<p>No one spins the ball quite like White Sox rookie left-hander Hagen Smith.</p><p>After pitching two perfect innings to preserve a scoreless tie with the Mets before teammate Tristan Peters’ game-winning home run Sunday, the fifth overall pick of the 2024 draft now has struck out 13 of 31 batters in eight innings since being called up to the majors Aug. 8. <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2026/08/18/will-venable-pete-crow-armstrong-white-sox-cubs-hagen-smith-randal-grichuk-andrew-benintendi-analytics-kyle-teel-crosstown-classic-lenyn-sosa" target="_blank" ><u>That walk-off home run by the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong last week?</u></a> It’s the only hit Smith has allowed against a big-leaguer.</p><p>When throwing his trademark slider, Smith doesn’t set his fingers on the seams to set his grip, instead spinning the pitch off the skin of the ball. At the tail end of his second full season in the pros, he has yet to meet someone who does it similarly.</p><p>“Kind of close, but not with no laces,” said Smith, who won’t be tweaking his method anytime soon.</p><p>Of the players picked behind him in a loaded 2024 draft class, the Pirates’ Konnor Griffin has become the consensus top prospect in baseball this spring, out-fielder Jac Caglianone has swatted 22 homers for the Royals this season and Blue Jays right-hander Trey Yesavage dominated the Dodgers in the World Series last fall.</p><p>This month has been Smith’s first opportunity to strut his stuff. Soreness in his elbow slowed him last season before a shoulder impingement knocked him out for a month this season, shifting him to a bullpen role until next spring. Around that, he has flashed wipeout stuff but has walked more than 16% of opposing hitters.</p><p>Becoming a dominant relief weapon for the Sox, who look playoff-bound, could shift his narrative quickly.</p><p>“When he’s in the zone, he’s — I don’t want to say unhittable, but it’s hard to square him up,” Sox manager Will Venable said. “We’re seeing a lot of swing-and-miss with all of his stuff in the zone. And when he’s able to do that, he’s really impactful.”</p><p>The explanation du jour for Smith’s up-turn is raising the arm slot in his delivery after it was substantially lower at the start of spring training. More consistent movement, velocity, location and arm health seem-ingly have followed.</p><p>“It was a pretty easy fix,” Smith said. “I was just getting a little scoopy for a while. Then once we fixed that, I feel like everything got helped a little bit. Slider got better, cutter got better, fastball got better. All the shapes went back to normal.”</p><p>Smith reasons that his arm angle dropped on its own while he was working on other things, such as the cutter he has developed to better keep him in the strike zone. For the Sox, the commonality is that both of Smith’s seasons in pro ball have seen him in far better form at the end that at the beginning. In the future, if they want Smith to become the rotation solution they desperately could use right now, that cycle must end.</p><p>“Coming into spring training physically where he wants to be at is definitely a focus for everybody and for him,” Brian Bannister, the Sox’ senior adviser for pitching, told the Sun-Times. “The battle is him just being physically ready to pitch on a five-day routine for six to eight months straight, along with being pitch-efficient enough to be able to get you five to seven innings before he hits his pitch count.”</p><p>Success leaves clues. Bannister said the Sox’ biomechanists have identified some hip movements in Smith’s delivery to focus on, in addition to it becoming clear where his arm slot needs to be. The Sox drafted Smith so high because they believe his stuff is so good, his short-arm action is so deceptive and he only needs to be precise to be overwhelming.</p><p>Eight innings of relief in the majors already have provided a glimpse into what Sox scouts saw in him. Relievers can become stars in October. But is the bullpen where Smith is at his best, or is it just a template for more?</p><p>“This version, no doubt, he’s a weapon,” Bannister remarked. “We’ve kind of always known that.”</p>
Does rookie Hagen Smith’s dominance out of White Sox’ bullpen point to future in rotation? 2026
IUSTITIA.BG – Investigations 2009-2026 2026-08-25 02:49:13
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