The White Sox traded for Huscar Brazobán at the deadline, hoping to bolster their bullpen. Instead, it has been rookie Hagen Smith who has emerged as the difference-maker down the stretch.
Since making his MLB debut on Aug. 9, Smith has quickly emerged as one of Will Venable’s most trusted high-leverage options out of the bullpen. In his first 23.2 innings, he has allowed just three earned runs, posting a 1.14 ERA with 34 strikeouts vs 12 walks.
Walks were among Smith’s biggest concerns in the minors, making his ability to limit them especially important as the White Sox turned to him out of the bullpen in the midst of a pennant race. While his 13.2% walk rate remains a blemish, he has been able to overcome it with elite swing-and-miss stuff.
His 37.4% strikeout rate would rank amongst the best in the MLB if he had enough innings to qualify. But that strikeout rate isn’t simply the product of a small sample size; hitters haven’t been able to touch him since he put on a White Sox uniform. The former Arkansas Razorback also owns a 37.7% whiff rate, while limiting opponents to a 2.2% barrel rate and a .173 expected batting average.
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Smith has leaned heavily on his fastball-slider combination, but he has also kept hitters off balance with a cutter and changeup. He has thrown the changeup just 3% of the time, yet it has generated a 40% whiff rate, second among his four pitches behind only his slider, which has produced a 45% whiff rate.
If Smith can continue to develop the changeup over the offseason, an already nasty arsenal could become even more difficult for hitters to handle.
That arsenal was on full display last Saturday in St. Louis. With the White Sox tied 4-4, Venable handed the ball to Smith in the fifth inning, and the rookie responded with a perfect 1-2-3 frame against the heart of the Cardinals’ lineup.
Smith opened the sixth by striking out Thomas Saggese on a filthy 83 mph slider in the dirt, then got Masyn Winn to swing through an 86 mph changeup for back-to-back strikeouts. By the time he was lifted for Grant Taylor in the seventh, Smith had needed just 21 pitches to complete two perfect innings, striking out three.
He followed that performance with two more scoreless innings against the Cleveland Guardians, allowing just one hit and no walks while striking out three.
His reign of dominance, which included allowing just one run over his first 22 innings, hit a brief snag Wednesday when he surrendered two runs to the Guardians over 1.2 innings. But the damage was largely self-inflicted, as Smith issued a pair of walks rather than getting squared up by Cleveland’s hitters.
The second walk came with Smith just one out away from escaping the inning. After issuing Austin Hedges a free pass, Smith was pulled, and both runners he left on base came around to score one batter later when Sean Newcomb surrendered a two-run homer to Petey Halpin.
For a White Sox bullpen that needed a boost at the deadline, Smith has provided an unexpected answer: a dominant young arm who looks like the key piece of the pitching staff Chicago envisioned when it selected him in the first round of the 2024 MLB Draft.
