Hagen Smith didn’t take the straight line to Chicago that the White Sox probably envisioned when they grabbed him fifth overall in the 2024 draft. The path has been bumpy, the innings have been managed, and the command has come and gone. But now that he’s in the White Sox bullpen, he’s flashing the kind of stuff that made him such a prized pick in the first place.
The organization clearly saw a future rotation piece when it selected Smith, especially with top lefty Noah Schultz already in the system. The idea was simple enough: build a pair of impact starters who could help shape the White Sox’s next wave. Smith’s development since then has been anything but simple.
He went straight to High-A Winston-Salem after the draft and made three starts there, allowing three earned runs with seven strikeouts over 7.2 innings. The White Sox then pushed him to Double-A Birmingham to open 2025, and that season turned into a mixed bag.
He made 20 starts, posted a 3.57 ERA over 75.2 innings and struck out enough batters to keep the ceiling obvious, but he also issued 56 walks and missed several weeks because of a shoulder injury. He finished the year in the Arizona Fall League looking better, which left the White Sox hopeful he could tighten things up heading into 2026.
Instead, Smith opened this season in Triple-A Charlotte and the command problems kept showing up. He worked mostly in shortened outings, and his performances swung from overpowering to shaky from one appearance to the next.
Another shoulder injury interrupted that stretch, and when he returned, the White Sox shifted him to the bullpen. The move was about protecting innings and getting him to the majors faster to help fill a need in Chicago.
Since then, the results have been loud.
After tossing three perfect innings with four strikeouts in Sunday’s win over Minnesota, Smith owns a 0.56 ERA across his first 16 big league innings. He has punched out 23 hitters and held opponents to a .096 average.
The walks are still part of the package - he has issued 10 - but the stuff has been overwhelming from the left side. His lone earned run came on a walk-off homer by Pete Crow-Armstrong at Wrigley Field in August.
White Sox Director of Player Development Paul Janish said earlier this season that Smith is expected to report to spring training as a starting pitcher next year, so the organization hasn’t abandoned the original plan. And that matters, because a starter with Smith’s arsenal would carry far more value, especially for a pitcher taken this high.
Still, the bullpen work has made one thing clear: if the control never fully comes around, the White Sox may have something real anyway. Like Grant Taylor, Smith has the kind of weapons that can play at the front of a rotation - and if not there, then in the late innings as a force.
For now, the bigger picture is easy to see. Smith’s recent stretch has given the White Sox a real look at the kind of impact arm they drafted, even if the role down the road is still up in the air.
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