The White Sox starting rotation has been one of the keys to their success in the early part of the season. Going into the year, it felt like their weakest group, but strong starts by Davis Martin, Sean Burke, and Erick Fedde have fueled the White Sox to a 25-24 stretch. With 113 games to go in a long MLB season, the White Sox will almost certainly need more than the five starters currently on their roster. Opening Day starter Shane Smith and pitching prospect Tanner McDougal are currently shut down with injuries, but the White Sox have other options. With a few interesting arms in the minor leagues, let’s rank the team’s options to be “next up” in the event another starter is needed.
3- RHPs Duncan Davitt and Jonathan Cannon, LHP Shane Murphy
The White Sox came into the season hoping fringe top-30 arms like Duncan Davitt and Shane Murphy could join former rotation mainstay Jonathan Cannon in giving the team quality depth. Unfortunately, it’s been a struggle for all three in the minors this season. Davitt enters Friday with a 6.43 ERA in nine outings for Charlotte and Cannon’s 8.20 mark is even worse. Murphy has only made three starts with the Knights this year but his 8.40 ERA isn’t anything to write home about either. Both Davitt and Cannon have made appearances with the big league team already this season, so they could be the easy choices for the White Sox, but none of them would inspire me with confidence that they’ll be able to serve as a quality replacement.
2- LHP Hagen Smith
I’ve seen a ton of White Sox fans online clamoring for Hagen Smith to be brought to Chicago, but it’s hard to justify it right now for me. Smith got off to a strong start this season after struggling with his control in 2025, but he’s starting to slip back into his old tendencies as of late. Over his first four starts this season, Smith walked five hitters total, but he’s walked 22 in his last six starts, including walking at least three in five of his last six outings. When he’s throwing strikes, he continues to be effective, but Smith has yet to go more than four innings in any outing and often completely loses control for an inning. There’s an argument to be made that bringing him to the big leagues and letting him work with Zach Bove and his staff could be the best thing for Smith, but I’d like to see him figure out how to consistently throw strikes before he makes the move to a higher level.
Hagen Smith racks up 6 strikeouts in his latest @KnightsBaseball start -- 5 vs. hitters with MLB service time 👀
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) April 28, 2026
The @whitesox 2024 first-rounder has a 2.33 ERA and 13.5 K/9 across six Triple-A outings: pic.twitter.com/C0RLYR6Awd
1- LHP David Sandlin
The White Sox took on Jordan Hicks’ contract to add Sandlin this offseason and Chris Getz expressed his belief that Sandlin can impact the starting rotation this season. Some back trouble and forearm soreness delayed Sandlin’s start to the season, but the right-hander is back on track now and is rehabbing in Charlotte. In his last rehab start, Sandlin struck out seven in four innings and got up to the 70 pitch mark, putting him only a start or two away from being a full go. Sandlin’s fastball has touched triple digits this season as his stuff continues to impress while he works on establishing a second fastball variation. If a spot in the White Sox rotation opens up, I think David Sandlin may the best equipped to get the first shot at it as of right now. Things can obviously change quickly, but I expect to see Sandlin on the South Side before too long.
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