Farm Fortnight: The short seasons have ended

While Farm Fortnight usually includes games through Monday, this one includes games through Tuesday morning in order to cover the final game on the DSL White Sox's schedule. From here on out, we'll only have the four full-season White Sox affiliates to cover, although James will have some reports from the Bridge League in Arizona this week, provided the weather cooperates to allow him to get there.

While we wait for the dispatches from the desert, let's start with the honors:

Fortnight's Finest

Position player: Jeral Pérez An ugly, late, painful and unsuccessful slide jeopardized his standing, but while Pérez left Friday's game holding his hip, he returned to the lineup and finished out the series. He ended up appearing in all 12 games against Bowling Green and Asheville, hitting .419/.467/.674 with three homers and two doubles over 49 plate appearances. He's also stopped striking out, with just four K's over his last 49 plate appearances. Honorable mentions to Braden Montgomery, who made a late push on the strength of his last week alone, and Dru Baker of all people.

Pitcher: Tyler Schweitzer. If you can set aside an ugly 10 starts in Charlotte, Schweitzer's work with Birmingham has been nothing short of remarkable this season. He made three more four-inning relief appearances over the last two weeks, all piggybacking on a Tanner McDougal who is limited to three innings per start, and all of them were scoreless. In fact, he hasn't allowed a run in the 22⅔ innings he's thrown since returning to the Barons, and his Birmingham ERA is still 0.00 through 32 ⅔ innings because the only run he allowed -- in his first very first outing of the season -- was unearned.

Continuing my theme of the schedules favoring my location, I was able to catch a couple of Winston-Salem games during their series in Bowling Green, talking to manager Pat Leyland and pitching coach Blake Hickman, and then Charlotte will make its way through Nashville at the end of the month to better inform the next Fortnight's capsule. For the time being, let's look back at the last two weeks, level by level.

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Charlotte Knights

• Last two series: 3-3 @Syracuse; 1-5 vs. Memphis
• Record: 55-64 (19-25 in second half)
• Next two series: @Norfolk, @Nashville
• Individual stats

The odds were always steep against Sergio Santos being able to work his magic with the Charlotte Knights, even if you settled for a .500 season instead of a fourth postseason appearance in as many years, or a third league title.

They were able to hold their own against a Syracuse team that entered their matchup 26-7 in the second half, but they enter a fresh series losing their last five games against Memphis, and three of them in the final inning, where even arms with MLB experience like Cam Booser or Elvis Peguero failed to provide high-leverage stability. That's probably enough to push a winning record out of reach.

Because most of their DFA'd AAAA types go unclaimed -- Corey Julks and Jacob Amaya are the latest examples -- the offense remains a force; first in homers, second in OPS and fourth in runs in a 20-team league. It's not enough to offset a pitching staff that's allowing more runs than any team except Rochester, but it's enough to entertain fans at Truist Field on any given night.

Position Players

*Bryan Ramos continues to produce, hitting .276/.356/.450 with just five strikeouts to four walks over 45 plate appearances between the Syracuse and Memphis series. That's good for a .292/.361/.542 line since the All-Star break.

*Tim Elko followed up a relatively quiet series against the Mets with six rancorous games against the Redbirds. He went 9-for-23, but five of those hits left the yard, resulting in a 1.087 slugging percentage against Memphis. He's now tied for second in homers in the International League behind Bob Seymour, a fellow quintessential minor league masher who's getting his first exposure to the majors with Tampa Bay.

*Jacob Gonzalez homered in consecutive games against Syracuse, lending credence to the idea that the environment in Birmingham was making his numbers look worse than his production deserved. Then he went 3-for-19 with an uncharacteristic eight strikeouts over 25 plate appearances against Memphis, so the jury's still out. He's hitting .220/.378/.390 over his first 18 games at Triple-A.

*Will Robertson had three straight hitless games to open the Syracuse series, which is the first time that's happened to him during an otherwise charmed season. He recovered with 10 hits over his last seven games, including a couple of homers.

*Dru Baker remembered he's on the 40-man roster, and is making a late charge toward September relevance. He had his best game of the season on Saturday, going 4-for-4 with a homer and a double against Memphis, capping off a torrid 10-game stretch where he hit .395/.439/.658, and the baserunning game is coming back to him as well. The caveat is that the strikeouts have clumped up on him, so that streak was fueled by a .619 BABIP.

Pitchers

*Noah Schultz should be coming up on a return to some sort of activity if the 3-4 week timetable from his scratch on July 19 held up.

