Chicago White Sox 2026 top 20 prospects: Braden Montgomery, Caleb Bonemer lead the way
The Chicago White Sox graduated seven players off their top 20 last year and just designated another for assignment in Jairo Iriarte, yet they still have a top-10 system thanks to their last two drafts and multiple trades of veterans for prospects that have restocked the cupboard. They also had several pitchers take big steps forward last year, the first time in a while I’ve been able to say that about White Sox prospects as a group.
(Note: Tools are graded on a 20-80 scouting scale; ages as of July 1, 2026.)
1. Braden Montgomery, OF (No. 30 on the top 100)
Height: 6-2 | Weight: 220 | Bats: S | Throws: R | Age: 23
Montgomery had a full, healthy season in 2025, with some positives on both sides of the ball and some warning signs that he’s not as advanced as some of his peers from the 2024 draft. Montgomery didn’t play after June 2024 because of a broken ankle he suffered in the NCAA postseason, then woke up in 2025 with a new organization after the Boston Red Sox traded him to the White Sox in the Garrett Crochet deal. Chicago started him in Low-A, where he raked, and bumped him up to High-A after 18 games, which was a more appropriate spot for his age and experience.
He hit .260/.348/.445 there in 290 PA, with a 24.1% strikeout rate. He then moved to Double-A Birmingham in late July and hit .272/.364/.416 with a concerning 28.7% strikeout rate before fracturing a bone in his foot. He did return in the Arizona Fall League, after I was there unfortunately, and was one of the best hitters there with a .366/.527/.634 line in 55 PA. That’s four stops in a whirlwind year that saw him rehab two bone breaks, so even completing the year with some production is a positive.
Montgomery is a good athlete with a 70 arm and 55 speed who should end up a 55 or better defender in right. He’s a switch hitter with much better feel to hit from the left side but more raw power from the right; he hit better right-handed on the year as a whole, but in the small sample in Double-A, he struggled batting from the right side, which I think is much more indicative of his present skills. He was a two-way player in college and then lost his first pro summer and autumn to the ankle injury, so he’s a little behind players his age, but his upside as a switch-hitting 25-30-homer right fielder with strong defense is still here if the White Sox are patient with him.
2. Caleb Bonemer, SS/3B (No. 44 on the top 100)
Height: 6-1 | Weight: 195 | Bats: R | Throws: R | Age: 20
Bonemer could have been a first-rounder in 2024, but he made some swing changes and had a very inconsistent spring against bad competition in the Michigan high school ranks, making him available for the White Sox to grab him in the second round on an over-slot deal. That looks brilliant now, as Bonemer found his swing and had a tremendous debut last year, hitting .281/.400/.458 as a 19-year-old in Low-A, finishing in the top 10 in the Carolina League in OBP and SLG, before capping it off with a strong 11-game finish in High-A.
He has a good feel to hit and for the strike zone, with a whiff rate on the year of just 23% and a chase rate of just 20%. He also has a pull-oriented swing that can give him some extra length on stuff away — but he murdered pitches on the outer third last year, so it’s not a problem right now, at least. He’s also hitting the ball pretty hard already, with clear room to add some strength as he matures, with 20-plus homer power a very realistic expectation.
Bonemer split time between short and third, mostly at the former, although he might be best suited to second base as he’s not a shortstop and his arm might not be enough for the hot corner. He’s going to be a bat-first player somewhere on the dirt, maybe a guy who moves around the infield but gets his 500 at-bats every year, with enough production to make him an above-average regular between his on-base percentages and growing power.
3. Hagen Smith, LHP (No. 58 on the top 100)
Height: 6-3 | Weight: 235 | Bats: L | Throws: L | Age: 22
Smith wasn’t on my midseason rankings last year because of his poor performance (he walked nearly 20% of batters he faced in April and May before hitting the IL), his elbow injury and questions about his mechanics breaking down. He was another beneficiary of the Arizona Fall League, as he looked much closer to his college self out there, even throwing strikes (10.5% walk rate) in a league where nobody throws strikes.
Smith sat 92-96 in my AFL look, topping out at 97.5 mph, and has been up to 99 in the past, with a fastball that can overwhelm hitters in the zone because he comes from a lower slot that makes it hard to pick up. His slider showed tight spin again with average break, also playing up because of the arm slot. He has an average or better changeup but barely used it in the regular season or the AFL, and it’s a pitch he needs to throw more because his lower slot will always make him more vulnerable to right-handed batters unless he can deceive them with the changeup. Righties had a .347 OBP off him last year, although he did strike out 30.7% of the righties he faced.
