Are White Sox targeting shortstop with first-round draft pick?

The Major League Baseball draft used to run 40 rounds, but it was slashed to five last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Starting Sunday, the draft returns and it's back up to 20 rounds.

The White Sox are ready to resume the near normal hunt for young talent.

"Last year, obviously there was no playbook for that," said Mike Shirley, the Sox's director of amateur scouting. "I thought how we executed our plan was tremendous based off the information we had. As I stated last year, just the pitching depth of what last year's draft was, it was something we tried to attack. But obviously when you're dealing with the pandemic and people's lives and health, protocols, it was so different.

"And the limited looks we had last year was difficult, but also I feel like we have a bunch of really great scouts that really pulled off a good opportunity to land a couple of really good prospects that we landed early in the draft last year."

The White Sox had the No. 11 overall pick in the 2020 draft and they were thrilled to get collegiate pitcher Garrett Crochet, a starter at Tennessee who was limited to 3⅓ innings before COVID-19 shut down play.

After joining the Sox's alternate training site in Schaumburg, Crochet found himself in the major leagues at the end of the season.

Working out of the bullpen, the left-hander pitched 6 scoreless innings for the White Sox. Crochet is 2-4 with a 2.81 ERA in 25 relief appearances this year.

"We feel like if Garrett had pitched through a normal season, he doesn't get to pick 11," Shirley said. "The pandemic benefited us being a part of that. It was unique and obviously him getting to the major leagues, he's helped us."

The White Sox were also feeling fortunate to get right-handed pitcher Jared Kelley on the second round. A high school star from Texas, Kelley signed for $3 million when his slot value at No. 47 overall was $1.58 million.

Like Shirley mentioned, last year's draft was loaded with quality pitchers.

This year's draft is stacked with high school shortstops, and that's where the Sox will likely be looking with the No. 22 pick in the first round.

"We've all talked about how deep this shortstop class is," Shirley said. "I think it's going to have some loud effect through the first round and into the second round because there are some really good players out there on the high school level that bring a lot to the table.

"I've stated this since the first day I got the job, these young players that are in high school today, even though they've lost some time they come quicker today than they ever have just because the training model and the competition model is so different than it's ever been."

With their top pick the White Sox have been linked to prep shortstop Colson Montgomery, who played at Southridge High School in Huntingburg, Ind.

Peyton Stovall from Haughton, La., is another shortstop to watch, as are two more high school players - outfielder James Wood out of the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., and third baseman Wes Kath from Scottsdale, Ariz.

"We all know drafts can be tricky and we don't try to like segment our draft in a certain way where we're leaning in one direction," Shirley said. "We remain very open-minded in all sectors of the draft because we want to pull off a successful draft. Do we upstairs feel like the high school position players especially have some noise for us? Yeah, we like a lot of those guys. Is it something we're looking very intently at?

"Absolutely, because we feel like the skill set of some of these infielders that present themselves are significant for us. And they're the pieces of the puzzle that are screaming at us a little bit as we look at where these players may be available to be selected for us, the White Sox at pick 22."