Pierce George is learning fast that the climb through the White Sox system can be as much about adjustment as raw stuff.
The right-hander has already moved to his third affiliate in three months, and the reason is easy to see. He’s got a high-90s fastball, a hammer curveball, and now a low-90s cutter to help bridge the gap when the breaking ball isn’t landing. Just as important, the control that used to get away from him is starting to come around.
George made his Birmingham debut on June 23 after two strong months across both levels of A-ball, where he put up a 2.35 ERA with 46 strikeouts and 10 walks over 30⅔ innings. That’s a big jump from the version of George that showed up in college and early in his pro career. His junior season at Alabama in 2024 was limited to 12 appearances because of control issues, and after the White Sox took him in the 13th round, he walked 60 batters over his first 53⅔ innings with Kannapolis between his draft year and the 2025 season.
Now, the changes are showing up in a few different places. One is mechanical: George said he’s holding his hands higher before breaking them, a small adjustment that’s helping him stay on line to the plate.
"It's kind of like when you throw a punch," George told Sox Machine at Regions Field on Friday. "I'm kind of just like loading up and just pretending like I'm throwing a punch up there on the mound, just trying to stay through my target, stay linear."
He’s also changed the pitch mix. The cutter gives him another weapon to keep hitters from sitting on the fastball when the curveball isn’t there. And behind all of it, he says offseason work with a mental sports coach - along with his faith - has helped him attack hitters with more conviction.
"One of the biggest things we talked about with my mental sports coach is not pitching defensively," George said. "We are on defense, but pitching on the attack, pitching offensively, so not giving the hitters a chance to breathe. Just starting with that first pitch, it's a pitch-to-pitch focus kind of thing."
The Southern League is giving him a tougher test than A-ball did. Over his first two weeks in Double-A, he’s struck out five and walked four, though Saturday’s two-inning outing makes up most of those numbers with three strikeouts and three walks.
That start was uneven early. George missed arm-side with both his fastball and cutter, walked two hitters, and threw only eight of 20 pitches for strikes. Jorge Corona helped keep the inning from getting away by cutting down a stolen-base attempt to erase the first walk.
George settled in after that. Following a one-out walk in his second inning, he worked through a seven-pitch battle with Jadher Areinamo, who fouled off four straight 0-2 pitches before chasing a cutter out of the zone for strike three. Then George got ahead of Theo Gillen 0-2 and eventually froze him on a fastball on the outside corner, a finish he celebrated with a few screams on his way back to the dugout.
It was a good snapshot of where he is right now: a lively fastball, a second pitch that matters, some control that can still wander, and enough ability to make an in-game correction that wasn’t always there a year ago.
Elsewhere, Memphis beat Charlotte 2-1 in 11 innings. Ryan Galanie went 1-for-5 with two strikeouts, Rikuu Nishida was 0-for-3 with a walk, and Edgar Quero went 0-for-3 before being replaced by a pinch hitter in the ninth. Mason Adams delivered a strong outing with 5 innings, 2 hits, no runs, no walks and 2 strikeouts, while Wikelman González allowed 1 run on 2 hits in 1 inning, with a walk, a strikeout and a wild pitch.
Birmingham topped Montgomery 6-1 behind a homer from Boston Smith, who finished 2-for-4 with a strikeout. Caleb Bonemer drew three walks in an 0-for-1 night, Anthony DePino went hitless, Colby Shelton was 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout, and Samuel Zavala went 1-for-4 with a strikeout. Gabe Davis worked 4 innings, allowing 1 run on 2 hits with 5 strikeouts and a home run.
Winston-Salem beat Greenville 8-3. Jeral Perez went 1-for-4, George Wolkow was 1-for-4 with two strikeouts, and Mathias LaCombe threw 1 scoreless inning with a walk.
Kannapolis defeated Wilson 5-3.
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