Our Sox Populi staff combines their prospect lists each offseason, coming up with the Top 100 players in the system. We’ll be summarizing and counting them up here, five at a time, leading up to the regular season.

5
Kyle Teel
Catcher
Worcester Red Sox (Red Sox Triple-A)
Baseball Cube Rating 68.12
Simple WAR 4.7
Teel can hit, can field, and is considered the most MLB-ready player in the White Sox system. (We may not agree, but not because Teel isn’t ready or close to it, but there’s another catcher in the system who might be a small step ahead of him.) What’s better, given the No. 3 prospect just below is a backstop as well, is that Teel has some positional flexibility, including left field.

4
Colson Montgomery
Shortstop
Charlotte Knights
Baseball Cube Rating 52.13
Simple WAR 1.4
There’s no bones about it, Montgomery disappointed in what was supposed to be his coronation season in 2024. Then, talk as camp got underway this year was that South Side shortstop was Colson’s to lose this spring. Lose it he did, with continued back woes, to boot. Montgomery will have to stitch up the hole opened in his swing at Triple-A if he hopes to ever assume his destined position in Chicago.

3
Edgar Quero
Catcher
Charlotte Knights
Baseball Cube Rating 60.50
Simple WAR 2.8
Wow, wow, wow, former GM left the White Sox an Easter egg in one of his final White Sox moves, swapping free agents-to-be Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López to the Angels for our current No. 14 prospect (Ky Bush) and Quero. Our top hitting prospect won the Sox Populi Top Hitter for 2024 and seems certain to crack Chicago by midseason. He’s got it all as a catcher, including solid-plus catching arm and game-calling, contact hitting, a sprinkling of power and on-base ability. We envision a long platoon of Quero and Teel behind the plate on the South Side, and it is glorious.

2
Hagen Smith
Left-Handed Starter
Winston-Salem Dash
Baseball Cube Rating 78.17
Simple WAR 0.1 (pro only)
Despite a heavy SEC season of pitching, Smith moved right to the White Sox after being taken No. 5 overall last summer. He got reps this spring in Cactus League play, to mixed results, and seems destined for Double-A to start 2025. While he has an outside chance of South Side reps in the second half of the season, the White Sox seem to like the pairing of he and Noah Schultz, so where one goes, the other may follow.

1
Noah Schultz
Left-Handed Starter
Birmingham Barons
Baseball Cube Rating 85.17
Simple WAR 2.7
Schultz is unquestionably at the top of several lists among White Sox prospects: highest upside, quickest route to the majors, most certain future, not to mention BEST STUFF. Schultz has been spoken of as a possible major-leaguer in 2025, but maybe we should get him pitching a single game of five innings first. If you loved the Birmingham rotation of 2024, wait until you get a load of the Barons in 2025, with Hagen Smith and Schultz getting the Friday and Saturday starts

Noah Schultz photo courtesy of Birmingham Barons.

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