With all the top-end, hard-throwing prospect pitching talent set to be in the Triple-A Charlotte rotation at the start of the season, in spring it was feasible to envision the White Sox pulling off a sort of midseason line change if their major league rotation faltered.
Instead, injuries and underperformance (often driven by injury) have conspired to create a scenario where only Noah Schultz has graduated to become a White Sox rotation mainstay, but with an ERA over 6.00. Hagen Smith and Tanner McDougal are working as relievers after midseason injury layoffs, David Sandlin has been up and down between Chicago and Charlotte as a spot starter, and Jonathan Cannon has faced three major league hitters all year and walked all of them.
As a result, the line change this group seems set up to pull of is largely for itself, as a source confirmed a Future Sox report that Smith and McDougal are both being called up ahead of Saturday's game against the Cleveland Guardians, right on the heels of a Schultz-Sandlin piggyback game going sideways Friday night because of a procedural mistake made by Will Venable.
As a trade-off, the major league team has wildly over-performed, and is still leading the AL Central over the Guardians by two games, even amid a four-game losing streak. Instead of clean developmental runway for a slate of potential starters to chase their prospect ceilings, the Sox are playing games with real stakes in August.
They'll just have to grit their teeth and make the best of it, and Smith and McDougal, the team's second and fourth-best prospects per MLB Pipeline, read as exciting potential bullpen upgrades for a divisional contender that is in need of a jolt.
"They are pitching well out of the bullpen, they are," said Chris Getz on Friday afternoon, where in retrospect, he was having a lot of fun playing coy. "We anticipate that they will be helping us at some point. We don’t know exactly when. But those guys are transitioning well. It’s power stuff on both sides. I know Hagen’s case, throwing his cutter is going to be really important for him against right-handed hitters. He’s starting to utilize that in his favor.
"Trying to position these guys well; when a need arises, we’ll go and grab those guys. At this point, we feel very comfortable they are in a position that can help us, but it’s a matter of the mechanics of bringing those guys up when a need arises."
After missing a month with shoulder impingement as he toggled around with a higher arm slot, Smith has taken well to relieving upon his return, and his last five outings haven't left much room for critique. He's struck out eight while covering 5⅓ scoreless innings over that span, and allowed just two baserunners while averaging over 95 mph on his four-seamer. The former fifth-overall pick has had a choppy path to Chicago, and still has walked over 16 percent of the pro hitters he's faced, but locking down crucial innings in a playoff race could lend a new perspective to his progress.
Smith is not yet a member of the 40-man roster, which is full even after Austin Hays was officially released on Friday. His addition will require a corresponding move, which has yet to be announced.
McDougal was a crucial early turn toward the White Sox investing in prep talent in 2021, but underwent Tommy John surgery shortly after the draft and relatedly, struggled to show consistent command until a breakout 2025 campaign. He struck out 27.8 percent of hitters while running a 3.00 ERA through his first six starts at Triple-A this year, but missed two months with a flexor strain, and was fighting to find the best feel for his slider while pitching in relief for the Knights in the initial stages his return.
But McDougal has struck out six in four scoreless over his last three appearances with Charlotte, and been sitting 98 mph while doing it. Even in the wake of the Sox adding right-hander Huascar Brazobán at the trade deadline, Smith and McDougal have loomed as potential upgrades to the minors with the pure stuff quality to contribute to the Sox high-leverage mix by season's end, even if some reps and refinement are probably still necessary to earn those opportunities.
With the Sox on their worst skid of the year, their pitching staff still smarting from a 13-inning getaway night game on Thursday, in the middle of a punishing stretch of contending opponents, this is the time they chose to inject a pair of pitchers who are risky, tantalizing and needed, all at once.
