Shane Smith Leading Rule 5 Draft Success Story For White Sox
Image credit: Shane Smith (Photo by Ben Hsu/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The characterizations attached to the White Sox these days are usually ones a team would prefer to go unnoticed.
Last year, they had the worst record in team history (41-121) and one of the worst in MLB history. This year, they remain on pace to have the second-worst record in team history.
But here’s a White Sox description that’s actually a positive: This year’s White Sox Rule 5 class could end up as one of the best in recent history.
Righthander Shane Smith, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 Rule 5 draft out of the Brewers’ system, has been exceptional. At 1-2, 2.08 in eight starts, he’s the ace of the pitching staff, the White Sox’s best player and one of the best Rule 5 picks of the 21st century.
Smith currently has 1.6 bWAR, which leads all White Sox’s players. In the 21st century, only nine players have topped 1.5 bWAR in their Rule 5 season. The only starting pitchers to do so are Royals righthander Brad Keller (4.2 bWAR) and Athletics righthander Mitch Spence (1.6 bWAR).
Smith has had three scoreless outings of 5+ innings. Spence and Keller each did that only once in their Rule 5 seasons.
In Smith’s case, it does not seem to be a fluke. He’s added another tick to his fastball and now sits 94-96 mph as a starter. But more importantly, since joining the White Sox, he’s developed a new low-90s changeup that has quickly become his best pitch.
Smith didn’t even throw a changeup in 2024. Now, he throws it more than 20% of the time, and it’s been a bottom-of-the-zone weapon that he can throw to righties and lefties. Opponents are hitting .143/.227/.200 against it with a 34.7% whiff percentage. It rates as one of the better changeups in the big leagues.
With an average-or-better fastball, a plus changeup and a promising slider, Smith has the stuff to be a long-term rotation piece.
Righthander Mike Vasil, claimed off waivers when he didn’t make the Rays out of spring training, is another productive Rule 5 pick. Vasil is 2-1, 1.88 pitching out of the White Sox bullpen. He doesn’t have any saves, but that’s not shocking when you consider the team has only two saves all year.
Vasil does have 24 innings pitched out of the pen, which leads all White Sox relievers. His 4.41 FIP is more in line with his true talent level, but he’s proving to be a useful multi-inning reliever for a team that can use someone reliable in that role.
That by itself would have been enough to make the White Sox a Rule 5 success story. On a team with 2.6 bWAR overall, Smith (1.5 bWAR) and Vasil (0.6 bWAR) are standouts. But the White Sox also claimed third baseman Gage Workman when the Cubs decided to place their Rule 5 pick on waivers. Workman was designated for assignment on Monday, but before that, he was briefly on the White Sox roster.
During that time, the White Sox became only the third team in the 21st century to carry three MLB Rule 5 picks on their roster at the same time, joining the 2017 Padres and the 2003 Tigers.
The Padres traded to end up with the top three picks in the 2016 Rule 5 Draft, picking righthander Miguel Diaz, catcher Luis Torrens and shortstop Allen Cordoba. All three stuck, but none of them were big league ready that year and combined to produce -2.6 bWAR that season. Torrens hit .163/.242/.203 as a backup catcher. Cordoba hit .208/.282/.297 as a backup infielder and Diaz went 1-1, 7.34 out of the Padres’ bullpen.
The Padres move was all about the future, with the hope the young and not-ready Rule 5 picks could blossom eventually. It didn’t really work out.
That ended up being Cordoba’s only season in the majors. Diaz eventually did give the Padres a 3-1, 3.64 season in 42 innings in 2021, but that came after he came back to the team as a free agent. Torrens has become a solid backup catcher, but he was traded by the Padres to the Mariners in 2020’s Austin Nola/Ty France/Andres Munoz trade before he blossomed.
For the 2003 Tigers, Matt Roney, Chris Spurling and Wilfredo Ledezma all pitched out of the bullpen for a team that went 43-119. Roney went 1-9, 5.45, Spurling was 1-3, 4.68 and Ledezma was 3-7, 5.79. That was Roney’s only season with the Tigers. Spurling returned to have a solid 2005 season out of the Tigers’ bullpen, but that was his best MLB season. Ledezma was the only one to have real staying power. He was a Tiger for five seasons as part of a nine-year MLB career.
There have been other teams who went all in on the Rule 5 draft. The Orioles drafted three players in 2017. The Padres drafted four players in 2015. The Yankees drafted a trio in 2011. The Phillies drafted three in 2006. The Tigers drafted three in 2003. The Blue Jays, Reds and the Red Sox each drafted three in 2002.
But in all of those cases, they never had three on the active MLB roster. These were attempts to find one Rule 5 gem by taking multiple chances.
Over a century ago when it was established, the Rule 5 draft (or draft as it was known at that time) was set up to ensure that teams couldn’t hoard talent that could be playing larger roles (or in higher-level leagues) elsewhere.
The White Sox have one of the worst rosters in the majors, but they have used the Rule 5 draft in the way that it was intended.
In their case, players who didn’t fit on other team’s 40-man rosters have proven to be good fits for them.
