePino, Colby Shelton, Boston Smith, Caleb Bonemer, and now Ryan Burrowes progress to Birmingham without him.
Despite that distinction, the 22-year-old middle infielder has plenty of positives to reel off about his 2026 progress. Handed the green light he was never fully afforded in college ball, Lodise already has 30 stolen bases (in 37 attempts) on the season. He heaps credit upon Dash bench coach Tyler Coolbaugh for their work together on defense. As an undersized player, Lodise has been coached all his life to play as downhill as possible at all times to cut the distance on his throws, and Coolbaugh has been instrumental in instructing him to read hops with more nuance.
"The biggest thing for me is I would almost automatically make my decision too early to just run toward the ball and try and kill it," Lodise said. "Especially with how hard these guys hit it in pro ball and just how quick the playing surfaces, a lot of times you make that decision too early and you run yourself into some bad hops and don't give yourself enough time to read the play."
He's also helped Lodise adjust to playing second base for the first time ever, which was originally to accommodate shortstop reps for Bonemer, recently was part of his split with Burrowes, but could become his full-time spot if he's still around Winston-Salem whenever Roch Cholowsky arrives. The ideal plan would be for Lodise to not be around anymore when that happens, but the plan was for Lodise's patient approach and hit tool to carry him to the majors, and instead he's a .204/.352/.389 hitter in 105 career games at the High-A level.
"Truth be told, I still don't think to this point I feel super comfortable mechanically in the box," Lodise said. "That just speaks to what the future holds, potential-wise. There's still a lot of room for growth."
Lodise has played like someone with the gift of above-average contact ability against fastballs. After playing last year with his weight in the low-170s, he reported to spring at 189 and this writeup comes in the wake of Lodise hitting three home runs in the past two days to put himself at a dozen round-trippers for the season. But the source of his turmoil is stride length in his swing, which hampers ability to hold up on and adjust to breaking balls.
"I forget what the crazy number was, but I had one of the longest strides in all of minor league baseball," Lodise said. "With the 5'11" frame that I have, there's a lot of extra movement, extra slop in the swing. You have to be so perfect with that much extra movement and length. The second thing was keeping my upper half a little bit more upright, which gives me just a little bit more space, because I was crashing a little bit while getting that lower half long.
It's just cleaning those things up and just trying to be repeatable and consistent in the box. It gives you a lot more room for error."
Even if the change in stride length is difficult to parse from the center field camera angle, the more upright posture Lodise is discussing is impossible to miss.
Lodise readily calls himself a late bloomer, having played two years of Division II baseball before Georgia Tech came calling for his junior season. He views that experience as beneficial to his baseball survival skills. So if anyone is suited to keep their head when the immediate results don't come, and an organization addicted to shortstops floods the farm system with rivals for minor league playing time, it would be him.
So while you'd be forgiven for not including Lodise in any projections for the 2028 White Sox infield, he still thinks his time is coming.
"There's a lot left in the tank," Lodise said. "I think that we're a lot closer right now, definitely than when we started."
Charlotte 7, Norfolk 4
- Austin Hays went 2-for-5 with a homer and two strikeouts.
- Everson Pereira was 1-for-4 with a homer.
- Ryan Galanie, 1-for-3 with a sac bunt.
- Duncan Davitt: 3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HR, 22 of 37 pitches for strikes.
Montgomery 6, Birmingham 1
- Boston Smith was 0-for-3 with an HBP and a strikeout.
- Caleb Bonemer returned from his beaning, going 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Anthony DePino returned to the starting lineup from his HBP, going 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout. He was also caught stealing for the first time in 17 professional attempts.
- Colby Shelton was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Samuel Zavala reached 10 homers for the first time in three years in the White Sox org, along with a walk and a strikeout.
- Pierce George: 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 14 of 24 pitches for strikes.
Greensboro 12, Winston-Salem 9
- Ryan Burrowes' last game in High-A for a while: 1-for-5 with a double and two strikeouts.
- Jeral Perez went 0-for-3 with a walk and a sac fly.
- Kyle Lodise homered twice, finishing 2-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Ben Hartle went 1-for-2 with a walk, HBP and stolen base.
- Seth Keener: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, 16 of 25 pitches for strikes.
Kannapolis 4, Columbia 3 (10 innings)
- Jaden Fauske went 1-for-5.
- Billy Carlson was 1-for-4 with a double and a strikeout.
- Javier Mogollon's last game in Kannapolis for a while: 2-for-5 with a double and two strikeouts.
- Matthew Boughton pinch-ran and scored.
- Nick McLain was 1-for-5 with two strikeouts.
- Christian Gonzalez doubled twice, singled and struck out.
