White Sox 2024 Affiliate Preview: ACL White Sox

7:00 AM CDT on May 7, 2024

White Sox prospect George Wolkow — George Wolkow (Freek Bouw/Four Seam Images)

Although this current iteration of the Chicago White Sox might make you wish it were June, don't let this Arizona Complex League season preview fool you.

In a change announced in February, the rookie ball seasons were bumped up one month. Instead of running from early June through late August, the ACL and FCL seasons started on Friday, and will conclude on July 25. There's a little more urgency to get these players games that count now that teams have to pay players for their time in extended spring training, but it'll rob the newest draft picks of an opportunity for the standard short-season introduction. They'll instead report to something resembling extended spring training, which will make it harder to track the early returns of picks who don't advance to Low-A.

The ACL White Sox schedule opened on Monday against the Padres, and you can check out the box score below the following rundown of players from which they'll construct lineups and pitching schedules.

ACL White Sox Coaching Staff

Manager: Danny Gonzalez
Hitting coach: Gerardo Olivares
Assistant hitting coach: Mike Gellinger
Pitching coach: Jacob Dorris

It's a staff full of holdovers except for Dorris, who joined the White Sox after serving as a coach for the Houston Astros for four years, followed by five seasons with the Mets as a pitching analyst.

Pitchers of note

(*denotes rehab list assignment)

It's hard to separate starters from relievers when players are rehabbing or building up professional workloads for the first time. Burke is supposedly throwing in games after missing most of last year with a shoulder injury, and not appearing in big-league camp for spring training, while the Rule 5 pick Drohan is throwing live BPs. Capping off the rehabbing pitchers, Vera is not yet throwing.

Then you have the intriguing draft picks with short track records. LaCombe is only the second Frenchman to be selected in the MLB Draft, when the White Sox selected him in the 12th round after a successful year in an Arizona junior college. Oppor, a fifth-round pick out of a Florida junior college, is a hard-throwing lefty from Wisconsin who got the start for the ACL season opener, so there's one answer for who's getting the priority for innings. Taylor, the White Sox's second-round pick out of LSU, will use the ACL as a tune-up in his recovery from Tommy John surgery, but if all goes well, he should spend a lot more time in Kannapolis.

Reyes was the White Sox's biggest international pitcher signing in the previous year's class, and while he got roughed up as a starter, he ended up enjoying some DSL success in long relief, so he built up a workload all the same. Martinez was acquired by the White Sox from the Dodgers for international pool money along with Aldrin Batista, who's been throwing well in Kannapolis. Martinez already has more than 30 ACL innings under his best over the last two years, so it's an important year for him.

Pitchers not (yet) of note

The bulk of these pitchers haven't yet distinguished themselves by age, performance, profile or level of investment. Chirinos had a decent season with the DSL White Sox as a 17-year-old, and he just turned 18 three days ago, so happy birthday. Daniel González allowed more runs (11) than hits (eight) over 19⅔ innings last year. As you might imagine, walks were a problem.

Imhoff and Jacobs give the White Sox some practice working on the mechanics for the very tall, and on each side. The 6-foot-8-inch Imhoff is a lefty who will be making his pro debut after the White Sox drafted him in the 18th round and signed him for $150,000 last year, while Jacobs is a 6'9" undrafted free agent out of North Dakota State University who managed to pitch in five games last year. Beutel, Hammer and Stivors are all on the rehab list.

Catchers

Every year, it seems like the DSL White Sox roster has one catcher with surprising production, and Flores was that guy last year, hitting .391/.456/.477 with 15 walks against seven strikeouts over 37 games last year, which is impressive for a 17-year-old who signed for $250,000. The only question is whether he's more like Ronny Hernández (who has advanced relatively smoothly stateside) or Guariman, who hasn't produced much in two tries at the ACL.

Hernandez figures to be the other guy getting the bulk of the playing time behind the plate. He signed for $500,000 out of Venezuela and hit .232/.436/.304 over 21 games, with twice as many walks (16) as strikeouts (eight). Gonzalez is an organizational catcher on the rehab list, and the undrafted free agent Tamez went 0-for-16 over four games in his pro debut.

Infielders

Burrowes finished last season on Kannapolis' developmental list after a decent stateside debut at 18 (.260/.330/.386), which reflects some level of organizational belief. Narrowing the strikeout-to-walk ratio is the first item of business. He should get the priority assignment in the middle infield with Mogollon, who hit .315/.417/.582 with 10 homers, 10 doubles and 11 stolen bases in the DSL last year as a 17-year-old who signed for just $75,000. Gil joined Mogollon in providing surprising production at the same age, and for only five figures. He hit .340/.481/.517 while splitting time between first and third. Tejada signed a bigger bonus than either ($350,000), but wasn't as impressive in his first stab at professional ball in the DSL. Rodriguez and Borrero round it out, but they've already had varying levels of exposure to the ACL.

Outfielders

Wolkow, the Downers Grove native who draws comparisons to Aaron Judge for standing an athletic 6'7", fared decently in the ACL for an enormous 17-year-old with limited reps against such competition, but the project of turning him into a viable upper-levels hitter is as sizable as he is. Nunez signed for $700,000 and lived up to the initial billing, hitting .299/.427/.442 with 33 walks against 22 strikeouts over 44 games, most of which were played in center field.

There's a gap, and then there's Hernandez, whose sluggish debut in the DSL in 2022 carried over to the ACL in 2023 (.146/.295/.210). At least he hasn't discouraged the White Sox from investing seven figures in subsequent traditional teenage international propsects. Prado also returns to the ACL after a quiet age-18 season last year while Aguero will get his third crack at ACL pitching, although he did play in five games for Kannapolis earlier this season. Alsinois will finally play stateside after two productive, OBP-oriented seasons in the DSL, posting a .282/.400/.408 line over 78 games.

White Sox Minor Keys: May 6, 2024

ACL Padres 5, ACL White Sox 4 (7 innings)

Javier Mogollon struck out all four times in his stateside debut.
George Wolkow also wore the golden sombrero.
Abraham Nunez went 0-for-4 with one strikeout.
Ryan Burrowes was 3-for-3 with a walk at the plate, and 1-for-2 on the basepaths.
Adrian Gil went 2-for-2 with a walk.
Angelo Hernandez went 1-for-3 with a strikeout.
Christian Oppor: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K, 1 HBP
Jordany Chirinos had a debut to forget: 0 IP, 0 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB< 0 K, 1 WP