ARLINGTON, Tex. -- A source confirmed what the good people at Future Sox first reported, Noah Schultz's season-high seven strikeout performance in 5 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball on Thursday was also his Double-A finale. He's headed toward the unforgiving pitching environs of Charlotte's Truist Field, but he's also arriving several weeks shy of his 22nd birthday, so it will take a lot more speed bumps still to erase his head start.
Schultz has a 3.34 ERA in 56 2/3 innings at Double-A this year while facing almost uniformly older hitters, so no one would claim he's undeserving of a bump after 28 total starts with the Barons. But taken as a whole, this season's work still looks like a meaningful step down from 2024 in his cumulative statistics. Right-handed hitters have .889 OPS against the southpaw, and after never walking so much as seven percent of opposing hitters at any professional stop before this year, he's still at over 14 percent for 2025; spiked by 17 walks over his last 24 innings.
But after running into White Sox senior advisor to pitching Brian Bannister in the White Sox dugout in Arlington on Friday, the optimism for Schultz appears to be rooted in recent mechanical work rather than a specific statistical threshold.
"He was missing out on a little bit of seam effects just because he was spinning off a little bit toward third base," Bannister said. "Whether that was being around Hagen Smith a little bit more, or he was throwing more cutters earlier in the year and trying to shape his mechanics around executing that cutter a little bit better, but he was getting a little bit more linear, falling off toward third a little bit. We just encouraged him to be a little bit more rotational again, control his center mass, be a little bit more on balance and let that natural late movement take over. Even though the walks have been a little bit higher this last month, it's because he's kind of been reverting back."
Here is where Bannister lauds the effect of the White Sox having Hawk-Eye tracking systems at their minor league affiliates this year, which they lacked in previous seasons. Luckily, when Schultz was brought to Chicago to throw in front of top White Sox officials at last year's All-Star break, the team performed a biomechanical scan of his delivery at the time. That gave them something to compare his current Hawk-Eye data to and suggest corrections based on, but also something to evaluate Schultz's progress by other than results.
"He's in a good place and he's definitely trending back in the right direction," Bannister said. "He's young and we've explored a couple things with him, and he's explored a couple things on his own and I think we're settling into what his ideal version is, and that's the whole point of development: to get him up here, to get him ready to contribute sooner rather than later."
Durham 6, Charlotte 5
- Colson Montgomery singled twice and struck out thrice.
- Lenyn Sosa struck out thrice during an 0-for-5 night in his first rehab game.
- Peyton Pallette faced two batters, giving up a double and a walk-off single.
Montgomery 5, Birmingham 1
- Rikuu Nishida was 0-for-2 with two walks.
- William Bergolla went 1-for-4.
- Ryan Galanie and Wilfred Veras both were 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Jacob Gonzalez was 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Riley Gowens: 5.2 IP, 10 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, 2 HR, 63 of 92 pitches for strikes.
Bowling Green 8, Winston-Salem 1
- Sam Antonacci went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Jeral Perez, 1-for-4 with a K.
- Braden Montgomery was 1-for-4.
- Samuel Zavala was 0-for-3 with a sac fly and a strikeout.
- Lucas Gordon: 4 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 HBP, 51 of 84 pitches for strikes.
ACL White Sox 3, ACL Giants 2 (7 innings)
- Alexander Albertus doubled and struck out.
- Adrian Gíl was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
- Angelo Herandez was 0-for-2 with a strikeout.
- Gus Varland made a rehab appearance: 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 WP
DSL Pirates Black 10, DSL White Sox 7 (Completion of June 5 game, 7 innings)
- Christian Gonzalez went 1-for-4.
- Orlando Patiño was 1-for-3 with two walks, and was picked off.
- Frank Mieses walked in his only plate appearance.
- Eduardo Herrera went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Yordani Soto went 3-for-4 at the plate, and 1-for-2 on the basepaths.
DSL PIrates Black 9, DSL White Sox 2 (Game 2, 7 innings)
- Christian Gonzalez went 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Alejandro Cruz, 0-for-3 with a walk.
- Orlando Patiño went 1-for-4 with a K.
- Eduardo Herrera walked once and struck out twice.
- Diego Natera went 1-for-2 with a walk.
