The White Sox have spent September squeezing every useful inning they can out of their pitching staff, and that’s how two of their best young arms ended up in the bullpen. Hagen Smith and Noah Schultz arrived in the big leagues with starter futures attached to them, but in the final stretch of a season where Chicago is pushing hard for a postseason spot, both have been asked to help in relief.
That arrangement has worked.
Smith, who opened the year in Triple-A Charlotte and came back from the IL in July as a reliever, has turned into one of the more dependable arms in the White Sox bullpen. Since his August 8 call-up, he has worked 16 games and posted a 1.07 ERA with 38 strikeouts in 25.1 innings. The control can still wander, but the raw stuff has been plenty good enough against major league hitters.
Schultz’s path has been a little different, but the end result is similar. He made only three starts with Charlotte before reaching the majors, and his first look at big league hitters was rough.
Between command issues and a flare-up of the knee tendonitis that sidelined him in 2025, he never quite found his footing, and the White Sox sent him back to Triple-A at the start of August. He stayed in the rotation there, logged solid but not eye-popping results, then returned to Chicago as a bullpen option with only a few games left.
On Saturday, he flashed in a high-leverage outing and showed a bump in velocity.
For all the success both pitchers have had in relief, the White Sox do not appear ready to redraw the long-term plan. Smith and Schultz should still be starters in 2027, and the organization seems to understand that this late-season experiment is about survival, not a permanent role change.
Both pitchers have improved their pitch mix out of the bullpen, but both have also already shown they can handle starting duties. They’ve simply been asked to do something different because the timing of the season demands it.
That urgency matters, too, because both arms have already passed their career highs in innings. With that in mind, the bullpen move makes sense now. It just shouldn’t become the blueprint.
The rotation picture beyond this season remains unsettled. Davis Martin, Sean Burke and Anthony Kay are in place for next year, but the rest is open.
Erick Fedde is headed for free agency. Luis Castillo has struggled badly and has been moved to the bullpen for now.
David Sandlin has shown flashes, but his results have been inconsistent. Even if the White Sox add another starter this winter, there still figures to be at least one or two openings when spring training arrives.
That leaves Smith and Schultz squarely in the conversation for 2027, where they belong. The White Sox drafted both in the first round for a reason, and it wasn’t to park them in late-inning relief.
The bullpen success is useful, and maybe even reassuring, but it should be treated as a fallback, not a destination. As one White Sox voice put it:
"I think they have the ability to start and will probably get that opportunity again. Due to the timing of the year right now, it's all hands on deck..."
"When they come back next year they're going to build up in the offseason as starters as of…
For a pitching system that has taken plenty of hits this year, that’s at least one encouraging sign. Smith and Schultz have already shown why the White Sox invested so heavily in them. If things go the way the organization expects, they could be back in the rotation and pushing the whole thing to another level in 2027.
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White Sox Still Have One Bullpen Trust Issue Before October
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Brazoban has now returned from a left lat strain and logged a scoreless inning in his latest appearance, which at least gives the White Sox something to build on as the postseason nears. Still, the larger question remains the same: whether he can be trusted when the games tighten up and the margin for error gets thin. [Read more 🡒]