There were a couple of notable updates on the White Sox pitching staff today. For one, the club announced that Rule 5 pick Shane Smith will make the team, along with video of him receiving the news and relaying it to his parents. In a less positive update, manager Will Venable told reporters that Drew Thorpe departed a minor league spring game due to elbow discomfort and will likely require some imaging. Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times passed along video of Venable’s comments.
Smith, 25 next month, was the top pick in the Rule 5 draft which took place in November. A Brewers prospect, he had tossed 157 innings over the 2022 through 2024 seasons, allowing 2.69 earned runs per nine. He struck out 32.2% of batters faced while walking 8.4% of opponents, with solid ground ball rates as well.
The workload was fairly minimal. The pandemic had been a major interruption in 2020 and then Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2021. That led to him joining the Brewers as an undrafted free agent. He was working in relief in 2023 but he split his time between the rotation and bullpen in 2024. He got to 94 1/3 innings on the farm last year with a 3.05 ERA.
Despite the solid numbers, the Brewers didn’t add him to their 40-man roster, allowing the White Sox to grab him in the Rule 5. That gave Smith an opportunity to make his big league debut, which he has seized. He has tossed 10 2/3 innings over four spring starts. He allowed four earned runs with 11 strikeouts and four walks. For a White Sox club with little certainty on the pitching staff, that’s more than enough to make the team. As Venable said to Smith in the clip linked above, he made the decision pretty easy for them.
In addition to making the Opening Day roster, Smith might also have a rotation spot to start the year. Venable relayed last week that four rotation spots were taken by Sean Burke, Martín Pérez, Davis Martin and Jonathan Cannon. That seemed to leave Smith and Bryse Wilson as the two favorites for the final rotation job. Wilson has experience pitching as a starter and reliever. As mentioned, Smith has done both in the minors.
Perhaps more clarity will emerge in the coming days about specific roles, but the key thing is that Smith will be with the club. Rule 5 picks can’t be optioned to the minors. If a club doesn’t want to carry a Rule 5 guy on the roster, they need to put him on waivers and then offer him back to his original club if he clears. But Smith did enough to stick around and will get a chance to face major league hitters in official games soon.
Turning to Thorpe, more information will surely come out in the next few days, but it’s an ominous diagnosis for now. One of the top pitching prospects in the league, he was twice part of a blockbuster trade last offseason. He went from the Yankees to the Padres as part of the Juan Soto deal, with the Friars then flipping him to the Sox as part of the Dylan Cease package.
The young righty posted a 1.35 ERA in 11 Double-A starts last year and got promoted to the majors in June, skipping over the Triple-A level. But he posted a 5.48 ERA in his first nine MLB starts and landed on the injured list in early August with a flexor strain in his throwing arm. A month later, it was reported that he would undergo surgery to remove a bone spur from his right elbow. In January, he told reporters that he needed a cortisone shot to deal with some lingering inflammation.
Here in camp, he has been ramping up with bullpens and live batting practice. That led to today’s minor league contest, his first real game action of the year. The fact that it ended with some more elbow discomfort is clearly a worrying development.
Further testing will reveal next steps but a significant injury would be unwelcome in many respects. It’s never good for a pitcher to miss notable development time but Thorpe was also set to have a wide open lane for big league opportunities. The Sox just lost 121 games last year and will have lots of starts available this year for anyone who earns them. If Thorpe is on the shelf, he obviously wouldn’t be able to take advantage of that clear path.
Photo courtesy Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images