2024 DSL White Sox season review

Last year's White Sox Dominican Summer League team was a pleasant surprise. They finished 32-22 thanks to one of the league's best offenses, powered by breakout performances from Javier Mogollón, Adrian Gil, Abraham Núñez, Stiven Flores, and others who kept the line moving.

The success didn't exactly translate stateside. Mogollón remains highly intriguing, even though the introduction of a big honkin' leg kick threw off his contact numbers during the first half of the Arizona Complex League season, while Núñez and Gil had respectable showings in the ACL, but nobody looks ticketed for immediate success in Kannapolis next season.

The 2024 DSL White Sox had a bottom-third offense that scored nearly two fewer runs per game than its predecessor, including an offense that lost 50 points of OBP and 80 points of slugging. The pitching struggled just as much, allowing more runs per game than all but three teams in a league that has 51 of team.

The solace, if there's any, is that even remarkable performances aren't guaranteed to carry over to the next level. But Chris Getz came into the job hinting at needed changes to the international program, and this performance validates his concerns, whether it's about the evaluators, coaching staff or facilities.

While all of these numbers fail to impress -- except the age, where it's good to be lower -- they also struggled to supplement their lack of extra-base power with the running game. They were successful on just 58 of 94 stolen-base attempts. That success rate of 61.7 percent was by far the worst in the DSL, which stole bases on the whole at a 75.4 percent clip.

The DSL White Sox were tied for the fourth-youngest pitching staff in the league, but the same could be said for last year's team. Yordany Chirinos and Luis Reyes both survived in the ACL after leading last year's DSL team, but it's been a while since the White Sox have produced a pitching prospect from the international side. The collapse of Norge Vera still looms large, but perhaps one pitcher in particular listed below will be able to change that.

Hitters

Eduardo Herrera: The White Sox's $1.8 million signing struggled in his professional debut, hitting .197/.323/.250 with 44 strikeouts over 159 plate appearances. He provided all of the fielding issues for somebody who might be too big to stick at third base (16 errors in 32 games), but none of the power (zero homers, five extra-base hits in 40 games). It's probably too soon to write off a 17-year-old, but given that the White Sox cut bait on their last two non-Cuban seven-figure signings rather swiftly, this would be the kind of start that leads to such an abrupt ending.

Jurdrick Profar: Profar, the $660,000 signing out of Curaçao and brother of Jurickson, had the most productive season of any position player on the DSL White Sox, hitting .264/.397/.390 with 11 doubles, three homers and 31 walks against 43 strikeouts over 194 plate appearances. He played mostly shortstop, and his fielding percentage started with a ".9" there, so he passed that initial test.

Jesus Premoli: Premoli, an Avasaíl García-looking fellow out of Venezuela, followed in that mold by hitting for less power than his frame would suggest. He hit .219/.285/.298 with six doubles, two homers and 10 walks over 165 games, which isn't what you want from somebody who only played first base and DH. He signed for $550,000.

Christian Gonzalez: Gonzalez lived up to the billing as a top-of-the-order type by hitting .265/.395/.303 with 31 walks against a mere 17 strikeouts over 191 plate appearances, and he also played center field exclusively. He did not live up to the billing as a speedster, as he was successful in just half of his 22 stolen-base attempts.

Jehancarlos Mendez: The youngest player on the DSL roster, Mendez turned 17 in August, making his .239/.309/.290 line a little more excusable. He split time at shortstop with Profar, and handled the position with similar success, as eight errors in 29 games is pretty good for the DSL.

Pitchers

Yhoiker Fajardo: Ben Badler at Baseball America said the "arrow was pointing up" on Fajardo before the season, and the $400,000 signing out of Venezuela proved it over the course of the season. The 3.91 ERA doesn't stand out due to a few rough outings, but he also threw five shutout innings on three different occasions, and he struck out 64 batters 50⅔ innings while only walking eight. When considering age for level, it's probably the best performance by a White Sox international pitcher in the Marco Paddy era.

Orlando Suarez: Suarez also received some preseason heat for the combination of velocity and ability to spin, but while he flashed some of that talent over isolated starts, strike-throwing plagued him for more than half of the season before some improvements toward the end of the year. He ended up striking out 48 over 39⅓ innings, but 23 walks along with 50 hits made it hard to stand out. He finished the year with a 6.41 ERA.

Angel Bello: Bello had the second-best season of the DSL White Sox's full-season starters, striking out 41 batters to 10 walks over 41 innings, even if it just resulted in a 5.71 ERA. He turned 18 during the season, which is perhaps why he didn't sign for a bonus worth reporting.

Jeziel Boukhoudt: The second noteworthy Curaçao signing ($55,000) of the class last pitched on July 1, when he worked around four walks to throw three shutout innings. That limited him to just 11⅓ innings on the season, so that probably doesn't bode well for his future.

Alexandre Valdiviezo: The youngest pitcher on the roster -- he doesn't turn 18 until next June -- he was able to get by on less-than-stellar peripherals until the end of the season, when he allowed eight runs over one inning spread out over his final two outings. His ERA spiked from 2.19 to 7.43, and he ended up allowing a line of .351/.456/.649 over his 13⅓ innings.