By Charlotte standards, 2024 was a resounding success. While the overall record was still subpar at 68-79, contextually the Knights may well have won a World Series. Since the pandemic cancellation in 2020, the franchise had averaged a 56-90 record over the past three seasons. And even in terms of the International League itself, 68-79 was better than five other teams in the league and good of eighth of 10 teams in the East Division. And if you drill down to just the second half, when at long last the Knights started benefiting from the murderous roster at Birmingham by getting some promoted players, the team finished 35-38 and was basically in the mix for .500 until the last weekend of the season.

All that said, it is pathetic to write this way about a club that just by accident should have had a .500 season, at least, in the mix. While it’s true the White Sox have traditionally be on the aggressive side with promoting players (sometimes bypassing Charlotte entirely with promotions straight from Double-A), it doesn’t account for the utter horribleness of the Knights this decade. That the White Sox haven’t supplied their cornerstone and showpiece minor league affiliate (want to see a ballpark nicer than Sox Park, head to Charlotte) with sufficient minor league talent OR with significant borderline-majors talent by way of free agents. Players who end up sticking in the majors who fall into that latter/AAAA type category more often than not do it with other franchises, after the White Sox cut them lose — another indictment of the parent club.

Charlotte had a team OPS of .750 this season, and if that sounds good to you, you’ve been watching too much White Sox baseball (WHERE NO REGULAR HAD AN OPS OF EVEN .700); in the IL, that ranks the Knights 15th. Overall with the bats, the Knights were middling at best; among basic offensive stats, the Knights finished IL Top 5 in just caught stealing (second, 53).

In terms of pitching, well, it gets worse. The team ERA of 5.09 was 16th-best in the 20-team IL. However, Charlotte allowed the fourth-fewest hits in the league, at 1,190 (but the second-most homers, which helps explain how a team stingy with hits still had a terrible ERA). Unfortunately, combined with the big hit Charlotte’s staff was very wild, among the Top 5 in walks, wild pitches and balks and had a commanding win in wild pitches (92).

But, folks came to watch, as the Knights were middle of the pack with season attendance of almost 440,000 — not quite a million fewer fans than the White Sox themselves.

As much as the roster was uninspiring, let’s address some of the key players, some of whom are on the cusp of the majors (frankly, at least a dozen players who saw time in Charlotte for the bulk of this season will be on the White Sox next year, there is nowhere else to find talent given spending and stock in trade).

Everyone’s headliner, shortstop Colson Montgomery, took a header in 2024. Even with hot a final month (19 games, .815 OPS in September), the blue-chip prospect had a disastrous season. He is very young, still, but the No. 9 prospect in all of baseball — Montgomery’s status heading into 2024 — this was a mess. A .710 OPS and 164 strikeouts (!) are almost beyond comprehension. In the process, Brooks Baldwin has passed him on the shortstop depth chart and there is a chance Jacob Gonzalez catches Montgomery in Charlotte before Colson sees the bigs. There is time, still, as Colson will be just 23 heading into 2025. But another season like 2024 will land him much closer to Mike Caruso than Tim Anderson as White Sox shortstop can’t-misses.

Zach DeLoach could not translate his Triple-A success for Seattle in 2023 and in Charlotte this summer to Chicago in his stints on the South Side, but man did he mash at Truist Park. As a flip to Montgomery, you could hardly have imagined DeLoach’s 2024 going better in his first season in the org: .287/.375/.410 and 20-of-22 steals while playing all three outfield positions. At 26, the train may have left the station for Zach blossoming into anything more than a fourth outfielder or Triple-A All-Star, but he did his job in the minors in 2024.

You got some Edgar Quero stats in our Birmingham Barons writeup from Kristina Airdo, so let’s focus here on what the true top player prospect in the system will do for the Knights next year: Nothing. Quero should by any stretch break camp with the White Sox and begin a 15-year career with the team that ends in his statue on the concourse. If that seems hyperbolic, let me have it, because there really isn’t much else coming until 2027 and George Wolkow or Jeral Perez. Seriously, though, Quero is perfection … hell, he’s even CUBAN for goodness’ sake, for White Sox heritage purposes! The switch-hitter had an extraordinary year with the bat and was solid enough behind the plate; sure a 20% CS rate is not going to win Gold Gloves, with with Quero’s stick he won’t need Gold Gloves — he can play wherever he wants.

