White Sox Farm Report: Winston-Salem
The White Sox have a lot of promising prospects in the minor leagues, and the players at Winston-Salem are no exception. While they don’t have the team success like the Cannon Ballers or the Barons, they still have a decent record and a lot of individual players performing very well. Here are a few players White Sox fans should be familiar with:
Wes Kath
Kath was a second round pick of the White Sox just a few years ago, and he is having a very good season in 2024 far. He is hitting .220 with a .324 OBP. While the average is a bit low, he has already tied his season total in homers from last year, as he has eight so far.
Kath is on pace to crush his career high in homeruns this season, as the total is just 13. Since he already has 28 RBIs, he will likely top his career high of 45 in the run batted in category as well.
Still just 21, Kath has the potential to be among the players the White Sox could lean on to provide some power at the big league level. Kath will have to cut down on the strikeouts and raise the average, but he is not out of the White Sox plans at this point.
If he can come on even stronger in the second half of the season, I wouldn’t rule out a promotion to Birmingham.
Juan Carela
Carela was acquired by the White Sox at the deadline last year in a deal with the New York Yankees for Keynan Middleton, and since that trade, all Carela has done is shove.
So far on the season, Carela has a 3.42 ERA over 50 innings. He has struck out 43 batters and has a 1.34 WHIP. Batters are hitting .230 off of him, which is a bit elevated from his past years, but that is still a very solid number.
Carela has some very good stuff and could be a very good starter in the major leagues. I would imagine he is one of the pitchers that gets promoted to Birmingham if they promote some of the starters there to the major leagues.
Due to the sheer amount of pitching prospects in the system, I wonder how the White Sox will handle him, as he is unfortunately stuck behind six or seven guys in the rotation, not just in Birmingham, but in Charlotte as well. There could be a potential move to the bullpen, but I would prefer to keep him as a starter if possible, as he is extremely talented.
However, if they did convert him to a reliever to get him to the major leagues, he could be very effective in that role as well. Carela was an underrated acquisition at the deadline and he should be a fun name to watch move through the system, as he is still just 22.