CHICAGO — The Chicago White Sox have agreed to terms with 20 of their 21 selections from the 2024 First-Year Player Draft, including first-round pick (fifth overall) left-handed pitcher Hagen Smith, and eight undrafted free agents.
Here is a list of the drafted and undrafted players the White Sox have signed:
The lone player who remains unsigned is Myles Bailey, the White Sox’s 20th round selection, who played first base for Lincoln High School in Tallahassee, Florida.
According to Perfect Game, Bailey is their No. 1-ranked high school first baseman in the country, and No. 37 overall prospect in the class of 2024. He is committed to play baseball at Florida State university.
Hagen Smith
Smith was ranked by MLB.com as the No. 5 prospect in this year’s draft. Standing at 6-foot-3, 225 pounds, Smith went 9-2 with a 2.04 ERA, .144 opponents average, 0.89 WHIP and 161 strikeouts over 16 starts with Arkansas this season.
Smith also led the country in strikeouts-per-9.0 innings pitched — A NCAA-record 17.25 — Opponents batting average and fewest hits per 9.0 IP (4.4). He set Razorbacks’ program records with 11 double-digit strikeout games in 2024 and 360 career strikeouts.
“There’s not enough quality left-handers out there,” said White Sox senior advisor of pitching Brian Bannister Tuesday. “He was the best in college this year. [Smith has] really a nice power fastball that misses bats, unique approach angles, ability to spin a breaking ball.”
A native of Bullard, Texas, Smith was named National Pitcher of the Year by numerous outlets, including ABCA/Rawlings, the Collegiate Baseball Foundation and Perfect Game, and was a unanimous First Team All-American selection by Baseball America, D1Baseball and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.
He was also named Southeastern Conference (SEC) Pitcher of the Year, a First Team All-SEC selection, and a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award and Dick Howser Trophy in 2024.
“I’ve had the opportunity to work with both Chris Sale and Carlos Rodon, who both had tremendous success with the White Sox,” Bannister said. “When looking at our ballpark, and the types of pitchers who play in our ballpark, [Smith] fit the mold.”
Smith helped guide Arkansas to a second-place finish in the SEC (four conference programs made the College World Series) and the No. 5 overall seed in the NCAA Baseball Tournament in 2024.
He matched the school record with 17 strikeouts on 78 pitches over 6.0 scoreless IP on Feb. 23 vs. No. 7 Oregon State. Smith went 24-6 with a 3.40 ERA, four saves and 360 strikeouts in 54 games (42 starts) over 233.0 IP and three seasons (2022-24) with the Razorbacks.
Smith joined shortstop Jacob Gonzalez (15th overall in 2023), left-handed pitcher Noah Schultz (26th in 2022), shortstop Colson Montgomery (22nd in 2021), left-hander Garrett Crochet (11th in 2020) and first baseman Andrew Vaughn (third in 2019) as the White Sox most recent first-round selections.
Caleb Bonemer
Caleb Bonemer, the 2023 and 2024 Gatorade Michigan High School Player of the Year, played his high school ball for Okemos High School, a town situated a few miles southeast of Michigan’s state capitol, Lansing.
According to the Lansing State Journal, Bonemer became the highest-ever drafted player from the Greater Lansing area when he was selected 43rd overall by the White Sox.
The 6-foot-1, 195-pound shortstop first gained national notoriety in 2023 when he homered twice in the Perfect Game National Tournament, and later went 6-11 in the Area Code Games, a national tournament between eight regionally designated teams featuring the top 240 high school baseball players in the country.
According to MLB.com, Bonemer features some of the best bat speed among high school hitters in the 2024 class, and combines with his strength to give him way above-average power for his age.
Defensively, scouts said he has soft hands and can make throws from a variety of angles at shortstop, but he may not have ideal quickness for the position long term, making him a candidate that profiles well for a transition to third base.
Bonemer hit .429 with a .598 on-base percentage and 10 doubles, seven home runs and 20 stolen bases for Okemos High school in 2024.
Blake Larson
Taken with the 68th overall pick in the Competitive Balance B Round of this year’s draft, Blake Larson is a lanky left-hander who played high school ball in Des Moines, Iowa, before transferring to nationally-renowned IMG Academy to raise his draft stock.
According to MLB.com, Larson is a 6-foot-3 southpaw with a high ceiling. Scouts said if all of his dominos fall in a row as he develops in the minor leagues, he could have three plus-pitches one day (fastball-slider-changeup).
“He took a big leap forward, another lefty that can pitch in the mid-90’s,” Bannister said or Larson. “We thought there were seam-effects on the fastball. The breaking ball shape is almost a dead ringer for Chris Sale so, we liked that aspect. It’s really hard to find lefties with premium breaking balls.
“So the culmination of the hyper-mobility he has, the ability to add mass over time, already showing the premium velocity for a lefty … It was an exciting package to get.”
His fastball already runs as high as 96 mph that pairs well with a low-80’s slider that looks like a true out pitch. His third offering, a firm changeup, isn’t used by the lefty all too often, but scouts said he has shown enough feel for the pitch that evaluators think it has the potential to be an above-average offering at the pro level someday.
Notable background information about Larson includes that he played in the 2018 Little League World Series for Grandview Little League in Iowa.
Nick McLain
With the 78th overall pick in the third round, the White Sox selected Arizona State outfielder Nick McLain, who could say pro baseball is truly a family affair.
The youngest of three brothers, Nick’s oldest brother Matt was a first round pick of the Cincinnati Reds who received Rookie of the Year votes last season, while his middle brother Sean was a fifth round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2022.
McLain’s draft stock suffered from injuries. He missed his entire freshman year at UCLA with a back problem before transferring to Arizona State, where he broke his hamate bone in each hand months apart, costing him most of 2024 as well.
His saving grace was a hot May at the plate, which scouts told MLB.com highlighted the hit tool McLain possesses as a switch-hitting outfielder.
When healthy, McLain has the chance to provide as much hitting ability as he does power. Scouts said he’s a more polished hitter from the left-hand side of the plate, but he’s shown the ability to drive the ball from both batter’s boxes, with his power improving as he recovered more and more from the hamate injuries he sustained.
The added pop also came from McLain bulking up a slight bit, which some scouts said slowed him down a little bit, and pushes him more toward profiling as a corner outfielder, rather than a center fielder where he showed some feel while playing at Arizona State.
McLain slashed .342/.457/.663 with 18 doubles, three triples and 12 home runs to go with 54 RBI in 2024, which included him walking more than he struck out (33/27) and homering in five straight games in May.