6 prospects who could help the White Sox

This story was excerpted from Scott Merkin’s White Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

CHICAGO -- As Major League Baseball focuses on an exciting postseason to conclude a top-notch 2023 season, the White Sox are looking toward the Arizona Fall League. The 2024 retool they hope eventually leads to the playoffs will involve some of the players suiting up for the Glendale Desert Dogs.

Young talent depth was lacking for the White Sox last season, but new general manager Chris Getz is preaching that players’ expectations across the board should be to make the ballclub out of Spring Training. The competition figures to be intense, with the team’s No. 1 prospect and No. 17 overall, per MLB Pipeline, shortstop Colson Montgomery, sitting atop the group.

“For right now, I just try to get better every single day and improve my game,” said White Sox outfielder Jacob Burke, the team’s No. 20 prospect coming off a breakout year. “As long as I continue to develop and get better, then somebody somewhere will make room for me.”

Here’s a look across the White Sox Minor Leagues from this past season:

3 players who forced their way onto the radar this year

OF Burke: The Pipeline scouting report for the 22-year-old center fielder describes the former star linebacker in Louisiana as playing baseball with a football mentality. Burke embraces that description.

“Yeah, definitely: Especially on the defensive side,” Burke said. “What makes me such an elite outfielder is the fact that I just really have no regard for my body. I’m fearless everywhere in the outfield. I’m not afraid.

“I’m waiting out there for that play where I get to go dive and lay out and make a crazy play. It’s not near as fun when they hit one up and you settle under it. I’m always looking for that ball in the gap [that] I can run down and lay out and do something crazy to help my team.”

A lower back issue left Burke at extended spring training to begin the season and he’s currently in Glendale. At stops with Single-A Kannapolis and High-A Winston-Salem, Burke slashed .294/.392/.439 with 19 stolen bases, 40 RBIs and 63 runs scored.

1B Tim Elko: Look no further than Elko, 25, for the team’s overall Minor League leader in home runs at 28 and RBIs at 106. The 10th-round selection in the 2022 Draft might have once been considered more of an organizational-type player, but if he continues to hit as he did across three stops in ’23, Elko could force his way to the Majors.

RHP Cristian Mena, No. 10 prospect: The numbers don’t jump off the page for Mena during his stints at Double-A Birmingham and Triple-A Charlotte, where he finished with a combined 4.85 ERA and 64 walks over 133 2/3 innings. But Mena is just 20 and his 156 strikeouts over 27 starts topped the system. Mena’s mound maturity exceeds his years.

2 possible breakout players to watch in 2024

LHP Noah Schultz, No. 2 prospect, No. 61 overall: White Sox fans received a taste of Schultz’s talent, and certainly liked what they saw. The team’s top pick in the 2022 Draft finished with a 1.33 ERA over 10 starts for Kannapolis, with 38 strikeouts, six walks and 17 hits allowed over 27 innings.

“He’s had a very impressive year,” Getz said. “He showed us what he’s capable of doing. Moving forward, it’s about building strength and gaining the innings that are needed for him to be a starter.”

C Edgar Quero, No. 3 prospect, No. 81 overall: Under the guidance of then-general manager Rick Hahn and executive vice president Ken Williams, the White Sox added important prospects by moving six veteran pitchers and third baseman Jake Burger at the Trade Deadline. Quero is at the top of the list among the impressive-looking acquisitions. He probably won’t start behind the plate for the White Sox at the outset of ’24, but he has a chance to be up later in the season.

1 big question for next season

How soon will Montgomery be Major League ready?

The White Sox have a $14 million club option on incumbent shortstop Tim Anderson for the ’24 season, along with a $1 million buyout. But Montgomery, the team’s 21-year-old top pick in the ’21 Draft, might not be far removed from taking his spot up the middle. Montgomery has great polish at the plate, with a career .409 on-base percentage and .847 OPS over 186 Minor League games.

“Colson is a great, great player. Great teammate,” Burke said. “Super fun guy to be around and he’s one of those guys that comes along in your career who’s just a little bit different.

“He’s got a great swing, great defense. Any big league team would love to have him on the roster.”