*Jairo Iriarte had a really rough stretch, giving up four homers and 10 runs (eight earned) over 2⅓ innings between the last outing of his previous fortnight, and the first two games against Syracuse. He's since recovered with a pair of decent relief appearances, but his ERA probably won't be reparable between now and the end of the season.

*Peyton Pallette got ambushed for two hits and two runs on just nine pitches against Memphis on Thursday because nearly every reliever experienced some form of ruin over the last week, but his other three appearances were scoreless, and he struck out 10 over 5⅔ innings the last two weeks on the whole.

*Wikelman González spent most of the season preventing runs despite ghastly peripherals, but regression has caught up to him. He's been scored upon in five consecutive appearances for Charlotte around his brief major league cameo in August, including three runs over three innings against Memphis, including his second home run allowed.

*Duncan Davitt looked comfortable in his Charlotte debut, but maybe because it was in Syracuse (5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K). His actual Charlotte Charlotte debut reflected more trepidation (5 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 5 BB, 1 K).

*Ben Peoples stumbled against Syracuse on Aug. 5, getting clobberd for three runs over two-thirds of an inning, but his other three outings since the Adrian Houser trade have been respectable.

Birmingham Barons

• Last two series: 3-3 vs. Chattanooga, 4-2 @Pensacola
• Record: 69-45 (31-14 in second half)
• Next two series: vs. Rocket City, vs. Knoxville
• Individual stats

The Birmingham Barons had to cool off at some point, and it speaks to their effectiveness as a team that "cooling off" is a 7-5 record over the last two weeks. They lost three straight games against Chattanooga, scoring a total of three runs, as it took them a while to figure out how to score runs without Ryan Galanie driving them in. Then they scored 20 runs over the first two games of the Pensacola series, so problem solved.

Birmingham has a 7½-game lead over Knoxville in the Southern League North standings with 24 games to play, so the head-to-head series at the end of the month will have a lot to say about whether there's an actual race. The Barons tends to find themselves in races that come down to the wire, but they'd have to make a real mess of it in order for that to happen this time around.

Position Players

*Braden Montgomery isn't homering, but he's making up for it with doubles. Lots and lots of doubles. He's riding a seven-game hitting streak and a seven-game doubles streak, going 13-for-26 with nine two-baggers, as well as an equal amount of free bases (five walks, two HBPs) and strikeouts (seven).

*Sam Antonacci isn't fazed by the Southern League. His production across the last two series (.333/.460/.436) more or less matches his Double-A line on the whole (.330/.474/.409), with a little uptick on power on the strength of a triple and two doubles. He also ranks third in all of minor league baseball with 26 HBPs, four behind Michael Arroyo, who is currently in Double-A for Seattle.

*Wilfred Veras did set a career high in walks by drawing three this past week, and some pop returned as well, with six extra-base hits over his last 11 games, including a two-homer night against Pensacola on Saturday that put him back atop the team leaderboard ... with nine. He started August 4-for-32, but a productive series against the Blue Wahoos got him out of the slump.

*DJ Gladney has been following Veras' lead all season, and it was the same for him over the past two weeks. He had little to show for his Chattanooga series (2-for-14), but more of an impact against Pensacola (7-for-27 with two homers and three doubles).

*William Bergolla has gone 28 games without an extra-base hit, so he's really testing the limits of his contact-and-defense approach to the game. He's hitting .308/.357/.308 over this time, including a weird last 11 games. He had three consecutive three-hit nights against the Blue Wahoos, followed by a pair of 0-for-5 performances, and all of his games from the last two weeks were either multi-hit affairs or 0-fers.

*Rikuu Nishida continued his hot hitting, going 7-for-19 with a rare double against Chattanooga before departing the Aug. 10 game halfway through. He's getting close to a return, although there wasn't an easily visible explanation for his injury when watching the footage, unlike...

*Ryan Galanie, who was hit in the face with a pickoff throw against Chattanooga the game before. There isn't a timetable yet for his return. It had been a nice start to the month for Galanie, who had 11 RBIs over his first eight games. He's second in all of minor league baseball with 90 RBIs, although this injury eliminates the possibility of catching up with Ryan Ward, who has 107 over 115 games with Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Pitchers

*Hagen Smith threw five innings for the first time since April against Chattanooga on Aug. 6, but five walks -- four of them in the second inning -- dampened the enthusiasm. He then only issued one walk against Pensacola, but needed 85 pitches to complete four innings while only striking out two.

*Riley Gowens, officially the last man standing from the Aaron Bummer trade after Jared Shuster was claimed by the Athletics, saw his streak of four consecutive excellent outings come to a halt against the Lookouts, as he gave up four runs on four hits and four walks over 1⅔ innings on Aug. 9, but he recovered with five shutout innings against Pensacola, and probably would've gone deeper into the game were it not for a rain delay.