Tim Elko has already gotten farther, faster in the White Sox system then ANYONE but the loopiest Ole Miss die-hards would have said. And next year, with the status of both Andrew Vaughn and Gavin Sheets up in the air, a jump to the South Side is not at all out of order. Elko looks the part, leads his teammates, fields a solid first base — and when his bat is hot … DUCK. Elko stayed healthy, and across Double-A and Charlotte had 18 homers and a .785 OPS. The Ks are too high to predict anything more than replacement play in the majors at the moment (173 this year, 165 last) but again, Elko has warned us not to count him out.

We don’t really need to discuss Bryan Ramos in the context of his South Side future, because he’s with the White Sox and will stick there in 2025. However, after a slow start in Double-A chased by a hot/inspiring start to his MLB tenure jumping straight to the Sox from Birmingham, Ramos was … OK? Nothing really stood out, which was a little surprising given his status heading into the season as the Next Man Up. Perhaps the best stat of all is that Ramos will turn just 23 a couple of weeks before the 2025 season begins, and if nothing else is has shown to be a prodigious learner on the diamond.

Rafael Ortega, Mark Payton, Wilmer Difo and Danny Mendick all had nice season, Payton a full season, starring in Charlotte. They are not prospects and will not be in Charlotte next year (Mendick has already become a free agent), but still deserve a cap-tip for great play.

Like on the hitting side, let’s beginning a discussion of pitchers with the two key starters in the organization who produced a troubling 2024. Jake Eder was the Next Man Up based on pedigree, 2023 and Arizona Fall League status; in fact, if you’d been ask to predict the most likely arm to jump straight from Double-A to the majors even for just a sip of coffee, it would have been the southpaw. But Eder’s 2024 was unimaginably bad, at both Double- and Triple-A: Over 24 combined starts, he threw to a 6.61 ERA and 1.679 WHIP, possible non-tender numbers if in any normal circumstance. Likewise Nick Nastrini, who broke camp as the erstwhile fifth starter for the Sox before the flu and the re-signing of a domestic abuser veteran starter derailed those plans: A 5.29 ERA and 1.588 WHIP season, where about the best thing you can say is he averaged about five innings per 18 starts.

In terms of contributors who are not regarded as blue chips, Johan Domínguez was the unsung hero of (yet again) a battered, makeshift pitching rotation. Domínguez led the Knights in innings (111 2/3) and starts (22). Frankly, his 4.43 ERA qualified him as a superstar for Charlotte, but at age 29 heading into 2025 he has little chance of seeing the South Side.

In the pen, if there’s any heartbreaking story in 2024 it was Aaron McGarity not getting the call to make his long-awaited major league debut over the summer. The 29-year-old was, frankly, Charlotte’s best full-season reliever, logging a 2.77 ERA and 1.046 WHIP over 55 games that included a team-high 26 finishes and six saves. Would McGarity have been eaten up by MLB batters? Perhaps. Did he warrant a shot to hop into the revolving door of AAAA guys and waiver snags and has-beens and never-will on the South Side staff this season? Yes.

McGarity’s partner in late-game appearances was the younger Adisyn Coffey, who came a bit out of nowhere (even his tabbed-for-big-things AFL stint last fall was a bit of a mess) to project as the best late relief arm in the higher minors of the systems. Coffey split time between Double- and Triple-A, dominating even better at his higher level. Overall numbers of a 2.04 ERA and 1.217 WHIP, with 24 finishes and 10 saves. There is no question that Coffey is in line to break north with the big club in 2025, especially given the complete lack of a closer on the roster.

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Adisyn Coffey photo: Laura Wolff/Charlotte Knights