He’s probably always going to be a high-strikeout, medium-walks guy at his best, and a high-walks guy at his worst, but the arrow is at least pointing back up after his promising showing in Arizona. I’m not giving up on the No. 2 starter upside, although the probability of that is lower, and he’s probably more like a mid-rotation, 160-170 innings starter who’ll run a lot of high pitch counts and compensate with a bunch of 10-plus strikeout games.
4. Billy Carlson, SS (No. 66 on the top 100)
Height: 6-1 | Weight: 185 | Bats: R | Throws: R | Age: 19
Carlson is an electric defender at shortstop with an 80 arm and surprising power for someone who has barely begun to fill out his frame, coming into pro ball with a high floor thanks to that combination and the upside of a frequent all-star if the White Sox can help him get to more contact with some swing changes. Carlson is among the best high school shortstops I’ve ever seen, combining instincts, hands, lateral quickness and that arm strength to look like a big leaguer already even though he was just 18 at the time I caught him at NHSI in April.
At the plate he loads his hands very deep, creating an arm bar that causes his hands to get a bit lost in back. His timing getting to the zone is not consistent, and it’s hard for him to meet the ball out front to drive it. With his hand speed he should be a strong hitter for average, and reducing that deep hand load — which I’m not saying is an easy fix, to be clear — might be the ticket he needs. Chicago took him with the 10th pick last year given that combination of the floor from his defense and power along with the upside of an impact player on both sides of the ball.
5. Noah Schultz, LHP (No. 95 on the top 100)
Height: 6-10 | Weight: 240 | Bats: L | Throws: L | Age: 22
Schultz looks like he’s going to blow hitters away, but he’s a sinker/slider guy who induces groundballs and works with a bunch of grade-55 pitches, showing good control until last season in Double-A. Schultz is 6-foot-9 or 6-10 and can dial his sinker up to 97-98, but he doesn’t make full use of that height by extending way out over his front side; his extension is about 6.35 feet, above the MLB average but not what you’d expect given his height, and as a result, his fastball doesn’t miss many bats, but it does generate grounders at a rate of about 58% last year.
His low three-quarters slot puts some extra sweep on his slider, and he destroyed lefties last year, although right-handed batters hit him quite well, and he will need to throw his changeup more. His season was cut short by injury once again — this time a knee problem, and he’s previously had shoulder and flexor tendon injuries — and he has yet to throw 100 innings in any season. His path to success involves health, throwing more strikes and using that changeup more (or adding another pitch like a splitter).
It might also include trying to get even a little more extension out front, as he’s already above the median and could see immediate gains from it. I think everyone, not just the White Sox, is expecting more from him than what we’ve seen.
6. Tanner McDougal, RHP
Height: 6-5 | Weight: 185 | Bats: R | Throws: R | Age: 23
McDougal bounced back from a horrendous showing in 2024 to set career highs in everything, including innings pitched, strikeouts, ERA and walk rate. He averaged 98.1 on his fastball last year and generated near-50% whiff rates on his downer slider and mid-70s curveball. The fastball gets in on hitters very quickly — beyond just being 98 mph, that is — and he gets some ugly swings on it up in the zone. There’s effort to his delivery, and everything he throws is hard, which I presume is why he barely uses a changeup.
The White Sox limited him mostly to three innings per outing after the all-star break to manage his workload, which might be why he improved his performance after a midseason promotion to Double-A, walking 7.5% of batters there after walking 12.6% in High-A. It’s probably a full grade of difference between the control and the command, and I worry he doesn’t have a pitch for lefties even though he had only a moderate platoon split last year. It’s easy to say he’d be a high-leverage reliever if they moved him to the bullpen; you absolutely exhaust starting him, given this kind of bat-missing stuff, before you consider that.
7. Christian Oppor, LHP
Height: 6-2 | Weight: 175 | Bats: L | Throws: L | Age: 21
Oppor was Chicago’s fifth-round pick in 2023 but was all over the place in the Arizona Complex League in 2024, dropping him off their 2025 list. He came on last year, ripping through Low-A after an offseason of strength and conditioning work, getting up to 100 on his fastball and showing a plus slider and average changeup. The fastball comes in somewhat straight, and he’s going to have to locate it better within the zone, along with needing to generally improve his strike throwing after he walked 12.5% of batters following his promotion to High-A.
He is extremely athletic, maybe an 80 if we grade such things, and as a Wisconsin high schooler who played a single year outside of that state before he signed, he’s still young in baseball years. He could be a mid-rotation starter if he hits his ceiling.