*Tanner McDougal advanced past the 100-inning mark despite the three-inning cap to his starts. He reached his limit in all three starts the last two weeks, with scoreless baseball against Chattanooga followed by tougher outings against Pensacola. His combined line: 9 IP, 11 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, 1 HR.

*Tyler Schweitzer is throwing a whopping 72 percent of his pitches for strikes since coming back from Charlotte, as an addition to the remarkable feats of scorelessness noted above.

*Shane Murphy is pitching on a five-inning limit, in part because he's pitched at least five innings in 15 consecutive starts. His outing against Pensacola on Saturday was the first time in a while that he's looked vulnerable, giving up three runs on six hits, including a homer.

Winston-Salem Dash

• Last two series: 3-3 @Bowling Green; 2-4 vs. Ashville
• Record: 44-68 (19-28 in second half)
• Next two series: vs. Wilmington, @Rome
• Individual stats

The Winston-Salem Dash have been playing more respectable ball as of late, but their record is still the worst in the entire South Atlantic League by two games, limited by an offense that's held to one run every other game.

While the players who have been around the full season have improved from the first half to the second, they haven't received much of a boost from below, whether from recent draft picks or promoted players from Kannapolis. Given the fortunes of the Cannon Ballers as you'll see below, that doesn't seem likely to change, but they will at least get one reinforcement with the return of Aldrin Batista, who suffered a right elbow stress fracture in his first and only start of the season back in April.

Position Players

*Jeral Pérez started making more frequent contact in July, but as we discussed in the previous Farm Fortnight, hadn't really seen any results from more contact thanks to a .225 BABIP. Regression is starting work in his favor, as there's a .409 BABIP running under his line from the last two weeks. He's struck out just four times over 49 plate appearances during this stretch.

*Samuel Zavala followed up a standout series against Bowling Green with a quieter series against Asheville, but it balances out to .250/.362/.400, which in terms of OPS is basically what he had been doing since the start of June (.276/.388/.385). Just like Perez, he's also started putting bat to ball far more frequently, striking out just eight times over his last 18 games.

*Ryan Burrowes had his hitless streak extend to 13 at-bats with the start of the Bowling Green series, but he's collected seven hits over his last seven games, three of them doubles. He's hitting .241/.318/.328 with 10 steals in 11 attempts at High-A, which I'd consider "holding his own." Especially in comparison to, say ...

*Lyle Miller-Green, who is 8-for-56 with 24 strikeouts over his first 67 plate appearances at High-A, including a 3-for-25 showing with 10 strikeouts against Bowling Green and Asheville. He was placed on the Development List on Tuesday.

*T.J. McCants came off the Development List during the Asheville series and went 3-for-11 with a double and his first walk, so his OBP is now higher than his batting average with Winston-Salem (.216/.226/.275).

*Kyle Lodise received the most ambitious season-opening assignment of the 2025 draft class, opening his professional career in Winston-Salem. It hasn't gone well, although he did snap an 0-for-17 skid with a double on Sunday.

Pitchers

*Christian Oppor came into this season with 45 ⅔ professional innings under his belt, which is why he's being limited to four innings over the final month of the season. His combined line against Bowling Green and Asheville: 7 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K on 106 pitches.

*Lucas Gordon hasn't thrown more than four innings in any of his five starts since returning from a back issue that cost him a month, but he's built himself back up to where he's not being limited by hard innings or pitch caps. He just didn't throw efficiently against Asheville on Sunday, using 74 pitches over 3⅔ innings.

*Seth Keener continues to struggle in half of his appearances out of the bullpen. Four of his eight games have been scoreless, but control lapses in his other outings negate their existence in his line as a reliever (9.1 IP, 7 H, 13 R, 10 ER, 11 BB, 10 K, 2 HR, 2 HBP).

*Gage Ziehl came into the organization from the Austin Slater trade with a reputation as a strike-thrower, and he's done that, walking just two of the 49 batters he's faced. The rest of the results from his first three starts with Winston-Salem have yet to fall into line (9.1 IP, 17 H, 13 R, 10 ER, 2 BB, 9 K).

Kannapolis Cannon Ballers

• Last two series: 3-3 @Salem; 0-6 vs. Augusta
• Record: 52-62 (20-28 in second half)
• Next two series: @Delmarva, vs. Salem
• Individual stats

The Cannon Ballers have lost eight consecutive games, suffering from a couple of injuries and some rough transitions to professional baseball from their second-day draft picks, which now includes 16th-round pick Kaleb Freeman, which hasn't been able to support a pitching staff that's allowed the most runs in the Carolina League over the last month (115 over 24 games).

