It has been a rough go for right-handed pitching prospect Gage Ziehl ever since he was traded from the New York Yankees to the Chicago White Sox in July.
Ziehl was a fourth-round pick by the Yankees in the 2024 MLB Draft, making 2025 his first taste of professional baseball. He started the season with Low-A Tampa, but was promoted as high as Double-A before being moved at the deadline.
Across three levels of the minor leagues prior to the trade, Ziehl made 15 starts and pitched 82.1 innings with a 4.15 ERA and 1.24 WHIP.
Early success had Ziehl as the No. 18 ranked prospect in the Yankees farm system, and then they shipped him to the White Sox for outfielder Austin Slater. He's now the 15th best prospect for Chicago.
The White Sox started Ziehl in High-A Winston-Salem, but he allowed 17 hits and 10 earned runs over his first three starts with his new organization (9.1 innings).
Gage Ziehl has first good outing in White Sox organization
Thankfully, Ziehl bounced back and looked like the prospect the White Sox traded for on Thursday evening.
Ziehl went five innings against the Wilmington Blue Rocks, allowing five hits, one walk, and one just one earned run.
Gage Ziehl with the start for the #Dash on Thursday. He has a nice night working his pitches. Ziehl tosses 5 innings of 2R/1ER ball on 5H and 1BB. He strikes out 1 on 56s/84p. He receives a ND. pic.twitter.com/pdBbL940sL
— FutureSox (@FutureSox) August 22, 2025
After the game, Ziehl talked about making some mechanical adjustments that led to him having more comfort on the mound with all of his pitches.
"Me and [pitching coach Blake Hickman] had a talk in the bullpen earlier this week about little mechanical things. I had kind of been pulling off everything, and today I think the execution and just the way everything went, hitting my locations, I think it definitely was a lot better than it has been," Ziehl told Jeff Cohen of FutureSox after the game.
I chatted postgame with Dash starter Gage Ziehl. He went 5 innings tonight, scattering 5 hits and a walk while striking out 1 and giving up a lone earned run. His last 2 starts were rough but a mechanical tweak with pitching coach Blake Hickman seems to have him back on track. He… pic.twitter.com/Kj9imBdy3o
— jeff cohen (@TripleAJeff) August 22, 2025
Ziehl's best quality as a pitcher is his control. While he hasn't struggled with walking guys since being traded, he hasn't hit his spots and executed his pitches as well as he would like to. That's showing itself in the results.
With the improved pitch execution on Thursday night came the soft contact that Ziehl relies on. He got six ground outs and six fly outs.
Austin Slater turned out to be the least impactful acquisition of anyone moved at the trade deadline. The White Sox are playing with house money when it comes to Gage Ziehl, but Thursday night was a sign that he can still be a quick moving prospect with MLB upside.