White Sox pitching coordinator Matt Zaleski gets a lot of questions about Noah Schultz these days. We could probably prepare a checklist to run through:
- He's been 94-96 mph, topping out at 97 mph in live BPs of recent, with ease of delivery standing out.
- There's no set decision on his affiliate assignment yet, but Zaleski acknowledged Schultz could probably succeed at High-A Winston-Salem.
- The target for this season is for him to accumulate 65-80 innings pitched, beginning with short outings reminiscent of last year's professional debut and ideally ramping up gradually.
Zaleski refers to 65-80 innings as the typical 'year after Tommy John surgery rehab' workload for starting prospects, which may raise an eyebrow since Schultz has obviously not had TJ. But a forearm strain and shoulder impingement bookended Schultz accumulating 27⅓ innings last season. Zaleski explained that while the typical year-to-year workload bump for a starter prospect would be 20-25 innings, they want to see more from Schultz while remaining cognizant that he's pitched very sparingly each of the last two summers. But 65-80 innings doesn't register as too big of a stretch since, as established, it's what they expect for guys coming off TJ who have not pitched at all the previous year.
"As things start to build toward the end of the season and he's feeling good at least in July and August, hopefully shoot for five innings [in a start]," Zaleski said. "Probably not going to push him past that."
Schultz's talent level can steer the conversation toward major league proximity and ramping up his workload to be in line with a 30-start campaign, but there are still points where it sounds like we're discussing a more typical 20-year-old in A-ball. Zaleski said a big development this spring is the left-hander bringing more intensity in mid-week catch play, so that his starts are less of a jarring and stressful jump in effort level. They're having initial conversations about his attack plans to righties -- a lot of low and away, backdoor sliders, going upstairs when they do go inside -- and figuring how to build up reps of using his changeup.
When anyone has two plus pitches in A-ball, or is overwhelming hitters who can't adjust to their fastball, incorporating a developing changeup can be difficult. Zaleski doesn't want Schultz to think in terms of using it behind in the count, or necessarily using it over his dominant slider as a putaway pitch, but more neutral early-count situations to see if he can land it for a strike, or induce a quick ground ball that can extend his outings.
"His stuff is so good, you can get away with a 1-1 changeup and still be able to go slider or sinker and with his stuff, not have any issues with it," Zaleski said. "Lefties are what, 10-15 percent of the pitching population? To be a 6-7, 6-8 lefty and throw from a weird [low] slot, that's just added deception and something hitters aren't used to seeing."
Later in the conversation, Zaleski pointed to Mason Adams' ability to tightly mirror his release point, arm slot and hand position on all four of his pitches for how he was able to surprise everyone last season and emerge from the 13th round of the 2022 draft to be one of the most productive arms in the Sox system. With Schultz, scouts have noted his slider and fastball release point can differ a bit, but obviously not enough to affect his results.
"Somebody a lot smarter than I [has the exact number], but I always say if there's a four-to-five-inch difference from release height and release side, from one pitch to the other, the hitters may be able to pick up like the difference. But if it's three inches or within that window, it's too challenging to pick up with the velocity that some of these kids are throwing it."
Schultz is certainly throwing it hard enough.
Jared Kelley's new (old) arm slot
When Kelley first hit pro ball after signing for $3 million out of the 2020 draft, some of the early scouting returns were that his fastball played below its plus velocity because of its shape. The White Sox were clearly aware of this and tried to alter Kelley's delivery to produce traditional four-seam ride. But 127 walks in 165⅓ career professional innings later, Kelley is shifting back to a motion he can hopefully repeat better. It's in keeping with a theme of White Sox camp with the arrival of Brian Bannister, where there's an emphasis on pitchers embracing the throwing motion that feels most natural to them physically.
"It wasn't necessarily his slot that crept up. he just had massive trunk tilt to the left to try and create a four-seam with some vert and it just never really happened," Zaleski said. "Now it's getting him back to where he was when we drafted him and why we drafted him."
Back to where Kelley was throwing in high school is a lot more across his body, but since the Sox already moved him to the bullpen last season, they're inclined to let him embrace where he feels comfortable repeating and throwing strikes. Much of the 22-year-old's work in pro ball has been focused on developing a slider to match his "gross" changeup, but for now Zaleski just wants him to play to his strengths, try to sink his fastball and occasionally expand the zone with low and away sliders to righties when the occasion offers it.
"That was a pretty easy conversation with Jared," Zaleski said of the switch, which has been aided by Kelley showing up to camp slimmed down and moving more easily. "Right now we're keeping him at 2-3 inning roles and if we need to bump up innings to help us start, so be it. But I think he's a guy that can come in and throw hard sinkers for an inning or two and help a major league club at some point."
Jake Eder's footwork
The limited nature of Eder's strike-throwing history and the limited nature of strike-throwing for pitchers right after Tommy John surgery is such that him walking the park upon arrival from the Marlins last summer was not the big issue, as grating as the experience might have been. That his velocity and the power in his fastball didn't return, dipping from mid-to-high 90s before the surgery to low-to-mid 90s afterward is what has raised questions on whether the front-of-rotation ceiling for the 25-year-old left-hander is still accessible.
The White Sox have maintained since last year that Eder's troubles lay in his lower half, where a host of inefficiencies in his hips and posture needed to be addressed before final judgment should be rendered. Zaleski has been focused on a couple cues on the ground this spring to get Eder's leg drive in the right place.
"We got him in the lab and he was opening his front foot early. That was the biggest low-hanging fruit," Zaleski said. "Keeping his front foot and his front leg closed more as far as landing and riding down the mound, when that cleaned up he was throwing harder and throwing more strikes. That's one of his big cues, keeping that front foot closed, keeping his landing foot closed and not letting his lower half open up too early. But arm slot-wise, I'm pretty happy where he's at. He's at a unique 5-foot-7 release height and can get some swings and misses."
Closing off Peyton Pallette
In his first season off of Tommy John surgery rehab and also his first professional season, Pallette walked 12.8 percent of hitters at Low-A Kannapolis in 2023. It was both not unexpected given the challenge he was facing, and grounds to place the causes under a microscope. Zaleski compared Pallette a bit to Kelley, in the sense that he worked across his body a bit at Arkansas while throwing more strikes, and tapping into some of that motion could have benefits.
"We took him and got him -- not to the extent of Jared -- but landing a little bit more closed," Zaleski said. "It has increased his velo, he's throwing a lot of strikes. He looked really sharp throwing an intersquad the other day and really was just kind of was abusive to the hitters. He was 0-2 or 1-2 to every hitter and it was four quality pitches. Curveball, changeup were exceptional. Fastball was good and he threw a couple backdoor sliders to lefties, which was really nice to see."
Pallette's curveball is a high-spin offering that looks like his highest quality pitch on its own, but will work best if he can set it up visually with heaters commanded above the belt. Working ahead more to place hitters in a dicier spot trying to identify the curve out of Pallette's hand is hopefully the key to a major step forward for the still 22-year-old right-hander.
