The selection of Shane Smith as the White Sox representative for the 2025 All-Star Game in Atlanta was more than just the highest of honors for the right-hander.
This moment was history being made.
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Smith, 25, joined Florida second baseman Dan Uggla (2006) as the only players in Major League Baseball history to make an All-Star team in the year after being selected in the Rule 5 Draft. The White Sox took Smith with the top pick during the final-day Winter Meetings festivities in Dallas last December.
Jacob Wilson of the Athletics and Smith represent the only two rookies in the game. Smith is the seventh White Sox rookie to be named an All-Star and the first since first baseman José Abreu in 2014. But here’s the most startling fact: Smith is the first White Sox rookie pitcher to reach All-Star status.
It’s little wonder why Smith didn’t sleep much on the Sunday night after he found out this sort of life-changing news.
“With the names that have been through here before, it's really surprising,” Smith said of his unique White Sox All-Star status. “It's really cool to be in the history books like that. I didn't soak it in [Sunday] after the outing. Kind of took me to get home, off of the flight and to really sit with it.”
Through his first 13 starts this season, there was little question that Smith belonged as an All-Star. He was among the best pitchers in the game, with a 2.37 ERA, 64 strikeouts and four home runs allowed in 68 1/3 innings.
Those numbers have dipped over Smith’s last four starts, as he’s allowed 22 runs (21 earned) in 15 1/3 innings to go with 12 strikeouts, 10 walks and three home runs. Any pitcher who makes 30 to 33 starts a season is going to have a stretch of five or six rough starts, especially a hurler making his first foray into this sort of workload at the big league level, but the good news is Smith’s stuff has remained strong.
So, the struggles become as important a learning experience as the successful times. It’s a common theme shared across this rebuilding 2025 White Sox squad.
“I think it's realizing maybe I'm not doing everything as wrong as I think I am,” Smith said. “You're still executing some good pitches, and your stuff is still good.
“You're not executing as much as you'd like. It could be selection over execution, it could be execution over selection. So, you know, one bad pitch can't ruin a day. But if you continue to do things the same, you don't learn from your mistakes. I think that's what kind of gets under my skin.”
During a recent conversation with MLB.com, Smith spoke about trusting his stuff and having conviction in everything he’s doing on the mound. The hitter at the plate might be sitting on a changeup, as an example, but if that’s the pitch Smith feels most comfortable with in the moment, then go ahead and challenge the hitter.
“Maybe you lean into the scouting report a little too much,” Smith said.
“There’s a mix of, ‘Hey, am I throwing my best stuff to this guy? Or am I trying to move around what he does well?’
“That’s something I need to have an idea of what guys do and don’t do well. But I also have to have a firm belief in what I’m doing and what that looks like.”
Intensity, paired with a quest to always improve and a high level of talent, has helped Smith go from an accomplished Brewers Minor Leaguer in 2024 to the top Rule 5 Draft selection to the All-Star Game. It will be a historic day for Smith and his family, as well as the White Sox.
“Last couple of months have been emotional phone calls with my family and my parents,” Smith said. “My parents will definitely be there. I think both my sisters will be there and my cousin. I get a couple of tickets, so I'm using all of them. They've been with me the whole time, so I'm just trying to pay them back as much as I can.
“I'm a rookie here, and I'm almost certainly going to be a rookie over there. So, I'm really looking forward to picking their brains a little bit and seeing kind of how they do stuff. And especially in a moment like that, [seeing] how they handle kind of everything else around the baseball will be interesting.”