Chicago White Sox No. 1 Prospect To Make Second Futures Game Appearance

(story originally published July 2)

CHICAGO –– Noah Schultz will pitch in the All-Star Futures Game for a second straight season. The White Sox No. 1 prospect was one of 19 minor league pitchers selected for the game, scheduled for July 12 at Truist Park in Atlanta.

"It’s great. It’s an honor," Schultz said. "It’s definitely something I had a great experience at last year and the opportunity to be able to go back at a different field is awesome and I’m really excited.”

“We are only half way through, but he’s a really impressive kid who I think is starting to realize how bad he wants to be really good and that’s cool to watch,” White Sox director of player development Paul Janish said.

Last season, Schultz was accompanied by White Sox infield prospect Colson Montgomery at the Futures Game. But this year he’ll play alongside first-year pro Braden Montgomery, the No. 12 overall pick in 2024 who the team acquired in December as part of the Garrett Crochet trade.

Schultz allowed three hits and three earned runs in a third of an inning, with one walk and a strikeout in the 2024 Futures Game. While he wasn’t happy with the outing, he was glad to have the experience and is eager for another chance in 2025. Being around other top prospects also feeds his hunger to get to the major leagues.

“For sure. It’s awesome to be around those guys,” Schultz said. “It’s nice to face those guys, but it’s even cooler to be with those guys in the clubhouse and talk to those guys and pick their brains because they’re extremely talented. And it’s cool to see the guys I’m playing with, to learn from them. It’s a great experience.”

Schultz took another step forward in his career recently, as he made the jump from Double-A Birmingham to Triple-A Charlotte. Across 12 starts and 56.2 innings with Birmingham, he recorded a 3.34 ERA and a 1.58 WHIP while striking out 58 batters and walking 36.

Janish said the White Sox are doing their best to keep Schultz healthy and on a normal schedule this year, and that his body has responded well. Janish also explained why the organization made the decision to promote their top prospect, who’s ranked No. 17 in the MLB Pipeline.

“He performed well in Birmingham last year, got almost half the season there this year. Felt like at this point, discussing with the pitching group, Brian Bannister, Matt Zaleski and Chris [Getz], just thought it was a good opportunity to challenge Noah,” Janish said. “It’s a more difficult level for various reasons. He has to get used to the baseball, and there’s just better hitters. It’s a tougher league to pitch in.”

“Charlotte is obviously an offensive park, specifically their home park. It’s all in an effort to kind of keep pushing him. We are going to ask him to do it at the major league level, and that’s going to be even more difficult at some point. He's going to adjust.”

The challenge was evident in Schultz’s first two starts, allowing six earned runs in 5.1 innings in his Triple-A debut and giving up five earned runs in two innings in his second start. Schultz acknowledged the results haven’t been what he had hoped. But he’s confident he can handle the step up in competition, and mentioned a few things he’s working on.

“My first outing, I felt I had really good command for my fastball, four-seam and two-seam, but not as great for the offspeed. I was hanging stuff a little bit,” Schultz said. “And then the opposite last week, didn’t really have much control of the fastball, but had great control of the changeup and slider. Now it’s working to put those pieces together and I’m really excited to get to work this week and the rest of the year.”

Beyond the results shown in the box scores, Janish said the White Sox are looking for consistency in regard to what they’re asking him to do. He detailed a few of those things, which play into Schultz’s long-term development plan.

"There has been some usage adjustments with some of his pitches to get a little more granular, trying to make sure he’s adept at dealing with right-handed hitters,” Janish said. “He’s going to have success against left-handed hitters, but whenever the time comes and he’s pitching in Chicago, he’s going to have to deal with right-handed hitters the majority of the time from opposing lineups. So there’s some things kind of baked in there we really would like for him to continue to hone in.”

Schultz expanded on that dynamic, mentioning how he’s increased his cutter usage from below 10% to around 20-25%. Higher cutter usage also meant a change in his hand position, which affected how he threw other pitches and led to different movement on his fastball and slider.

He tweaked his changeup grip, too, which allows him to throw it harder and with more depth than run. Schultz feels he has better control of his changeup this way, so he’s been throwing it more frequently and is happy with how it looks.

He described all of that as a big learning curve, but over the last few months he’s been working on getting back to the comfort level from last season.

“It’s been a big adjustment, changing to shorter schedules and going deeper in games. There’s been a lot of things I’ve been working on,” Schultz said. “I’m really happy with how my body feels and how I’ve been able to stay healthy throughout the year. I’m looking forward to continuing that. There have been some growing pains and some struggles I’ve had, but there’s also been moments I’m happy with. There’s a lot I can point out, but the only way to go forward with it is to look at the good things I’ve done and try to replicate those the rest of the year.”

The White Sox would certainly like to see Schultz have stronger results in Triple-A, but Janish also thinks it can be good for pitchers and hitters to face adversity and learn how to work through it. Because when they get to the major leagues, everyone goes through lulls.

“I do think that it’s beneficial,” Janish said. “In Noah’s case, the first couple of outings in Charlotte might be the example. If we are being honest, he really hasn’t had a ton of struggles in the minor leagues up to this point. I wouldn’t necessarily describe what’s going on now as a struggle, but it’s an adjustment for him whether it’s the hitters, the park factors, whatever. He’s going to have to get used to it. I’m a proponent that it’s good for the guys to deal with relative adversity before they get to the major leagues because it’s likely they are going to get it there.”

One of Schultz’s biggest positive takeaways from this season has been maintaining his velocity deep into games. In 2024, he didn’t pitch more than four innings in any outing – partly by design, as the White Sox managed his innings. But this season, he already has nine starts of five-plus innings, including a season-high six innings on April 30. Schultz has taken that as a sign that his strength training behind the scenes has been working.

He also feels his confidence has grown this year.

“For sure, if you don’t go out on the mound with confidence I don’t think you’re going to have much success anywhere,” Schultz said. “It’s a matter of putting all the pieces together, which I have a clear plan for that, and I’m excited to go out the rest of the year and show that.”

The White Sox have already promoted top prospects Kyle Teel, Chase Meidroth, Edgar Quero and Grant Taylor to MLB this season. Schultz is ranked as a better prospect than those names, though he’s still just 21 years old. Janish spoke to the decision-making process of potentially calling up Schultz this season.

“With regard to when the time is right, I think that’s a collaborative decision with Chris and the organization. And the front office has shown, like with the Grant Taylor example, if the time is right, they won’t hesitate to make some of those decisions,” Janish said. “At the end of the day, it’s what’s best for Noah and we’ll continue to evaluate what’s going on and try to make the best decision for him. He’s not a short term play. He’s somebody we feel very strongly about being a cog in the future of the organization.”

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