8. Jaden Fauske, OF
Height: 6-3 | Weight: 200 | Bats: L | Throws: R | Age: 19
The White Sox love to draft local high school kids, with Noah Schultz and George Wolkow other Illinois natives in the system. Last year, they grabbed Fauske, who played at Nazareth Academy in LaGrange Park, in the second round. He’s a hitter first, using the whole field in games even though he can show 55-60 power in BP. He’s a lean 6-foot-3 with some room to fill out, although he’ll probably stay wiry strong, with probably 70/30 odds he’ll move to a corner rather than staying in center. He uses his legs well to drive the ball and shows good hand-eye coordination, with a chance to hit for average right away as the White Sox try to teach him how and when to get to his power. He profiles as an everyday corner outfielder with enough of a mix of average and power to be a 55 overall player or better.
9. Kyle Lodise, SS
Height: 5-11 | Weight: 180 | Bats: R | Throws: R | Age: 22
Lodise was Chicago’s third-round pick last year out of Georgia Tech, where he showed a solid mix of contact and power as their everyday shortstop. He hits fastballs well and did enough against offspeed pitches to see him getting to an average hit tool, with consistently hard contact but without any real top-end power. He went out as a shortstop but will end up at second base because his arm isn’t strong enough for the left side. He projects as an average regular at second, maybe a little more if he slides across the bag and turns out to be a plus defender. His cousin, Alex Lodise, was Atlanta’s second-round pick last season.
10. Sam Antonacci, IF
Height: 6-0 | Weight: 193 | Bats: L | Throws: R | Age: 23
Antonacci is a high-contact hitter who rarely whiffs on anything, with below-average power and no clear position, profiling as a utility infielder with some platoon issues. He actually has a bigger swing than you’d guess from the stat line, getting to enough line-drive contact to hit .291/.433/.409 on the season between High-A and Double-A. He succeeds with good swing decisions and a lot of medium-hard contact, rarely hitting the ball harder than that; he had 32 extra-base hits on the year in 519 PA. He played all four infield spots last year but doesn’t have the arm for the left side. He’s either a platoon second baseman — he slugged .300 off lefties last year — or a superutility player who moves around and provides on-base skills.
11. Jeral Perez, 2B
Height: 6-0 | Weight: 179 | Bats: R | Throws: R | Age: 21
The 2024 trade deadline deal that sent Tommy Edman and Michael Kopech to the Dodgers and brought Chicago Miguel Vargas also added two prospects to the White Sox, with Jeral Perez the better of the two. (The other, Alexander Albertus, missed almost the entire year due to injury and has 18 plate appearances as a member of the White Sox.) Perez hit .244/.315/.448 with 22 homers in Low-A as a 20-year-old, improving as the season went on as he started picking up and hammering fastballs. He hit .295/.357/.494 in the second half while cutting his whiff rate from 27% to 19% and cutting his chase rate, as well. He mostly played second base last year and needs to focus more on his defense; he’s physically capable of becoming an above-average defender there with work. The bat looks like it will play, with at least solid-average upside.
12. William Bergolla Jr., SS
Height: 5-9 | Weight: 165 | Bats: L | Throws: R | Age: 21
To call Bergolla a high-contact hitter undersells the man’s skills — he struck out 4.7% of the time last year, the lowest rate of any player with at least 200 plate appearances in the minors. He’s a solid-average defender at shortstop, trending up since he moved there full time after the White Sox acquired him in a July 2024 trade from the Philadelphia Phillies, and a plus runner who swiped 40 bags last year in 51 attempts. He has no power, with one professional home run in 1,219 PA, and aye, there’s the rub: He might not even make hard enough contact to hit for average. Bergolla is the kind of player coaches love because he plays hard and doesn’t strike out, but the White Sox have been down this road before with Nick Madrigal, and it didn’t end well that time.
13. Landon Hodge, C
Height: 6-1 | Weight: 175 | Bats: L | Throws: R | Age: 19
The White Sox went over slot for Hodge in the fourth round last season, landing one of the better prep catchers in the class and stealing a top LSU recruit in the process. He has a 65 arm and is a very good athlete who will definitely be able to stick behind the plate. He needs some swing work, showing good feel to hit but a tendency to get over his front side and end up swinging too much with his hands rather than generating power from his lower half. He showed good feel for the strike zone as an amateur but struggled when pitchers changed speeds on him. He needs reps on both sides of the ball, and I won’t be surprised if he has a slow start to his career as a result.
