The best baseball executive media availabilities are the ones where there's a different quote that fits into any scenario you want to believe in.
Are you extremely into that reported possibility of the White Sox signing left-hander Kruz Schoolcraft out of his commitment -- and NIL agreement -- to Tennessee? There's a quote from scouting director Mike Shirley that fits it!
"I keep really good, really close relationships with those SEC head coaches, so I have a really good feel for actually who's getting what."
Think they'll retreat to the (relative) safety of college pitching again, like Oklahoma right-hander Kyson Witherspoon? There's a quote for that too!
"Don’t get weak where you’re strong. If you have some strength, build off your strength. Don’t lose where you’re strong at."
Do you suspect the White Sox were being sincere when they emphasized high ceiling up-the-middle bats at every opportunity? Hell, that's the strength of the draft class with Billy Carlson, JoJo Parker and Steele Hall occupying plenty of the Sox's focus.
"The security of finding position players that can be special, play in the middle of the field, that’s a target for all major league teams -- that you should build your clubs that way," Shirley said. "You know I love high school players, they are always trying to calm me down in there on the high school front. I do think the strength of the draft is the high school player, the shortstops in this group. You should probably get ready for the trend of how youth baseball is being defined today with these high school players, they’re built to be special."
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In many respects, this is, once more, one of the most important White Sox drafts of a generation as they try to build a new future core. In another very specific respect, the league rule about teams not getting to pick in the top five of the draft in consecutive seasons is boxing them out of the most elite tier in this player pool.
But look at this way: The White Sox are pretty dang bad still this year, and neither the Nationals nor the Rockies will be able to compete with them for the right to pick in the top five in 2026.
"There's nothing we can do about that," Shirley said. "There's a lot of teams that will be penalized for that in next year's draft, so we'll be able to capitalize on what next year's draft looks like for some other teams. We all know where our record's at. We'll have a better chance to be picking at the top next year because some other teams will be penalized for that. We took our slap, we couldn't do it two years in a row. We'll deal with it how we best deal with it: We'll get a good player."
Shirley pointed out that the Sox do get to pick first for all the subsequent rounds in 2025, but with all the compensatory and competitive balance picks in between the first and second, their $12,169,100 draft bonus pool is the 14th-largest in MLB this year, and their second pick comes at 44th overall.
The White Sox went under slot value with Jacob Gonzalez with their first round pick in 2023 -- before getting Grant Taylor for full slot in the second -- in a move that ultimately set the White Sox up to sign George Wolkow for $1 million in the seventh round. And Shirley used the lion's share of the 2020 draft to select Jared Kelley in the second round for $3 million after getting Garrett Crochet for full slot value in the first.
Maybe it's obvious, because all picks in a draft have to be made with the larger bonus pool in mind, but Shirley spoke about the decisions at No. 10 and No. 44 in this coming draft being financially linked.
"How do you match 10 and 44 up to secure two pieces you feel strong about, from an evaluation standpoint that matches up financially," Shirley said. "If you can get 2-for-1, that's always the goal. Every organization would want to have that. We're trying to target that the best we can."
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Surely plenty of you are just curious to hear what Shirley thinks about the progression of Jac Caglianone and Cam Smith, both of whom are already in the majors -- with the latter being quite productive -- despite being selected after Hagen Smith, when the Sox system needed bats.
Shirley termed that as a function of organizational timeline, where a slower pace for Hagen Smith's development fits fine for the current state of the White Sox.
"I think it depends on your window too," Shirley said. "Kansas City with Jac, obviously he flew up there. I think they're probably in the fight right now, playoffs last year, and now in a different fight. Cam Smith, he's up there, they're in the fight. You get a young talent mixed with the Altuves of the world, that's not a bad thing. It almost depends on where your window is. Guys, Hagen Smith is really talented. He's probably good enough to pitch out here right now, but what is best for Hagen in the long term, what is best for building him to be a secure piece for us when our window is right? It's also a plan you have to take strategically for us as well. And that's Chris [Getz's] job."
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The descriptions from White Sox personnel about the progress of their research and development department would lead me to describe it as "more empowered," or "more connected to the rest of the organization," rather than large in comparison with similar departments at bigger-budget teams.
But offered the platform to discuss how the team's emphasis on infrastructure improvements have affected his work, Shirley had no time for measured praise. It's worth noting ahead of this quote, that this is the first White Sox draft with director of hitting Ryan Fuller in tow.
"When people were saying it wasn't going right, I don't think everybody could see what [Getz] was building, I don't think everybody could see the investment that he was giving to the organization, building with Jerry [Reinsdorf], really," Shirley said. "He had a great feel for where he thought the White Sox needed to get stronger and I think behind the scenes when he took the job, he knew those were the investments he needed to make, and I think he's done a great job with it.
"There's a lot of great people here. You talk about Brian Bannister and Ryan Fuller, well that's actually meant he's hired both guys to strategically look at both aspects of the game. He's invested a lot and given those guys a lot of autonomy to give us all guidance there. People always said we're behind in R&D, we're not behind. There's a lot of people, a lot of analysts, a lot of people working hard to get us right so we're not insecure there, we're very strong."
They have a chance to prove it on Sunday and Monday.