The White Sox have yet to officially announce their Opening Day roster for Thursday's season opener against the Los Angeles Angels, but the organization's minor league rosters are starting to take shape. One thing is certain: White Sox fans should pay close attention to the AA Birmingham Barons this season.
Birmingham Barons Star Studded Rotation
Top 100 pitching prospects Noah Schultz, Hagen Smith, and Grant Taylor will all start the 2025 season in the Barons' starting rotation, per Scott Merkin of MLB.com. They are the three best pitching prospects in the White Sox organization and form one of the most intriguing starting pitcher trios in all the minor leagues. Schultz and Smith have consistently appeared high on prospect lists since each joined the White Sox organization, while Taylor's prospect stock has risen considerably in recent months. They will now all team up and become rotation mates in Birmingham.
Schultz ended the 2024 season at the AA level with the Barons, but Smith made just three starts with the High-A Winston-Salem Dash last year after the White Sox selected him fifth overall in the 2024 draft. Taylor was even farther behind as of last season, as injury issues allowed him to make just four starts with the Low-A Kannapolis Cannon Ballers in 2024. Smith and Taylor starting the season in AA is an aggressive assignment. However, it is also an indictment of how talented they are and how the organization views them.
All three pitchers are very young; Taylor is 22, while Schultz and Smith are both 21. Given how important they are to the organization's future, they will all likely spend the majority of the 2025 season with the Barons under workload and innings limits. Depending on performance, they could go to the AAA Charlotte Knights by the end of the season and be on track to debut in Chicago at some point in 2026.
Kannapolis Cannon Ballers Outfield
The Barons starting rotation is not the only player group that received a big boost today. The Low-A Kannapolis Cannon Ballers newly formed outfield will also feature three fascinating prospects, per Merkin. 21-year-old Braden Montgomery, the team's #5 prospect, one of the centerpieces in return for Garrett Crochet, and a top 100 prospect in MLB, will be in that group. 19-year-old George Wolkow, a 6'7 left-handed hitter currently ranked as the #10 prospect in the organization, and switch-hitting 22-year-old Nick McLain, the team's third-round pick in 2024 and the #28 prospect in the system, will also join Montgomery.
Promising young outfielders have been scarce in the White Sox farm system for some time. The team is finally starting to create a talent pool at the position. Montgomery, in particular, should be a fast rider and part of the equation in Chicago sooner rather than later.
Other Notable Assignments
The starting points of other promising players in the White Sox system have been revealed as well. William Bergolla, a 20-year-old left-handed hitting infielder and the #16 prospect in the organization, will start the season with the AA Birmingham Barons, per Elijah Evans of Just Baseball. The White Sox acquired him in last year's Tanner Banks trade with the Philadelphia Phillies. Bergolla stood out in spring training and will be a player to keep an eye on this season.
Caleb Bonemer, a 19-year-old right-handed hitting infielder and the team's second-round pick in 2024, will start the season in Low-A with the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers and play mostly shortstop, per Evans. Bonemer is currently the #11 ranked prospect in the organization and did not appear in an official minor league game last season after being drafted. Starting him in Low-A is another example of the White Sox giving an aggressive assignment to a player they view highly. Bonemer is another player to watch in the lower levels this year.
White Sox Future Core Taking Shape
The White Sox big league team will be bad again in 2025, but for the first time in a while, it feels like a plan for future success is starting to take shape. Not only does the team have one of the best farm systems in baseball, but they are grouping many of their talented prospects at the same levels in the minors to build chemistry and waves of talent. The hope is that these prospects will one day form a winning team in Chicago. For now, watching them continue to develop in the minors will be one of the more key storylines for the White Sox in 2025.
