Chicago White Sox: Explaining no top-100 prospects

The Chicago White Sox does not currently have any top-100 Major League Baseball prospects according to MLB dot com. That is somewhat concerning but it really isn’t that big of a deal right now. They are an elite first-place team that has serious aspirations of winning the World Series this year. If they don’t win it next year, they believe they can win it next year, the year after that, and the year after that.

The way they did this was by acquiring young prospect talent in addition to being good at drafting it and signing it in the international free-agent market. A lot of recent years have seen the White Sox with multiple top-100 guys. Most of them have graduated to the MLB level and made significant impacts.

For example, players like Tim Anderson, Eloy Jimenez, Luis Robert, Yoan Moncada, and Lucas Giolito have come in and become elite MLB players. Those guys are all big reasons why they are in first place right now.

Going into this season, Michael Kopech, Andrew Vaugh, Garrett Crochet, and Nick Madrigal were all high on the White Sox list and top-100 MLB prospects. Once they reached a certain number of games played, however, they graduated off the list. Kopech, Vaughn, and Crochet are significant players on the team now and Madrigal went to the Cubs for Craig Kimbrel. These things are important to remember when looking at the rankings right now.

The Chicago White Sox needs their farm system to keep supplementing the MLB roster.

When you take that many players off the list in a short amount of time, the system is going to take a hit. You just have to hope that when they reach the MLB level, they are good players. That has been the case for the White Sox. Not having any players in the top-100 is a minuscule worry for Rick Hahn and his staff for right now.

How do they get the farm back up? It is simple. Keep developing the players that they have and doing well with their drafting. As they get better at the MLB level, the first-round prospects will be less impactful because they will have later picks.

Andrew Vaughn and Nick Madrigal type players are usually drafted by bad baseball teams. They also aren’t trading MLB talent for high-end prospects while their window is open so that makes it harder as well. Doing well in the draft despite this and being smart in international free agency is a big key to finding more top-100 guys.

They can also develop some of their current guys into that top-100 status as well. Colson Montgomery, Yoelqui Cespedes, Jake Burger, Wes Kath, Jared Kelley, and Gavin Sheets are their top six prospects in that order and could all develop into great players over time. The White Sox are committed to these guys being used to supplement their already elite MLB roster. Hopefully, the talent keeps flowing through the system so they can continue getting better and better.