Director of player development Janish dishes on top prospects Schultz, Smith

CHICAGO -- Neither Noah Schultz nor Hagen Smith were in attendance for the White Sox 4-1 loss to the Orioles on Monday night at Rate Field, marking the South Siders fourth straight defeat and fourth straight game where they scored two runs or fewer (four in total).

Smith, the No. 5 prospect and No. 88 overall, per MLB Pipeline, is getting ready with Double-A Birmingham for the Southern League playoffs, with the best-of-three against Chattanooga starting at home in Alabama Tuesday. Schultz, the No. 2 White Sox prospect and No. 37 overall, is recovering from right knee patellar tendinitis, which will not require surgery at this juncture, according to White Sox director of player development Paul Janish during his extended Zoom that honed in on the team’s Minor League system Monday afternoon.

While overall focus remains with the 11 games on the schedule for the White Sox (57-94), there is almost always some look to next season and beyond in the midst of this rebuild. Schultz and Smith stand as big parts of that future, working through slightly uneven ‘25 seasons affected by injury and an Arizona reset for Smith.

“There are different answers,” said Janish of where Schultz and Smith currently stand. “Noah again showed us some willingness to deal with adversity, some grit, some want-to, to push through maybe some discomfort at times. The context is significant long term for when the time comes when he’s going to have to deal with that at the Major League level, hopefully.

“With Hagen, we forget this is his first full season, right? So we learned a lot about Hagen. I think Hagen learned a lot about Hagen. He’s finishing the year strongly. From a stuff and a health standpoint, his last two or three outings have been really good. Hopefully, we can carry that through the playoffs and then out to the [Arizona] Fall League. I think him being able to draw on that throughout the offseason and into next season will be significant for him and us.”

These No. 1 and No. 3 left-handed pitching prospects in the game probably won’t be projected to break camp with the team in ‘26, with Schultz at No. 1 throwing 73 innings in total and Smith at 75 2/3 innings going into the Barons’ playoff run. They should work themselves into the ‘26 season’s starting pitching mix at some point.

The White Sox have a number of in-house rotation options, ranging from Shane Smith to Sean Burke, who allowed one run on two hits over four innings with four strikeouts and four walks as the bulk hurler against Baltimore. Burke figures to have two starts on the ledger over these next two weeks, currently featuring a 4.29 ERA and 119 strikeouts against 62 walks in 126 innings pitched and 26 appearances (21 starts).

“If you look at the season as a whole, there were more positives than there were negatives,” said Burke on his first full big league campaign. “I've shown to not only other people but more importantly myself that when I'm going good and I'm the pitcher I know I can be, I can beat anybody in the world at this game.

“Going into next year and the years after that, just having that confidence in the back of my mind that if I go out there and do what I can do, it is good enough and it's good enough to play in this league. It's having that and continuing to work on the things I need to work on going forward is going to be big."

Taylor's return

Grant Taylor threw a 20-pitch bullpen, at a fairly high intensity, prior to Monday’s setback. The right-hander, who has not pitched since exiting with a right groin strain on Sept. 10 after seven pitches against the Rays, will wait to see how he responds Tuesday but feels on the right track to returning.

“It’s just no pain, being able to throw, run, no problem,” said Taylor of the cues for return. “That’s what we felt today so try to test it out again tomorrow.”

“Yeah, see how he recovers,” said White Sox manager Will Venable of Taylor. “He threw really well. It was as close to game speed as you could get. He really let it loose. So, came out of it feeling good."

Taylor, 23, has thrown a career-high 58 1/3 innings between ‘25 stops with the White Sox and Double-A Birmingham, featuring 44 strikeouts in his 31 2/3 innings on the South Side. Venable seemed strongly inclined to use Taylor at some point over the final 11 games if allowed by his health.