The 2023 Major League Baseball Draft is coming up and the Chicago White Sox will be looking to restock and reload in hopes of eventually making it to the playoffs.
They have been restocking for the past few seasons but their talent is still working its way through the minors and hasn’t made an impact yet.
The Sox need to keep feeding their minor league system, which is one of the poorest in Major League Baseball, to keep talent coming out that’s worth putting on the field in the Majors.
The White Sox have loaded up on pitching prospects a little bit over the last couple of years but it can be said that you can never have enough pitching prospects. The White Sox need to continue to develop some strong prospects to help them in the future.
There are a lot of prospects for the White Sox to consider drafting.
The unfortunate thing about baseball draftees is that they aren’t quite ready right away (unlike the NFL where some are ready to go right out of the gate and can contribute to the team right away).
It takes time to develop baseball talent.
There are some players that are a little closer to being ready than others. Some of those can be college players that have a little more experience than a high school player who just graduated.
The White Sox need to look at each prospect carefully and evaluate how they are going to help the team out.
The White Sox will be interested in pitching talent in this draft and I have pulled three prospects out of the massive pile of talent available and taken a look at what they have to offer the White Sox.
Left-hand pitching is always something any team can use and the White Sox might be interested in one of the top left-hand pitchers in the draft this year, Cameron Johnson. Johnson comes from the IMG Academy.
He stands at six feet five inches and brings his 230 pounds to bear efficiently when he pitches. He’s got some room to improve his pitching overall but is getting decent speed at times (he’s been clocked at around 97 mph) and is starting to work his way toward becoming a more than-decent pitcher.
Some feel he’s going to be a star.
A few elbow issues have held him back a bit from realizing his full potential but he’s working through those issues. It’s been observed that he has a lot of spin on his fastball and his breaking ball is good as well.
His pitching arsenal is starting to get better and he’s slowly starting to increase the speeds of his pitches. With a little development time, Johnson could end up being one of the top left-handed pitching prospects in the 2023 MLB Draft and the White Sox could be in line to get him.
Yet another left-handed pitcher that might be available for the White Sox is Alex Clemmey. Clemmey comes out of Bishop Henricken in Rhode Island.
The six-foot-six lefty is thought to be a player that will go pretty early in the draft so if the White Sox want to grab him, they better think about it with their first pick.
Clemmey’s pitch speeds range between 98 to 99 miles per hour with high spin rates. His pitching arsenal is developing but some feel it might be elite in the future.
It would appear as if Clemmey is going to be a real star in the future and if the White Sox could grab him and develop him, they just might find out that they have a starter for the future.
Finally, when it comes to right-handed pitching prospects, there is one particular player, Wake Forest’s Rhett Lowder who is turning a lot of heads.
In fact, he just might be the best right-hand pitcher in the 2023 Major League Baseball Draft (Chase Dollander might have something to say about that). Despite a rocky start in college, Lowder has managed to reign things in a bit and has been playing much better.
Lowder has an excellent changeup as well as a fastball that gets up as high as 97 miles per hour. His slider can be effective but needs more work. With some time in the minors, Lowder can develop into a top-tier starter that’s useful at any point in the rotation.
The White Sox will surely look at a bunch of pitchers to see who will fit their style and their future plans.
Any of the three players profiled here would be great, as long as they can develop well in the minor leagues we could see them on the mound for the White Sox in the future. The Sox could definitely utilize their talents.