Position Players

*Caleb Bonemer hasn't played since Aug. 10, and his performance in the five games against Salem (.313/.476/.438) before his midgame departure showed what the Ballers were missing against Augusta. But the White Sox never placed him on the injured list, which signaled a minor nature of the injury, and he's supposed to return to action Tuesday.

*Javier Mogollón still hasn't played since June 29.

*Ronny Hernandez continues to fade to the finish of what's shaping up to be a second full season in Kannapolis. He went just 3-for-25 with eight strikeouts over seven games against Salem and Augusta, and is batting .130 over his last 15 games, which covers nearly a full month for him.

*George Wolkow came into this fortnight hitting .215/.309/.341. He managed to improve upon each column over the last two weeks (.233/.327/.349) despite 21 strikeouts over 49 plate appearances. He doesn't make progress pretty.

*Abraham Nuñez didn't make an appearance in the last two series, as the White Sox sent him back to Arizona.

*Adrian Gíl started a game behind the plate in each of the last two series, which continues to be the most interesting facet of his development. His performance at the plate continues to be unremarkable for a 19-year-old making the jump from the ACL, for better or for worse (.216/.333/.314 with 20 strikeouts over 61 plate appearances).

*Colby Shelton snapped an 0-for-36 slump with his first professional homer. The hope is that the not-egregious 21 percent strikeout rate reflects terrible fortune. He's played the three infield positions he's expected to cover, but with Bonemer out, five of his last starts have come at short.

*Anthony DePino has bounced between first base and DH as a pro, as Arxy Hernandez has been taking the starts at third.

*Ely Brown picked it up after a slow start, coming up with seven hits over a four-game stretch with Augusta. It's all singles right now, but he's also not striking out.

*Kaleb Freeman made his professional debut on Saturday against Augusta. The utility man from Georgia State has made both of his starts in left field.

Pitchers

*Luis Reyes reached his three-inning limit with ease against Salem (3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K), then failed to make it to a second inning against Augusta (1 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K).

*Mathias LaCombe took his lumps against both opponents the last two weeks, including four runs in an inning of work against Augusta. His combined line: 3.2 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 5 K.

*Pierce George extended his scoreless outings streak to eight games before wildness returned to the picture. He gave up three runs over two-thirds of an inning in a walk-off loss against Salem, and then he issued free bases to the three hitters he faced against Augusta on Aug. 10 (two walks, one HBP). His last two outings have covered three scoreless innings, so perhaps he's rebounding.

*Blake Shepardson went on the injured list, and he hasn't pitched since July 26, but he's supposed to be back in action this week.

DSL White Sox

• Record: 29-26
• Individual stats

The DSL White Sox didn't make the postseason, but by closing out their regular season with a 9-4 flurry, they finished with a winning record for the third time in five years, even with a rather abrupt shift of direction with a new international scouting director. They have one more year in their outdated complex until they move into a new facility, but they made decent use of suboptimal circumstances in 2025.

Alejandro Cruz rallied to finish his season with a flurry, hitting .393/.500/.643 over 36 plate appearances in August after finishing July with an 0-for-20 slump. That provides some hope that his $2 million bonus could still pay off, whereas Eduardo Herrera hit just .177/.303/.316 over the final two months, which paints an unfavorable picture for a guy in his second year of the DSL.

Frank Mieses and Jose Mendoza also slumped to the finish, although Mendoza's final line suggests that he had room to regress. Yordani Soto concluded his season with a 1.072 OPS in August, which isn't bad for a guy billed as a defense-first shortstop, especially one who just turned 17 last week.

Yobal Rodríguez ended his year on a sour note, lasting just one inning in the finale, but poor defense -- including some from Rodríguez himself -- escorted him all the way out of the season. Of the 21 runs he allowed, only 10 were earned. Diego Perez went four consecutive outings spanning 10 innings without allowing an earned run (and only one unearned), but also struggled in a one-inning finale.

White Sox Minor Keys

DSL Blue Jays Blue 7, DSL White Sox 1 (Monday, 7 innings)

• Yordani Soto and Jose Mendoza was 0-for-3 with a strikeout.
• Eduardo Herrera was 1-for-3.
• Alejandro Cruz went 1-for-3 with a strikeout.
• Diego Perez: 1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 3 WP

DSL White Sox 10, DSL Mariners 8 (Today, 7 innings)

• Yordani Soto was 2-for-3 with a double, walk and CS.
• Jose Mendoza went 0-for-2 with two walks and a strikeout.
• So did Alejandro Cruz, who was also caught stealing.
• Yobal Rodríguez: 1 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 WP