When you think of dominant Chicago White Sox pitching prospects, your mind probably goes to former first round draft picks like Noah Schultz or Hagen Smith.
The White Sox have developed a reputation for producing pitchers. They know how to scout pitchers, draft pitchers, and develop pitchers into solid Major League talents. Schultz and Smith are the latest examples of this at the minor league level.
Most Sox fans have probably never heard of Shane Murphy. That's because he was a 14th round draft pick by the White Sox in the 2022 MLB Draft out of Chander Gilbert Community College in Arizona.
Murphy was overlooked and undervalued when he first turned pro and not much has changed. Murphy has been dominating the minor leagues with the White Sox and could soon find himself in the Major leagues. But he has become the pitching prospect that nobody is talking about.
Shane Murphy's professional career
Murphy's first full professional season with the White Sox was back in 2023. He spent the entire year with the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (A-Ball) and made 21 starts. In 96.2 innings, Murphy had a 3.63 ERA and 98 strikeouts.
He was inarguably productive. But Murphy was already older than the average player in the Carolina League and did not have the overwhelming stuff that makes a prospect stand out. Murphy was on nobody's radar.
Murphy started the 2024 season with Winston-Salem, throwing 91.1 innings over 20 appearances and 14 starts. One positive development was Murphy's ability to pitch deeper into ballgames and show the stamina of a true starting pitcher. From July 3-September 1, Murphy made 10 consecutive starts where he completed 5+ innings. He had a 3.58 ERA over that stretch.
After Winston-Salem's season ended, Murphy finished out the year throwing six scoreless innings for the Triple-A Charlotte Knights.
Shane Murphy in 2025
In 2025, Murphy has been dominant at two levels of the minor leagues. He opened the season in Winston-Salem and quickly earned himself a promotion to Double-A Birmingham.
Murphy currently has a 1.47 ERA in 43 innings at Double-A. His WHIP is a remarkable 0.81. He also has a 37/5 strikeout to walk ratio (7.40) on the year.
On Tuesday night, Murphy completed seven innings and faced the minimum before being pulled at only 70 pitches. It was the longest start of his professional career. Murphy has now given up one earned run or less in his last seven starts.
Shane Murphy was simply masterful Tuesday night in Montgomery. He goes 7 innings and faces the minimum 21 on 49/70. He allowed 1H and 1BB, 1 he picked off and the other was erased by a DP. He gets the W, and is 5-3. He lowers his ERA to 1.47. #Barons win 12-3. pic.twitter.com/1WIcUcgUZa
— FutureSox (@FutureSox) June 11, 2025
He may not have an overwhelming fastball or the traits that we're used to seeing from dominant pitching prospects (sits lower 90s), but Murphy has really mastered his control this year. His slow, sweeping curveball gets a lot of ground ball outs and puts batters away.
Murphy is not featured on the White Sox list of Top 30 prospects because of his age and arsenal.
At 24 years old with over 250 innings thrown in the minor leagues, I think Murphy is knocking on the door of being Major League ready. It's getting hard to ignore his production in Birmingham, and Chris Getz just proved he is willing to call guys up directly from Double-A with the promotion of Grant Taylor this week.
At the end of the 2024 season, we saw pitchers like Sean Burke and Ky Bush debut for the White Sox to eat some innings and get big league experience. Shane Murphy could be that guy for the Sox in 2025.
He's far from a sure thing, but with all the discussion surrounding exciting young White Sox pitchers, I think Murphy belongs in the conversation. I wouldn't rule out him having a Major League impact over the next few years.