In a bit of top pitching prospect musical chairs, word broke early Saturday morning that Hagen Smith and Tanner McDougal were getting the call to the South Side, with fellow rookies Noah Schultz and David Sandlin heading down to Charlotte.
White Sox sources confirmed the news to multiple outlets, with Future Sox first getting the news out.
While not the impetus for the moves, they couldn’t come at a better time for a depleted White Sox bullpen, whose fatigue was further exacerbated on Friday night when manager Will Venable missed Zach Bove’s mound visit four batters into the game and trotted out to chat with Schultz after a two-run single, forcing the lefthander’s early exit. Despite throwing just 23 pitches, Schultz is burned for the next four days, and Sandlin had thrown just 18 ⅓ innings since June 26 while battling minor injury (he tossed 96 on Friday night in emergency relief of Schultz).
Smith, the No. 2 prospect in the White Sox system per MLB, and McDougal (N0. 4), both are starting pitchers but have taken on reduced workloads in 2026 due to injuries.
Smith struggled through a shoulder impingement that sidelined him from mid-June to mid-July, but holds a 1.43 ERA in six games out of the Knights pen since his return.
McDougal’s injury woes were more dire, as the righthander went from ticketed for a quick call-up to the South Side starting rotation to forearm soreness just a month into the season that evoked fears of a second, looming TJS. Returning to action a couple of weeks before Smith in Charlotte, the fireballer has had a rougher go, sporting a 4.39 ERA over 12 games out of the pen since his return.
In what turns out to be some cheeky foreshadowing, GM Chris Getz all but promised the duo would be promoted before season’s end during his pregame press gaggle on Friday.
“[Smith and McDougal] are pitching well out of the bullpen,” Getz said. “We anticipate that they will be helping us at some point. We don’t know exactly when. But those guys are transitioning well.”
As opposed to the piggyback arrangement planned with Schultz and Sandlin — Sandlin in fact was expected to take over from Schultz mid-game on Friday and close it out, sparing a pen that had seen seven of eight arms spent in the marathon loss in Boston on Thursday — neither Smith nor McDougal will be assuming a rotation spot. As Erick Fedde presumably resumes the rotation role that Luis Castillo booted him from for a turn, the two newest White Sox will provide high-octane relief in doses not deeper than two innings.
While 0% of Sox brass and fans would anticipate Friday being Schultz’s last taste of the majors, what a tragic finale it would be if so: 23 pitches to earn one out, two runs on his ledger, and an accidental hook from a manager too prior consumed with a possible challenge to realize he was removing his young starter from the game.
After a shaky MLB debut on April 13, Schultz ran off three straight stellar starts (and his first two MLB wins) that made it appear he might make as much mincemeat of the majors as Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski. Yet Schultz then set on a season-long slump that abated only briefly, in a bulk starter effort (five innings, one run) on August 1 in St. Petersburg. His season line as he heads for a re-set in Charlotte is a 3-9 record, 6.06 ERA, 1.423 WHIP and -0.4 WAR.
Sandlin, unlike first-rounder Schultz an 11th round diamond in the rough, has struggled similarly, albeit in less time: five games (three starts), 6.93 ERA, 1.398 WHIP, -0.4 WAR. The righty has been more hot-and-cold in his debut season, with two stellar starts spaced a month apart, and now pads his frequent flier miles in being sent back to Charlotte for a third time this year.
McDougal is on the 40-player roster, but Smith is not, necessitating a move to open space on the maxed list. It would appear that a DFA looms for a Tyler (Gilbert or Davis, both currently at Triple-A Charlotte), although another possibility for release includes outfielder Junior Perez. If Joey Bart’s hand fracture is such that his initial prognosis of a monthlong absence was too optimistic, or if Chris Murphy’s left flexor strain portends surgery, either player could be shifted to the 60-day IL to provide a DFA dodge in adding Smith.
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