The White Sox do have a good history of developing tall, left-handed pitchers with sharp sliders. As a result, early on, the selection of Schultz in the second round of the 2022 draft seemed to make sense for the South Siders, even though high school pitchers make for very risky picks.

Two years later, that decision is working out quite well, as Schultz is cruising his way up the ladder. At the end of 2023, Schultz was outside MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 prospect rankings. Right now, Schultz is No. 13 in baseball and No. 1 in the organization.

The southpaw’s workload was not overly arduous this season, as none of his outings topped four innings. However, at this stage, it is best not to push Schultz, and when he was on the mound, he was dominant. Schultz started the season with the Winston-Salem Dash, where he pitched 27 1/3 innings and posted a 3.95 ERA. More impressively, he averaged 13.8 strikeouts per nine innings at that level, and his FIP was only 2.17.

Schultz was promoted to Birmingham a bit earlier than most expected, as he made the jump on May 25. Although that move raised a few eyebrows, Schultz proved that he was ready for the challenge. In 61 innings in Double-A, Schultz posted a 1.48 ERA and a 2.57 FIP. Schultz also logged 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings, so he was still able to miss bats after the promotion. Even when opposing hitters made contact, the ball often ended up harmlessly on the ground, as opposing hitters’ ground ball rates were 58.5%.

MLB Pipeline grades Schultz’s fastball as a 60, and unsurprisingly his slider is even higher, at 70. Schultz is on a great trajectory, as he turned 21 in August. In addition, Schultz seemed to gain effectiveness as the season progressed. In the second half, Schultz posted a 1.31 ERA, and opposing hitters batted only .209 with two homers against him during that time span.

Usually, when determining awards for weekly recaps, four innings was not enough to justify a Player of the Week award, even if those four innings were flawless. However, there was no way to overlook Schultz in terms of overall season awards. There are not a ton of reasons for hope in the near future for the White Sox, but Schultz is certainly one of them. Well done to him on his excellent season.

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Noah Schultz photo: Birmingham Barons