To everyone’s surprise, the White Sox have gotten very good production out of their starting rotation. Coming into the season, that was one of the team’s biggest concerns, as there wasn’t any proven front-line pitching slated to break camp with the team.
However, to start the season, that has been quite the opposite and pretty much everybody has looked good. Sean Burke is having one of his best starts to his career, as he has a 3.21 ERA over 33 innings. Erick Fedde is having a rebound season, as he has a 3.24 ERA over 33 innings. Davis Martin has established himself as the ace of the staff, as he has a 1.95 ERA over 37 innings. Additionally, Noah Schultz has come up and looked very good, as he has a 3.52 ERA over his first 15 major league innings.
The only rotation arm who has struggled so far has been Anthony Kay, as he has not been able to go deep in his starts. The White Sox have tried to solve that by having an opener for him, but that hasn’t seemed to fix the problem, as he has only gone more than five innings once this season. However, if the White Sox are inclined to keep him in the rotation, there is an easy fix that’s right in front of our eyes.
Instead of wasting a late inning reliever like Grant Taylor as an opener and preventing them from pitching in a high leverage situation, the White Sox should just promote Hagen Smith. Smith has only been going four innings in his minor-league starts, as he is on some sort of strict pitch limit. Piggybacking him with Kay would work out nicely, as they could combine for eight innings without wasting a reliever.
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Most importantly, this would allow Smith to continue his development with the major league club, while staying on whatever pitch count the White Sox organization has him on. Not only would this get him valuable major league innings, it could take a huge weight off the bullpen.
Smith has looked very good this year in AAA, as he has been racking up the strikeouts. That will likely translate over to the major leagues, as he has incredible swing and miss stuff. Smith needs to work on his control, but he can do that in Chicago with some of the best coaches in the organization.
Hagen Smith racked up five Ks over four scoreless frames for @KnightsBaseball tonight.
The @whitesox No. 4 prospect has a 1.38 ERA over 13 innings this season.
(🎥@FutureSox) pic.twitter.com/YJaASI8mn9
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) April 17, 2026
At a certain point, it’s no longer advantageous for players to keep dominating at the minor league level. They eventually need to come up and rip the Band-Aid off. If the White Sox want to continue to manage Smith’s workload, this would be the perfect way to do it while still allowing him to develop into the long-term ace they believe he can be. This is a move that would work out nicely for everyone involved and would be beneficial to the entire team.
