Sometimes you can tell the shape of a White Sox farm system by the length and tone of this Prospect Week post, which typically covers prep prospects or international signings who haven't made it out of complex ball.
Generally speaking, it's good news when you need (at least) two hands to count them, and you're reserving firmer judgment until you can see them regularly on MiLB.tv livestreams, because otherwise you're just scouting the state line.
Last year, only four prospects qualified, and only one of them produced at a level that maintained intrigue. The others were supposed to have offered more, but the results were missing. Sure enough, the White Sox already released one of them (Victor Quezada).
The quantity and quality of this year's young(-for-level) cluster is moving in the right direction, and so is the White Sox's farm system as a whole.
Tanner McDougal
The son of a former pitcher (no, not that Mike MacDougal) and longtime pupil of former big leaguer Josh Towers, McDougal earned a overslot bonus despite having his senior year of high school truncated by COVID-19, thanks to a great showing at the MLB Draft Combine. Because it was a showcase environment with Rapsodo data everywhere, the headlining act was a breaking ball that eclipsed 3,000 RPM as much as the flashes of mid-90s heat.
Tommy John surgery felled McDougal shortly after his pro debut and resigned him to the team complex for all of 2022. His full-season 2023 assignment at Kannapolis always was destined for a double dose of wonkiness, with the post-TJ drag on command and the traditional challenge of a 20-year-old handling full-season ball for the first time.
McDougal walked 43 batters in 69⅓ innings, accumulated over 21 starts. If you were on the bus before this season, you might have contemplated the point you’ll have to get off, but McDougal didn’t give a reason just yet. His last two months looked better than his first, and a 26.7 percent strikeout hints at the raw stuff being worth the wait. If this always read as a ceiling play with a healthy amount of risk, McDougal is a very filled-out 6-foot-5 and not projectible for a big physically-driven jump in stuff or command.
Ryan Burrowes
Having a high probability of sticking at shortstop is a very valuable quality. If paired with the elite swing decisions of a Colson Montgomery, it’s the basis of a case for being the best prospect in the game. Unfortunately Burrowes’ stateside debut laid bare that his swing decisions currently linger on the lower side of viability.
But fellow Panamanian Marco Paddy has oft-emphasized that prospects from his home country have had fewer baseball reps than the average Dominican academy graduate. While the 19-year-old’s Rule 5 eligibility clock might be ticking, time is generally on his side. His defensive home provides a high floor, and Burrowes’ broad shoulders still suggest a power potential that would make any plate discipline games handsomely rewarded.
Ronny Hernandez
In the Prospect Week post covering the most recent international signing debuts, we mentioned that Stiven Flores’ hot start has been seen before among the White Sox’s 17-year-old catchers. Cautiously, we referenced Manuel Guariman’s follow-up season as a reason to check enthusiasm, but Hernandez is a reason to keep an open mind.
Hernandez followed up his display of patience and power in the DSL in 2022 (.268/.333/.526) with an even better performance in his stateside debut (.338/.430/.493), and he made every non-DH start behind the plate. The White Sox promoted him, along with Burrowes and George Wolkow, to Kannapolis at the end of the year, to preview the A-ball life while on the developmental list.
Hernandez’s defense is the bigger concern, and reflects the gap in talent – and maybe official scoring – between the DSL and complex leagues ...
| Year | GS | Inn | PB | SB/CS | CS% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 28 | 222 | 4 | 24/25 | 51.0 |
| 2023 | 27 | 216.2 | 12 | 33/10 | 23.3 |
... but if Hernandez only wore a catcher’s mitt in the ACL, it’s a sign that the Sox have no designs on moving him elsewhere at this point. If that's the only question so far through one DSL season and one ACL season at age 19, he's doing pretty well.
Erick Hernandez
The whole hope with Hernández is that he would serve as the start of the White Sox regularly taking high-level shots on Dominican teenage talent. He represented the organization first seven-figure IFA investment from the island since Josue Guerrero.
If only the Josue Guerrero parallels ended there. Hernández was originally scouted as hit over power, with a likely developmental track to wind up power over hit at maturity. So far, neither side is doing too much lifting, the Sox have indicated he’s been less than fully healthy in compiling Elijah Tatis-level numbers, and scouts are delivering a general message of “nothing to see here” at the moment.
Earnestly, hopefully they keeping taking shots on prospects like Hernández. Hopeful they proceed a bit differently.
Aldrin Batista
Maximo Martinez
If things are really going to change under the Chris Getz administration, Marco Paddy and the White Sox’s international team will be allowed to use the entirety of their international bonus pool, rather than only using some and trading what’s left to teams with more ambition. At least the White Sox didn’t use it to save money on a buyout. Instead, when they sent $1 million of international space for the Dodgers this past August, they acquired a pair of rookie-ball righties with live arms.
Batista, 20, is a year older, but also a level ahead. He struck out 54 batters over 39 innings for Los Angeles’ ACL affiliate. The White Sox then sent him to Kannapolis after the trade, where he posted encouraging early returns (26 baserunners, 21 strikeouts over 23⅔ innings). He’s also allowed just two homers over his pro career to date, which is evidence of his mid-90s sinker.
Martinez, 19, brings even more velocity to a relief profile, but Eric Longenhagen says elbow injuries have kept him from getting escape velocity from complex ball.
Juan Carela
Carela turned 22 in December and has nearly 300 professional innings to his name, so he stands apart from the rest of this group both in terms of age and experience. But he’s new to the White Sox after they acquired him in the Keynan Middleton trade, though, and he smoothly moved from one Sally League affiliate to another, finishing the year with 136 strikeouts against 43 walks over 115⅔ innings. It’s the second consecutive productive, age-appropriate season, and his control improved from one to the other.
He sits in the low-90s, but can manipulate a fastball with four-seam, two-seam and cut offerings, so it’s probably more polish than low-minors hitters are used to seeing. Assuming he moves up to Birmingham, Double-A hitters should test his pitchability.
