PHOENIX -- The explanation for how Caleb Bonemer went mostly unknown -- or at least, barely seen -- to the consensus Sox Machine No. 1 prospect is simple: He can hit.
"I'd say I was pretty happy with the year," said Bonemer of his 2025 season. "I mean, obviously it went well."
Bonemer hit a combined .281/.401/.473 across two levels of A-ball and won the Carolina League MVP award as a 19-year-old, but output stats are for suckers. The bones of this house are what's exciting.
Whether it was spin or velocity, Bonemer made an above-average amount of contact; 76 percent overall. Whether it was early in the count or with two strikes, he chased out of the zone well below the big league average, let alone the minor league average. Certainly his current buff form doesn't scream projection, but his exit velocities indicate he already has a tick better than big league average raw power, and it looks like he got at least a little stronger this winter.
"Near the end of the year, I will say I was trying to get the ball out front a little bit more, and I think that helped me hit a few more homers," Bonemer said. "The biggest thing is just being able to balance that out, being able to have a fundamentally sound swing, but also know when to kind of take your shots, when to maybe try to lift one, get one out front."
A total of 12 homers in 107 games only seems light for a dang 19-year-old in the sense that Bonemer was known as a pulling-and-lifting machine back in high school, but has worked to level out his swing path, which is why he brings up the idea of catching more balls out in front as a means of accessing power rather than tweaking his swing. Ideally, Bonemer is done tweaking his swing in any significant way for the foreseeable future.
On his recent Sox Machine Podcast appearance, Keith Law talked about Bonemer's swing changing a lot during his high school days, and it seems like the player himself would issue the same critique.
"Growing up like it was just me and my dad watching YouTube videos, trying to figure it out," Bonemer said. "Definitely in high school and growing up, I was always searching. I didn't have a hitting coach, so I was always trying to figure out the best way to do it, kind of feeling it out."
While many young hitters have big moving parts in their swing because they lack the strength to be stable, Bonemer resided on the opposite pole, starting his stroke from nearly a dead stop. He was so still in his swing that it gave scouts pause, and led a lot of projections that his operation was too stiff to make an average amount of contact.
"I was just so still, then I would just crash," Bonemer said. "The biggest thing is making sure I don't crash forward. Just being able to stay back while I go forward is the biggest thing I've been trying to do with [my move]. That's why I tried to load my back hip, to be able to control my timing as I go forward."
Bonemer heaps praise upon Hunter Bledsoe, co-founder of the agency that represents him (and also Colson Montgomery, Sean Burke, Jake Burger, etc.) for employing an understanding of biomechanics to add a subtle loading action where he coils his hips and shoulders as the pitcher comes set. And while Bonemer wouldn't disagree with any scout that says he still lacks fluidity loading his swing, the 2025 season is a testament to the idea that the little tension he's added is enough for him. There's still not a lot of motion to his operation, but enough to feel like he can sync up to the opposing pitcher.
"I don't know if fluid is what I was trying to do, it's more about just controlling my body and being in rhythm with a pitcher," Bonemer said. "Because for me, the easiest, most repeatable way is less movement. I've never been a super-rhythmic guy--
At this specific juncture, it's worth noting that farm director Paul Janish walked past and suggested a more simple line of analysis for Bonemer: "He's just good, James. He's just good."
"--so I think the biggest thing is learning how to put my body in the right spot, wind it up in the right way to be able to just unload. From the outside, it doesn't look like I have a lot of movement. But compared with the way I used to hit, there's definitely a little bit more."
And with it in place, Bonemer wants to be more aggressive -- within the bounds of his approach, that is. He actually swung at an above-average amount of pitches in the heart of the strike zone last year (83 percent, where the MLB average is 76) despite his rock-bottom chase rate (19 percent), but his approach would probably still scan as leaning on the passive side if you watched him every day, and the deeper counts serve to explain why he still struck out 21.2 percent of the time.
He wants to hit for more power, and understanding pitcher habits are where Bonemer feels opportunities to catch balls out in front lie; something he can drill down on now that his swing is in a secure place.
"It's more thinking less and not being so uptight and constrained about what I'm trying to do," Bonemer said. "Let my instincts do their thing, that's what I mean about being aggressive. Because naturally my instincts are I want to freakin' rip one, get one out front pull-side. So it's letting myself do that, while also making sure my swing is in a good spot where I can also catch it deep, shoot it the other way, or be able to adjust to a breaking ball and still catch it. It's mentally being in an aggressive spot, while my mechanics are in a fundamentally sound spot."
Bonemer will play the entire next season at age 20 and the White Sox putting him in minor league camp this spring indicates they want him focused on his development rather than his immedia major league fit, which is more of a topic for 2027. But since he literally trains in the same facility as Montgomery, he's plenty aware that third base or elsewhere could be his long-term home.
"He's obviously got shortstop locked down right now, so wherever they've got me, I'll play wherever," Bonemer said.
Montgomery laughed recalling a memory last season when MLB Pipeline added Bonemer to their top-100 prospect list and he texted him congratulations, only to get an unsatisfied reply about how low he was: "Yeah, but at No. 100." So true to form, any concern about Bonemer getting ahead of himself was addressed in expected fashion when he was asked about his reaction to his rise in the rankings this offseason.
"It makes you feel good that the stuff I've been working on has been working," Bonemer said. "At the same time you've got to find a way to put that behind you. I mean, it is only Low-A, only one year in the minor leagues."
