Brian Bannister joined the White Sox in the role of senior adviser to pitching in September.
He has enjoyed diving in with players throughout the organization.
“I think they did a tremendous job of giving us a lot of interesting arms last year and we went into the offseason and even spring training this year with some of the better arms in the league,” Bannister said this week. “I think that’s played out regardless of if those arms are still here or not right now.”
This season at the major-league level has included Garrett Crochet’s tremendous move from the bullpen to the rotation and Erick Fedde carrying over his success in the Korea Baseball Organization back to the majors — which led to trade interest and the right-hander eventually being dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Rookies Jonathan Cannon, Drew Thorpe — acquired as part of the trade that sent Dylan Cease to the San Diego Padres — and Nick Nastrini also have seen opportunities. And Davis Martin, who is starting Saturday against the New York Mets, has shown progression since returning from Tommy John surgery.
“We’ll keep developing pitching, whether it’s Davis Martin throwing a new changeup or Jonathan Cannon working with a seam effects arsenal and starting to figure that out,” Bannister said. “He’s got to address some slug against lefties, but those are all things that rookie pitchers have to figure out.
“I thought they’ve done a good job of coming up and being basically league-average pitchers, which is a hat tip to them. I’m confident that we’re going to keep developing pitchers, even if we have to subtract from the pitching side to bolster other areas too. But the conversations that go on the pitching side, pitching-development side have been really good this year.”
Crochet expressed a desire to continue making starts in September as the Sox keep track of his workload. Bannister likes that mindset.
“Garrett is a competitor and he wants to be out there,” Bannister said. “He doesn’t want to be treated like a reliever. He’s bona fide one of the best starters in the league at this point. He made a great adjustment adding the cutter in his arsenal. Between his raw fastball velo, his extension, the power cutter, the ability to show a changeup or sweeper, I believe he’s a No. 1 starter.
“I don’t think you want to treat a No. 1 starter any different. I think he’s going to go out there and continue to pitch even though it’s in an abbreviated sense right now. He’s still dominant. I’m really looking forward to what he can do in the future with a full season under his belt.”
Noah Schultz hopes to make an impact in the majors in the future. He has 2.35 ERA and 97 strikeouts in 20 starts this season between Class A Winston-Salem (3.95 ERA in seven starts) and Double-A Birmingham (1.46 ERA in 13 starts).
Schultz is the top prospect in the organization, according to MLB.com. The Sox have been intentional about keeping Schultz to a maximum of four innings per start.
“Different organizations — we did it in San Francisco last year — have experimented with shorter-inning duration, piggyback-type situations,” Bannister said. “I think there’s different ways of approaching it with a younger athlete who’s kind of on an accelerated timeline, just to prioritize their health but to make sure they’re competing and getting that development.
“I think there’s things we still want to do with him. He was able to throw with us up here (in Chicago) right after his Futures Game outing. He’s got unbelievable talent and great feel for somebody with limbs that long and being that tall (6-foot-9). His repeatability’s great. We’d like to get a little more swing and miss in there and a couple other attributes. But I think he’s done tremendous for himself with what he’s done across two levels this year.”
Schultz was the team’s first-round pick in 2022. This year’s first-round selection, Hagen Smith, is scheduled to make his second professional start Saturday against Brooklyn.
The No. 3 rated prospect in the organization, Smith tossed three scoreless innings on Aug. 24 at Aberdeen, allowing two hits with no walks and four strikeouts.
“In today’s game, with all the velo, I actually watch the hitters’ body language more than anything, whether they can see the ball,” Bannister said. “We had Ryan Walker in San Francisco, who literally steps across his body toward third base, and when he throws a pitch, hitters come back like, ‘I can’t see the ball.’ So that’s as important to me nowadays as velocity. Can the hitters see the ball? Can they distinguish between pitch types? Because you’re always trying to get pitches to move in opposite directions.
“So when I watched (Smith’s) outing, the fastball looked like it was on a line, hitters looked like they were struggling to pick it up, because he does hide it well behind his body. You rarely see lefty velo like that at the lower levels. A combination of all those, but I primarily watched the hitters’ body language, and there were a lot of encouraging signs.”
