The top eight top 10 White Sox prospects lists

At the point when spring training reaches peak monotony, Major League Baseball will present a welcome blast of the new.

From March 14-17, both the Cactus and Grapefruit leagues will hold Spring Breakout games featuring prominent prospects from each team. Every team will play one game, with the Reds and Cardinals playing twice (yet another reason why MLB wants to expand to 32 teams). Better yet, all of the games will be viewable in some form, whether it's the local regional sports networks, MLB.com, MLB Network or ESPN+.

The White Sox will play their Spring Breakout game against the Cubs on Friday, March 15, airing on Marquee, MLB.com and ESPN+ at 4:05 p.m. CT.

While the White Sox's roster is short on its best pitching prospects, the team has stocked the other areas with notable names.

• Pitchers: Jordan Leasure, Prelander Berroa, Mason Adams, Alex Speas, Adisyn Coffey, Johan Dominguez, Jared Kelley, Gil Luna
• Catchers: Edgar Quero, Adam Hackenberg, Michael Turner
• Infielders: Colson Montgomery, Bryan Ramos, Jacob Gonzalez, Brooks Baldwin, Tim Elko, Jason Matthews
• Outfielders: George Wolkow, Zach DeLoach, Jacob Burke, Duke Ellis, DJ Gladney, Terrell Tatum

The unveiling of these rosters coincides with MLB Pipeline releasing its top 30 prospect lists for each team, which completes the set of rankings that I stack against each other to conclude the season within the season.

One name you'll see on both is Brooks Baldwin, a prospect who's gained my attention because on top of being a reliable source of professional at-bats, he started playing shortstop on an everyday basis for the first time in either his collegiate or professional career with Winston-Salem. He's among the infielders participating on the Spring Breakout, and he ranks 24th on Pipeline's list, one spot ahead of Wilfred Veras.

Now, let's compare MLB's list against the field, led by the two-headed Sox Machine list that capped off Prospect Week:

A few takeaways:

*There is a consensus top seven. Every list has the same seven names in order ... except mine, because I ranked Wilfred Veras at No. 7. Given that Jake Eder's spring has been slowed by a (non-throwing) shoulder issue, I stand by my demand to see one (1) positive development since the Jake Burger trade before reconsidering.

*Grant Taylor has a fair amount of fans. I'm personally reserving judgment because the early returns on their previous second-round-SEC-starter-projected-for-the-first-round-before-Tommy-John-surgery (Peyton Pallette) were short of scintillating, even accounting for the standard lag in post-procedure command.

*Most of the lists came out before the White Sox traded for Dominic Fletcher, but the ones that included him had him outside the top 10 ... except me.

*Setting aside relief pitchers, whose rankings can vary based on Future Value or evaluator preference of likely MLB action, the most aggressive rankings appear to be mine on Veras, and Keith Law's on Tanner McDougal. Law liked McDougal's combination of youth and ability to spin two breaking balls well.

*As for Veras, he's produced at every one of his four stateside stops, even including the Project Birmingham cameo thrust upon him as a 19-year-old in 2022. He moves way better on the bases than I expected, and I'd like to think that'll translate to the outfield at some point to support an arm that plays in right. That just leaves the enormous strikeout-to-walk canyon that'll almost assuredly sink him, but given that he just turned 21 in November, he has more time than most to figure out something that works. And if that happens, I'll look like the smartest man alive.

*As for Montgomery, we should probably acknowledge the consensus No. 1 prospect, so make sure you read James Fegan's story about how the Prospect Promotion Incentive could impact the timing of his eventual call-up.

White Sox international update

When I asked Chris Getz last month about diversifying their international amateur attack from a previous focus on paying high prices for older and more advanced Cuban talent, he talked about still wanting to maintain the team’s presence on the island. At the time it wasn’t exactly clear how they could split the difference between becoming competitive in other markets and committing their bonus pools to the Oscar Coláses and Yoelqui Céspedi of the world, but reporting from Francys Romero now makes the solution seem obvious.

As far as scouting reports for 17-year-old signed on the international market go, the outlines provided usually are based in “this is what it would look like if everything clicks,” and the high failure rate and imprecision in projecting teenagers is simply implied. I mean, look at that picture. We’re a ways away from Chicago here.

But Cruz currently is listed as a six-foot-three, 180-pound third baseman, where his throwing arm is hoped to be an asset. With that frame, the Sox have hope he can mature to 25-homer raw power. With some experience and polish from playing on the Cuban national team circuit, the team sees the seeds of a plate approach that will help him get to that pop, and maybe progress a bit more steadily than his age might indicate.

We will see.

-- James Fegan

Romero also relayed two more signings that can be added to the current class: Dominican shortstop Jheancarlos Mendez ($280,000) and Panamanian catcher Álvaro Ríos ($50,000).

Also, Romero later provided a picture of Cruz that makes him look less like a sixth-grader who just got back from a family vacation to Camelback Ranch on spring break, and more like a ballplayer.

Given the White Sox's pre-Paddy history in this area, you can never be too sure.