14. Jedixson Paez, RHP
Height: 6-1 | Weight: 170 | Bats: R | Throws: R | Age: 22
Paez, a Rule 5 selection from the Red Sox organization, has a long arm action but throws plenty of strikes with everything, posting a 3.3% walk rate over the last three seasons, all in A-ball. He missed most of the 2025 season with a hamstring injury, throwing 19⅓ innings across seven starts. He comes from a high three-quarters slot and works fastball-slider-changeup, nothing plus but all three viable pitches to conceivably keep him a starter — although as a Rule 5 pick who has to be on the major-league roster this year, he’ll probably be working in relief, and perhaps his stuff will tick up to the point where one of the pitches can miss more bats.
15. David Sandlin, RHP
Height: 6-4 | Weight: 215 | Bats: R | Throws: R | Age: 25
Acquired from the Red Sox in the Jordan Hicks trade, Sandlin changed his arsenal with the Red Sox to go fastball, cutter, slider, sweeper, using the cutter more than anything else but the four-seamer even though it’s probably the worst pitch of the four. He sits 94-96 in the rotation and gets decent spin on the slider and sweeper, needing something better for lefties to have a chance to start. Boston moved him to the bullpen in Triple-A, and he bumped up to 96-98, so he has a clear floor in the bullpen, but I’d like to see the White Sox try to return him to the rotation by tweaking his arsenal.
16. Mason Adams, RHP
Height: 6-1 | Weight: 190 | Bats: R | Throws: R | Age: 26
Adams missed last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery out of spring training, but he should be back at some point by midseason. He was 90-92 before the injury with a four- and a two-seamer, showing plus command and control of a five-pitch mix, lacking anything plus but managing to limit hard contact up through his brief stint in Triple-A. He can’t afford to lose any stuff to the injury, but if he comes back 100%, he has a chance to be at least a backend starter.
17. Tyler Schweitzer, LHP
Height: 6-0 | Weight: 185 | Bats: L | Throws: L | Age: 25
Schweitzer started the year in Double-A and made two starts, then moved up to Triple-A and struggled badly enough that the White Sox demoted him to the bullpen and then to Double-A to finish the year. He was outstanding in relief, sitting 93-95 with better control, although he might still not have a true outpitch even with good spin rates on his breaking stuff. He’s probably not going to start but might have more value in a bulk innings role given the lack of a single swing-and-miss offering.
18. Mathias LaCombe, RHP
Height: 6-2 | Weight: 185 | Bats: R | Throws: R | Age: 24
There have been only seven players in MLB history who were born in France, and none who was raised there. LaCombe might be the first, as he finally got past almost two years of injuries to make his professional debut last year. He’s been up to 98 with good sink and has the makings of a plus splitter that gets some angle to it, thanks to his low three-quarters slot. He pitched well in the ACL, then walked 17% of batters he faced in Low-A, so he’s a long shot. Bonne chance, bon courage.
19. Carson Jacobs, RHP
Height: 6-9 | Weight: 215 | Bats: R | Throws: R | Age: 24
Jacobs has a plus cutter and a four-seamer at 95, throwing them both (and an occasional splitter) from nearly identical release points to add to the deception. He just doesn’t throw enough strikes yet, walking 14.9% of batters he faced as a reliever in Double-A. If that gets better, he’s a big-league reliever who might get into setup work.
20. George Wolkow, OF
Height: 6-7 | Weight: 239 | Bats: L | Throws: R | Age: 20
Wolkow is an athletic outfielder who has huge raw power and can’t hit. Being 6-foot-7 doesn’t help, as he has a massive strike zone, striking out 30% of the time last year even while repeating Low-A — which was at least a big improvement from 41% the year before. He struck out over 40% of the time on non-fastballs, really struggling with breaking stuff. He’s a solid defender in right and an average runner who stole 33 bags in 39 attempts last year, and if he ever hits enough to get to the power, he’ll hit 20 homers in his sleep. I’m obviously quite skeptical that that will happen.
2026 impact
Several of these relievers could debut this year, but any real impact would be if Schultz or Smith ended up in the rotation in the second half.
The fallen
Jacob Gonzalez will get a call-up because he was a first-round pick in 2023, and he’s already reached Triple-A, but he hit .232/.307/.345 as a 23-year-old in Double- and Triple-A last year, mostly at second base. He’s an extra infielder, if that.
Sleeper
Oppor, because I bet on the best athletes, and he’s already showing the stuff of a mid-rotation starter.