When the White Sox drafted left-handed pitcher Christian Oppor in the fifth round of the 2023 MLB Draft, it signified how highly they thought of his talent. The White Sox had selected Oppor in the 12th round the year before as well, and Oppor elected not to sign and attended Gulf Coast State Junior College instead. Rarely does a team draft the same player multiple times, but the White Sox liked Oppor enough to do just that. A brief stint in Rookie ball to finish 2023 showed the nasty stuff the White Sox liked, but a 2024 season that limited Oppor to just 38 innings and a 5.21 ERA was a cause for concern.
2025 felt like an important year for Oppor to build some innings and tap into the upside that got him drafted by the White Sox multiple times. With young pitchers Drew Thorpe, Juan Carela, Mason Adams, and Ky Bush all lost for the year after Tommy John surgery, the emergence of a younger wave of pitching prospects in the White Sox farm system became even more crucial.
Oppor’s 2025 season was all the White Sox wanted and more, and the 21 year-old has become one of the nastiest arms in all of Minor League Baseball. Oppor began the 2025 season as a back-end organizational top 30 prospect according to most outlets, but his impressive season has made him one of the fastest risers in the system.
Beginning the year with Low-A Kannapolis, Oppor’s first five starts of the season featured 34 strikeouts in 22.1 innings. Opponents hit just .160 against him, and his WHIP was an impressive 0.85. The White Sox were aggressive with Oppor, promoting him to High-A Winston-Salem after just five starts. Although his control wasn’t quite as sharp after the promotion, Oppor’s strikeout numbers were just as impressive at a higher level, and he continued to get batters out effectively. Overall for the season, Oppor posted a 3.08 ERA with 116 strikeouts in 87.2 innings between the two levels.
The metrics are high on White Sox prospect Christian Oppor
It’s easy to tell by the eye test that Oppor’s stuff is nasty, but it turns out there’s a metric that can measure this as well. Baseball America released a list of the top 150 minor league pitchers based on Naturalized Stuff+, and Christian Oppor ranked eighth on the list.
For those unfamiliar with the Naturalized Stuff+ metric, it’s a measurement of the quality of a pitcher’s pitches based on velocity, spin rate, movement, and release point. “Naturalized” means that the metric also includes outside factors like ballpark and environment. The measurements are compared against every other pitcher in baseball and are assigned a value based on league average.
Much like OPS+ or WRC+ on offense, a Stuff+ value of 100 would be equal to league average, with each number above or below 100 being 1% above or below league average. Christian Oppor’s 109 Stuff+ rating puts him 9% above league average and among the top pitchers in the minor leagues. One factor that Stuff+ does not measure is location of the pitches, which is the biggest area in which Oppor still needs to grow. His walk numbers weren’t bad, but he wasn’t always able to locate pitches as effectively as he would’ve liked. Still, it’s easy to see why the White Sox used two draft picks on him.
These pitchers led the minors in Naturalized Stuff+ this season.
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) October 7, 2025
See their scores and the top 150 full list: https://t.co/G8SMVgH1PT pic.twitter.com/HpJrcEGLOF
2026 should be another opportunity for Oppor to grow and develop into one of the top pitching prospects in the White Sox system. Another step forward could have him on top 100 lists next year, and at just 21 years old, there’s plenty of time to harness the command as he advances to the upper levels of the minor leagues.
It’s unlikely that Oppor will be ready for his big league debut in 2026, but with some of the nastiest stuff in the minor leagues, he’ll be an exciting player to watch.