Chicago White Sox No. 3 overall prospect dominates Chicago Cubs Double-A team

Things are not going the Chicago White Sox way to start the year as they’ve dropped back-to-back series to the Minnesota Twins and Detriot Tigers and are on a four-game losing streak.

The problem for the White Sox, other than the offense failing to produce runs, is their starters have failed to replicate their hot starts in their second outings of the season, with their top three starters allowing 16 earned runs in their second starts.

This is a big difference from when the starters were almost a bloop single away from setting a Major League Baseball record (thankfully a good one) for having all five starters not allow an earned run to start the season.

Even though the woes of last season seem to be folding over into this season, there is one difference, and that is the White Sox have talent down on the farm who are not far off from getting the call-up and helping the Sox win some ball games.

The strongest aspect of the White Sox farm system is their starting pitching depth, which sees three of their top pitchers opening the year down at Double-A Birmingham, with one young arm showing early signs of success.

Chicago White Sox’s No. 3 overall prospect dominates in season debut

Hagen Smith is the White Sox’s third-ranked prospect in the organization and made MLB’s top 100 list as the 32nd-ranked prospect. Smith is also considered, along with his teammate and fellow left-hander Noah Schultz, as the top left-handed prospects in baseball.

Smith made his first start of the season for the Barons and showed off why he’s one of the best young pitchers in the game by dominating the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate, the Knoxville Smokies.

In his outing, Smith collected ten strikeouts, eight of them swinging and missing, and two looking. At one point the 21-year-old had six straight strikeouts and retired nine in a row.

“A Double-A debut to remember for Hagen Smith!

The @whitesox No. 3 prospect racks up a career-high 10 K’s over four no-hit innings in his first start for the @BhamBarons.”

A Double-A debut to remember for Hagen Smith!

The @whitesox No. 3 prospect racks up a career-high 10 K’s over four no-hit innings in his first start for the @BhamBarons. pic.twitter.com/bLO5reqgPT

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) April 6, 2025

Smith’s two two-plus pitches in his arsenal, his fastball, and slider, were on display during this outing, and both were used as his out pitch to collect all his strikeouts.

The future of the White Sox is in Birmingham

Smith is beginning his first season at Double-A after making a handful of appearances down at Single-A Winston-Salem, given he was drafted last year.

Along with Schultz and Grant Taylor, Smith is the future of the White Sox starting rotation, and these three could all be up at any point during this season.

Smith could be up sooner rather than later if he continues his success, as the White Sox need to start embracing playing their young guys.

If the White Sox starters continue to struggle and Smith continues to show signs of growth, there could be a chance that Smith gets a call to come up to the big leagues before May.