A Full Breakdown of the Chicago White Sox prospects headed to the Arizona Fall League

The Arizona Fall League rosters have been released this week with a lot of intriguing prospects on each team. There are six teams full of prospects from teams that will play starting October 6th. I’ll be writing an article and making Twitter posts about each team’s roster. This will cover the White Sox prospects who are on the Glendale Desert Dogs this fall. The team will consist of players from the Blue Jays, Braves, Cardinals, Dodgers, and White Sox organizations. 

Chicago White Sox:

Tyler Davis RHP: After being picked up from the Pioneer league (an Independent league) last season Davis moved all the way up to AAA. This season he has pitched only in AA and has looked good out of the bullpen. He has a 3.17 ERA and 2.62 FIP while striking out 28.2% of batters. Davis has a good four pitch mix starting with a good fastball that sits at 95 mph with 18.9 IVB. His secondaries start with a solid slider that sits at 89 mph with a good changeup and curveball to match. He has struggled a bit with command walking 11.9% of batters this year and has struggled with them since college. He’s an intriguing arm that could be up in the White Sox bullpen and will get some good innings this fall. 

Carson Jacobs RHP: After going undrafted out of North Dakota State Jacobs is a really fun arm out of the bullpen. Standing at 6’9” Jacobs uses all of it for a big fastball that goes right by hitters. He also adds a curveball that has great depth and some arm side bend. There still is no Statcast for him and I’m really excited to see his pitches in Arizona. His pitches have big whiff potential with over 32% strikeout rate the past two seasons. The one thing that Jacobs continues to struggle with is command and he’s really wild. With each of the last two seasons being above a 15% walk rate. If he can even get that down a bit Jacobs can climb quickly and with the White Sox using him mainly in the 8th or 9th it looks like they’re setting him up to be a backend bullpen guy. Jacobs had a 1.96 ERA and 39 strikeouts in his last 23 innings in high A and was recently promoted to AA. I’m sure the Sox want to see him get as many innings as possible to help his control.

Connor McCullough RHP: Another undrafted signing in 2022 McCullough has struggled with injuries the last two seasons. In 2024 he was only able to pitch 13.1 innings. This season he’s made a few rehab starts and made 8 starts since coming back to AA at the start of August. He has some solid stuff and a fastball he’s able to command really well and a nasty curveball. He’s been able to strike out more than 23% of batters at every level and shown good command with a 6% walk rate this season. When he plays he’s been able to limit hard contact and keep guys off the bases. This is a really big end to the season for McCullough since he’s Rule 5 Draft eligible this season. Hopefully he can stay healthy.

Hagen Smith LHP: One of the best starting pitchers headed to Arizona, Smith was drafted 5th overall to the White Sox in 2024 and has made 20 starts in his first full pro ball season in AA.  He’s had an alright first year with a 3.57 ERA and 3.69 FIP while striking out 33.9% of batters. What he’s struggled with has been his command walking 17.6%. This is something that goes back to his first two years at Arkansas but in his junior year and his three starts in high-A last season he had dropped his walks dramatically. His stuff has also taken a step back this season. His fastball that topped out at 100 mph in college now sits between 92-95 and tops out at 97 mph. He also hasn’t been able to command it well at all, usually missing his spot and throwing it out of the zone. His slider which was his big strikeout pitch also lost some velocity and hitters haven’t been chasing as much. He also has a changeup that he hasn’t been able to throw for strikes. He’s been dealing with elbow soreness this season and been changing his delivery to slow it down and hopefully cause less injury. With his soreness the White Sox have held him back this season and he’s missed more than a month throughout June and has not thrown more than 85 pitches since that injury. Smith will look to get more innings this season to work on his delivery and command.

Sam Antonacci IF: After being drafted in the 5th round last season, Antonacci has been amazing in his first full pro ball season. After starting the season at High-A where he slashed .279/.425/.412 with a 154 wRC+ he was promoted to AA where he continued his strong season with a slash of .292/.435/.381 and a 152 wRC+. He’s not going to bring a lot of power with only five homers this season but he has shown an elite knowledge of the zone and a great contact ability. He works long counts and has only whiffed at 5.2% of pitches this year. Even without homer run hitting power he still has 32 XBH this year and hits the ball in the gap often allowing him to use his speed to stretch hits. He also has added 48 steals to his stat line. He will likely jump into the White Sox top prospect lists this offseason and has the ability to climb fast throughout the minors. He is still trying to find a place on defense and has experience at every infield position this year.

Ryan Galanie 1B: The former Southern Conference player of the year at Wofford, Galanie spent most of this season in AA. After starting the season in High-A and putting up a slash line of .315/.356/.565 with a 163 wRC+ in his first 21 games Galanie was promoted to AA where he numbers slipped a bit to .266/.320/.386 with a 107 wRC+. The same drop happened last year when he went from a 189 wRC+ in Low A and dropped down to a 111 wRC+ in High A. He has solid power and has above average contact skills. He only strikes out 15% of the time but he needs to walk more with only a 7.1% walk rate. He’s already 25 and will need to have another hot start to move up to AAA and potentially the majors next year. Not a super high potential bat but a player that has a chance to make the bigs.

Braden Montgomery OF: The 2024 12th overall pick who was acquired from the Red Sox last offseason for Garrett Crochet. Montgomery was one of my favorite swings in the draft last season, he’s a switch hitter with big power but some shaky contact skills that has elite bat speed. In his first professional season this year he’s already climbed from Low A up to AA. He’s been hitting well at every level with a .270/.360/.444 slash line and 136 wRC+ this season. His biggest problem is his below average contact skills. This season he has a 69.8% contact rate and he’s not just chasing he’s missing pitches in the zone, he has a below average Z-Contact% at each level with a 73.4% in AA. I’m not sure how much Montgomery will play as he missed the end of his last season in college with a fractured right ankle and was put on the injured list September 8th of this year with a small fracture in his right foot. Hopefully he can make his way back and show his power in Arizona.

Thank you for reading for shorter breakdowns check out my Twitter @drew-durstock. Each day I'll release a new team's prospect breakdown.