White Sox Minor Keys: July 31, 2026

White Sox farm director Paul Janish is in St. Petersburg to announce the initial affiliate assignments for Roch Cholowsky & Friends, but since the team's transaction wire listed a whole bunch of draft picks heading to Kannapolis and Cholowsky wasn't one of them, there's a leading assumption as to where the No. 1 pick will be opening his professional career.

Thus far, the White Sox have added outfielders Clay Burdette (seventh round), Braden Holcomb (12th) and Crew McChesney (17th) along with first baseman/wealth management firm Grayson Fitzwater to the Cannon Ballers roster.

In order to integrate the newest draft picks into the system, the White Sox made room with good and bad news. For slugging .639 with 14 homers over 40 games in Winston-Salem, large left fielder James Taussig was rewarded with a promotion to Double-A, his third level of the season. Nick McLain will take his place with the Dash, which is less reflective of his Kannapolis production (.226/.356/.330), and more prompted by the idea that a college bat taken in the third round three drafts ago should be in High-A by now. His back has had other ideas.

On the less fortunate side of the coin, the White Sox also cleared space by releasing Eddie Park, Adam Fogel, Brenden Dixon, Adrian Gil and Nathan Archer. Fogel had the potential be a fascinating story, as he was a 27-year-old indy-ball home run king who opened the season hitting .291/.339/.600 in Birmingham, his first-ever taste of affiliated play. Alas, he pulled a hamstring at the end of April, suffered a setback in his first attempt at returning in late May, and didn't get healthy enough to return to Birmingham until the last week or so. In terms of intriguing power exploits from players acquired from outside the draft, Taussig effectively takes his place.

Nashville 4, Charlotte 2

• Rikuu Nishida was 0-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout.
• Austin Hays went 1-for-5 with a double and a strikeout.
• Ryan Galanie was 1-for-3 with a homer, HBP and strikeout.
• David Sandlin: 3.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 36 of 61 pitches for strikes.
• Hagen Smith: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 9 of 13 pitches for strikes.

Birmingham 7, Chattanooga 6

• Boston Smith went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.
• Caleb Bonemer wore the golden sombrero.
• Anthony DePino was 0-for-4.
• Colby Shelton, 1-for-4 with two strikeouts and a stolen base.
• Ryan Burrowes went 0-for-2 with a walk and a sac fly.
• Samuel Zavala, 0-for-3.
• Juan Carela: 3 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR

Winston-Salem 14, Brooklyn 4

• Javier Mogollón singled and struck out four times.
• Nick McLain's High-A debut: 2-for-3 with three walks.
• George Wolkow punctuated his 2-for-5 day with a grand slam, along with a walk and a strikeout.
• Kyle Lodise was 1-for-6 with two strikeouts.
• Grant Umberger: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 HR, 1 HBP, 52 of 82 pitches for strikes.
• Christian Oppor: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, 11 of 15 pitches for strikes(!)

Highlights:

*Wolkow's slam had the center field camera trembling in anticipation.

Kannapolis 6, Salem 2

• Jaden Fauske returned to the lineup, going 2-for-4 with a double, walk and stolen base.
• Matthew Boughton went 1-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts.
• Billy Carlson was 0-for-4 with a K.
• Alexander Albertus, 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.
• Christian Gonzalez was 0-for-1 with two walks and a sac fly.

DSL White Sox at DSL Pirates Black Game 1, suspended
DSL White Sox at DSL Pirates Black Game 2, PPD