Kyle Lodise is still in Winston-Salem, and on Thursday night he gave the White Sox another reminder of why he remains one of the more interesting names in the system. The 22-year-old middle infielder homered twice in Greensboro’s 12-9 win, finishing 2-for-4 with a strikeout as he kept stacking up signs of progress in a season that has not followed the clean developmental path the organization once imagined.
That’s the strange part of Lodise’s year. He was taken in the third round last year as a polished college bat without much physical projection, then sent right to High-A after the draft.
Since then, a stream of former Dash teammates - Anthony DePino, Colby Shelton, Boston Smith, Caleb Bonemer and now Ryan Burrowes - have moved on to Birmingham while Lodise has stayed put. Even so, the numbers and the adjustments tell a more complicated story than the level tag next to his name.
He’s already swiped 30 bases in 37 attempts, a green light he didn’t fully get in college. He’s also been working closely with Dash bench coach Tyler Coolbaugh on the defensive side, especially on reading hops instead of charging everything like he was taught to do growing up as an undersized player.
"The biggest thing for me is I would almost automatically make my decision too early to just run toward the ball and try and kill it," Lodise said. "Especially with how hard these guys hit it in pro ball and just how quick the playing surfaces, a lot of times you make that decision too early and you run yourself into some bad hops and don't give yourself enough time to read the play."
Coolbaugh has also helped him learn a new position. Lodise had never played second base before, but he’s picked it up as the White Sox have shuffled infield reps around Bonemer and Burrowes, and it could become his full-time home if he’s still in Winston-Salem when Roch Cholowsky arrives.
The bigger-picture hope, of course, is that Lodise is long gone by then. The reality has been a .204/.352/.389 line in 105 career High-A games.
"Truth be told, I still don't think to this point I feel super comfortable mechanically in the box," Lodise said. "That just speaks to what the future holds, potential-wise. There's still a lot of room for growth."
The bat has shown real life against fastballs, and the power has started to show up more often too. After playing last year at a weight in the low-170s, Lodise reported to spring at 189, and his two-homer night came after he had already hit three home runs over the previous two days to reach 12 for the season. The issue, by his own account, has been the length of his stride, which makes it harder to stay on breaking balls and adjust once the pitch starts moving.
"I forget what the crazy number was, but I had one of the longest strides in all of minor league baseball," Lodise said. "With the 5'11" frame that I have, there's a lot of extra movement, extra slop in the swing.
You have to be so perfect with that much extra movement and length. The second thing was keeping my upper half a little bit more upright, which gives you just a little bit more space, because I was crashing a little bit while getting that lower half long.
It's just cleaning those things up and just trying to be repeatable and consistent in the box. It gives you a lot more room for error."
That taller posture is easy to spot, even if the stride changes are tougher to catch from the center-field camera. Lodise calls himself a late bloomer, and that tracks with his path: two years of Division II baseball before Georgia Tech came calling for his junior season. He sees that route as part of what has made him sturdier when the results lag and the farm system keeps crowding his lane.
So even if he’s not the obvious pick for a 2028 White Sox infield projection, Lodise still sounds like a player who expects to keep climbing.
"There's a lot left in the tank," Lodise said. "I think that we're a lot closer right now, definitely than when we started."
Elsewhere in the system, Charlotte beat Norfolk 7-4. Austin Hays went 2-for-5 with a homer and two strikeouts, Everson Pereira was 1-for-4 with a homer, Ryan Galanie went 1-for-3 with a sac bunt, and Duncan Davitt allowed one earned run over three innings, striking out two while throwing 22 of 37 pitches for strikes.
Montgomery topped Birmingham 6-1. Boston Smith went 0-for-3 with an HBP and a strikeout, Caleb Bonemer returned from his beaning and went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts, Anthony DePino came back into the starting lineup after his HBP and went 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout, and he was caught stealing for the first time in 17 professional attempts. Colby Shelton was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, Samuel Zavala reached 10 homers for the first time in three years in the White Sox org, and Pierce George gave up two earned runs in one inning.
Kannapolis outlasted Columbia 4-3 in 10 innings. Jaden Fauske was 1-for-5, Billy Carlson went 1-for-4 with a double and a strikeout, Javier Mogollon finished his last game in Kannapolis for a while by going 2-for-5 with a double and two strikeouts, Matthew Boughton pinch-ran and scored, Nick McLain was 1-for-5 with two strikeouts, and Christian Gonzalez doubled twice, singled and struck out.
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