There aren't many luxuries to being an outlet that only covers the White Sox, but flexible deadlines on matters such as prospect lists are one that we indulge.
Baseball America, on the other hand, covers all 30 farm systems, and in order to generate the steady flow of content that rewards their subscriber base, they're going to publish their top-10 prospect lists in some order spanning weeks, accepting the risk that it won't resemble the organization's talent by the end of the winter.
It just so happens that BA published its top 10 White Sox prospect list by Bill Mitchell on Wednesday, a particularly perilous time considering a Garrett Crochet trade runs the risk of upending the work in short order.
If nothing else, the list provides a snapshot of one plausible ranking of the organization's talent before any influx, and the result is one that's exceptionally heavy with pitchers:
- Noah Schultz
- Colson Montgomery
- Hagen Smith
- Edgar Quero
- Drew Thorpe
- Jairo Iriarte
- Grant Taylor
- Caleb Bonemer
- Ky Bush
- Mason Adams
The list feels fairly sturdy through seven, as Thorpe, Iriarte and Taylor feel like they could occupy those three spots in any order. After that, the possibilities expand dramatically, and while that's not entirely a bad thing, it's also not what you want after consecutive 100-loss seasons, especially since Jonathan Cannon and Dominic Fletcher were the only prospects of note to shed their eligibility.
That's how you end up with a projected 2028 lineup that doesn't really project in any material sense:
Since the White Sox went through this process not that long ago, it's not hard to remember what a budding prospect list should feel like. For instance, here's Baseball America's White Sox list before the 2018 season:
- Eloy Jiménez
- Michael Kopech
- Alec Hansen
- Luis Robert Jr.
- Dane Dunning
- Zack Collins
- Jake Burger
- Blake Rutherford
- Gavin Sheets
- Dylan Cease
They didn't quite go 10-for-10 here, because Hansen turned into a tragedy, Collins didn't stick and Rutherford barely received a cup of coffee. Still, the seven other guys have had decent MLB careers, and this is the year after the White Sox graduated Yoán Moncada, Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López, along with having the fourth-overall pick the following June. While the 2018 White Sox went on to lose 100 games, the Sox had amassed enough talent that BA's projected 2021 lineup came pretty close to the real thing, given that it couldn't forecast free agent signings or draft picks:
| Projected | 2021 | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| Zack Collins | C | Yasmani Grandal |
| Gavin Sheets | 1B | José Abreu |
| Yoán Moncada | 2B | Nick Madrigal |
| Jake Burger | 3B | Yoán Moncada |
| Tim Anderson | SS | Tim Anderson |
| Eloy Jiménez | LF | Eloy Jiménez |
| Luis Robert Jr. | CF | Luis Robert Jr. |
| Avisaíl García | RF | Adam Eaton |
| José Abreu | DH | Andrew Vaughn |
Even most of the "misses" contributed in one form or another: Collins as the backup catcher, Sheets and Burger as productive DH stopgaps. García ended up getting non-tendered by the White Sox, but he ended up getting the last laugh in the form of a four-year, $53 million contract that the Marlins have already bailed on.
Going back to the current picture, readers who compartmentalize well can take solace in the pitching depth, because any list that has Taylor as the fifth-best arm is by default in excellent shape. When the major-league product is so dreadful, however, the minor-league system should be appreciated on the whole, rather than in parts, and the White Sox are nowhere close in that regard. The hope is that if and when the White Sox trade Crochet, the return will include at least one bat that eliminates Bonemer's claim to being the system's third-best position-player prospect before he even participates in one recorded professional game.
When the games start counting again, graduating players who stand a puncher's chance at becoming average MLB fixtures is the next task in line.
