2024 South Side Sox Top Prospect No. 43: Norge Vera
At some point, he’s going to have to have a healthy season
Norge Vera
Right-Handed Starting Pitcher
6´4´´
185 pounds
Age: 23
2021 SSS Top Prospect Ranking: 9
2022 SSS Top Prospect Ranking: 2
2023 SSS Top Prospect Ranking: 7
2023 High Level Winston-Salem (High-A)
Age relative to high level -0.1 years
SSS rank among all right-handed starting pitchers in the system: 13
Overall 2023 stats 0-4 ⚾️ 10 starts ⚾️ 15 IP ⚾️ 6.60 ERA ⚾️ 2.267 WHIP ⚾️ 15 K ⚾️ 21 BB
Norge Vera’s father, Norge Luis Vera, was a pitching legend in Cuba (he actually pitched against José Abreu near the end of his career) and idol of former Sox World Series hero José Contreras. Thanks in part to the White Sox history of attracting Cubans to their roster, it was no surprise that Norge Vera, considered the best pitcher in the 2021 international class, signed with them.
While throwing in the mid-to-upper 90s in workouts before the Sox signed him, he actually picked up a few notches soon afterward. The 21-year-old mowed down DSL hitters in 2021. In seven starts totaling 19 innings, he posted a 0.00 ERA and 0.74 WHIP by allowing nine hits, five walks and 34 strikeouts.
As Vera was more than two years older than the league average, he was expected to dominate — which he most certainly did. It’s not just the fact that he posted a 49.3% strikeout rate as opposed to a 7.2% walk rate, but opposing hitters hit just .141 against him. In addition to his strikeouts, Vera kept the ball down, as evidenced by a whopping 78.3% ground ball rate when hitters did make contact against him.
It’s not just his triple-digit heater that is drawing attention. Currently, Vera possesses at least a five-pitch repertoire that also includes a curveball, changeup, cutter and slider. Oh, lest one forgets, he also is on the very nascent stages of a forkball. With so many pitches, Vera will eventually discover which he’ll have the most success with and mete out the ones that give him the most struggles. Certainly, Vera is not settled with where he is now, and is focused on becoming a true pitcher and not merely a hard thrower.
MLB Pipeline grades his tools as follows: 55 for his fastball, curveball and slider; 50 for changeup and control. All are excellent grades, but they could even be better once scouts see him perform Stateside.
Currently, Vera is battling lat issues, and the White Sox are treating him very gingerly. Any hope of a decent innings load and possible move up the organizational ladder likely have already evaporated, in the interest of extreme caution for a special arm. Vera seems ticketed for Kannapolis, and he will probably ride out the entire season there — acclimating to life in a new country, to boot.
While not formally dealing with IL stints, Vera was handled gingerly in 2022, with eight starts in Kannapolis and two in Winston-Salem before, wait for it, another promotion as part of Project Birmingham. Never mind that Vera was overmatched at High-A, he still was thrown to the wolves three times vs. Double-A batters (5.63 ERA, 2.125 WHIP).
Still, at age-appropriate Kanny (0.3 years older than the level), Vera was mind-bogglingly good, with just five earned runs allowed in eight starts (24 innings). As with several other players rushed to Birmingham (and inserted in games!), there is risk of damage with the movement; there really was no reason for Vera to leave Winston-Salem for the final month of 2022, certainly if PB was as much about actual game play as it was camaraderie and instruction.
For the top pitching prospect in the system, 2023 was an absolute disaster, as Vera threw just 15 total innings among more than two months of injury time. And when on the mound, results were poor (yes, presumably predicated by injury, but still). At this point, with an eye toward Vera falling from the top RHSP in the system to our current 13th, all bets are off. Is Vera a starter, a reliever, and regardless of role will he be healthy enough to throw?
Vera’s Baseball Cube player ratings
Hittable 98
vsPower 98
Strikeouts 97
K/BB 61
Durability 52
Walks 47
Vera will see Winston-Salem again in 2024, with a primary goal of just ... pitching. At this point, despite being a bit old for A-ball, Vera will still need to be babied. Even a “full” season for him could be as few as 50 innings. But more than even results, we need to see health from his dynamite arm.
[Note: The makeup of the White Sox minors changes over the long course of this project, shifting ratings. The February 3 trades with Seattle and Arizona have added three highly-rated prospects to our list, sliding players down. The list below represents our updated rankings, although the stories they link to will retain original rankings (example, No. 56 Troy Claunch originally was our No. 55 prospect).]
2024 South Side Sox Top 100 White Sox Prospects
43. Norge Vera, RHSP
44. Riley Gowens, RHSP
45. Jared Kelley, RHRP
46. Ryan Galanie, 1B
47. DJ Gladney, LF
48. Eddie Park, CF
49. Yoelqui Céspedes, CF
50. Christian Oppor, LHSP
51. Michael Turner, C
52. Tristan Stivors, RHRP
53. Caleb Freeman, RHRP
54. Jake Peppers, RHSP
55. Shane Murphy, LHRP
56. Troy Claunch, C
57. Edrick Felix, 2B
58. Gabriel Rodríguez, RHSP
59. Edgar Navarro, RHRP
60. Lucas Gordon, LHSP
61. Andrew Pérez, LHRP
62. Javier Mogollon, 2B
63. Aldrin Batista, RHSP
64. Ryan Castillo, 1B
65. Bryce Willits, 3B
66. Colby Smelley, C
67. Wes Kath, 3B
68. Alsander Womack, 2B
69. Jordan Sprinkle, SS
70. Connor McCullough, RHSP
71. Luis Rodriguez, RHRP
72. Jonah Scolaro, LHRP
73. Ben Beutel, LHRP
74. Stiven Flores, C
75. Adrian Gil, 1B
76. Yohemy Nolasco, RHRP
77. Ben Norman, LF
78. Josimar Cousín, RHSP
79. Juan Gonzalez, C
80. Chris Lanzilli, LF
81. Alex Speas, RHRP
82. Fraser Ellard, LHRP
83. Garrett Wright, RHRP
84. Duke Ellis, CF
85. Mathias LaCombe, RHRP
86. Godwin Bennett, RF
87. Rikuu Nishida, LF
88. Caden Connor, LF
89. Zach Franklin, RHRP
90. Jeremy González, LHSP
91. Jerry Burke, RHRP
92. Frankeli Arias, LHSP
93. Mikey Kane, 3B
94. Carlton Perkins, RHSP
95. Tyler Neslony, LF
96. Drew Dalquist, RHSP
97. Jason Matthews, SS
98. Jonathan Stiever, RHSP
99. Tommy Sommer, LHSP
100. Daniel González, LHRP