Juan Carela

Organization Prospect Rankings

• 
  Ranked Chicago White Sox #18 prospect in 2025
  BA Grade/Risk: 45/High.
  
  Track Record: The White Sox acquired Carela from the Yankees at the 2023 trade deadline in exchange for Keynan Middleton. A year later, his velocity ticked back up to where it sat earlier in his career. Carela pitched to a 3.71 ERA with 114 strikeouts in 106.2 innings between High-A Winston-Salem and Double-A Birmingham. The White Sox added him to their 40-man roster in November.
  
  Scouting Report: Carela has a whole array of average or above-average pitches. He uses both a two-seam fastball and a four-seamer and leans on the sinker more heavily. It sits 90-93 mph and touches 96 with armside run and average movement. The four-seamer is just a touch harder but used infrequently. Carela’s above-average 78-86 mph slider will get him to the big leagues and he used it 54% of the time. It moves with short break and tilt for strikes, and sweep action for chases down and away from righthanded hitters. Carela pairs the slider with an 88-90 mph cutter that has small, late action. It’s an effective pitch when he gets it in against lefthanded batters. An 84 mph circle changeup with above-average potential rounds out his arsenal. He has above-average command of his sinker-slider combination.
  
  The Future: Carela has just seven games of experience in the upper minors. He isn’t ready for the majors yet, but he’ll head to big league spring training and has the repertoire to remain a starter with a fallback as a bullpen piece who leans on his sinker and slider.
  
  Scouting Grades: Fastball: 50 | Slider: 55 | Changeup: 50 | Cutter: 50 | Control: 55.

• April, 2022 Scouting Report
  BA Grade: 50/Extreme
  
  May Update: Carela is one of the Yankees&#39 intriguing young arms at the lowest levels of the minor leagues. Signed in 2018, Carela teased at his potential in 2021 and has looked excellent in the early portion of this season. The Yankees&#39 pitching department tinkered with the grip on Carela&#39s slider to help shape it into a shorter, tighter offering than its previous iteration. Now, the organization is working on improving the quality of both Carela&#39s two-seamer and changeup. His strikeout and walk rates are trending in the right directions, making Carela an interesting sleeper-type prospect.