2024 South Side Sox Prospect Vote: Round 4

It is the seventh year of Top Prospect voting at South Side Sox!

Here’s how 2018 wrangled out — all 42 picks. Also, here’s an archive of every article in the 2018 series. Here’s how 2019 came together, all 50 picks, and the archive as well. Here’s 2020, with the archive. Here’s the 2021 wrap-up of just 35 picks due to flagging participation, along with the full archive. And here’s the 2022 link to the 27-pick wrap, along with the full archive. And Round 24 of voting was 2023’s last (we didn’t do an actual wrap for last year’s voting, but Jordan Sprinkle ended up being our final pick!), with the full archive.

Our Top 100 is now underway, with Jason Matthews as our Mr. 100. We’ll try for a daily Top 100 entry on site, and the Prospect Vote will turn over as soon as the top vote-getter seems to have an insurmountable lead — but we’ll take no longer than a week to vote each round.

We have six of 10 players from last year’s initial prospect vote poll on our first ballot this year, with two players matriculating out of rookie status (Oscar Colás and Lenyn Sosa) and two pitchers falling out of Top 10 consideration (Norge Vera and Sean Burke). And though “we’re not rebuilding,” four of the Top 10 on the ballot to begin were acquired were not even in the system in 2023; put another way, not a single player from our farm system has moved up onto the first ballot in 2024. Oof.

Last year, Sosa was spending his sixth year among our Top 100 Prospects, and this year we have three players in their fifth years on the list: Bryan Ramos, Cristian Mena and José Rodríguez.

All right, let’s have some fun. And get voting!

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Our first repeat vote is in the books, as Bryan Ramos duplicates his showing from 2023 and lands as our No. 3 prospect with 54 of 188 (28.7%) votes. It was our first squeaker of the polling, as Ramos leapfrogged Edgar Quero in second place, earning seven more tallies than the catcher in razor-thin choosing.

Before his No. 3 showing on the 2023 ballot, Ramos finished 12th in our 2022 poll, 22nd in 2021, and 38th in 2020.

Last year’s No. 3 was Ramos, with remarkably similar percentages and vote totals as 2024. In 2022, No. 3 was José Rodríguez. No. 3 in 2021 was Michael Kopech. And No. 3 in 2020 was Nick Madrigal.

José Rodríguez did not bounce back from a first-ballot fall, sticking in fifth place, while Jake Eder’s jump from eighth to fourth was the biggest move up, in tight voting top to bottom.

Jonathan Cannon opened his time on the ballot in ninth place, with six votes. This round, right-handed reliever and AFL standout Jordan Leasure makes his ballot debut.

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South Side Sox Top-Voted White Sox Prospects for 2024

1. Colson Montgomery — 65% (Rodríguez 16%, Schultz 13%, Nastrini/Quero/Ramos 1.6%, Eder/Mena 0.8%, González/Pallette 0%)
2. Noah Schultz — 64% (Quero 11%, Ramos 10%, Nastrini 5%, Rodríguez 4%, Mena 2.4%, Bush 1.6%, Eder/González/Pallette 0.8%)
3. Bryan Ramos — 29% (Quero 25%, Nastrini 13%, Eder 8%, Rodríguez 6%, González 5%, Bush 4.3%, Mena 3.7%, Cannon, 3.2%, Pallette 2.7%)

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Ky Bush

Left-Handed Starting Pitcher
Age 24
2023 SSS Prospect Poll ranking N/R, acquired from the Angels in July
2023 High Level Birmingham (AA)
Age relative to high level -1.3 years
Overall 2023 stats 4-8 ▪️ 17 starts ▪️ 71 2⁄3 IP ▪️ 6.91 ERA ▪️ 78 K▪️ 37 BB ▪️ 1.647 WHIP

Bush’s broad stats profile resembles closely fellow lefty starter Jake Eder below, but without the return from major injury for context. He’s a second-rounder who, over two full professional seasons-plus, has yet to flash much of his potential.

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Jonathan Cannon

Right-handed Starting Pitcher
Age 23
2023 SSS Prospect Poll ranking 19
2023 High Level Birmingham (AA)
Age relative to high level -2.3 years
Overall 2023 stats 1-4 ▪️ 25 starts ▪️ 121 IP ▪️ 4.46 ERA ▪️ 106 K ▪️ 39 BB ▪️ 1.364 WHIP

Cannon ate up High-A in 2023 but hit some speed bumps in Birmingham. He likely starts with the Barons and moves up to Charlotte by midseason, ranking as one of the Top 5 starters in the system.

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Jake Eder

Left-Handed Starting Pitcher
Age 25
2023 SSS Prospect Poll ranking N/R, acquired from Miami in July for Jake Burger
2023 High Level Birmingham (AA)
Age relative to high level -0.3 years
Overall 2023 stats 2-6 ▪️ 14 starts ▪️ 56 2⁄3 IP ▪️ 6.35 ERA ▪️ 36 BB ▪️ 70 K ▪️ 1.676 WHIP

Like Peyton Pallette below, Eder just got his first season post-surgery under his belt in 2023, with shaky results. His assignment (like Colson Montgomery and Bryan Ramos) to the Arizona Fall League due to a late (injury) season start has yielded similarly mixed results. He may need a little more Barons seasoning in 2024, but the AFL assignment indicates even if so, he’ll be in Charlotte shortly.

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Jacob González

Shortstop
Age 21
2023 SSS Prospect Poll ranking N/R, 2023 First Round draft choice
2023 High Level Kannapolis (Low-A)
Age relative to high level +0.1 years
Overall 2023 MiLB stats 34 games ▪️ 1 HR ▪️ 17 RBI ▪️ .211/.333/.260 ▪️ 23 BB ▪️ 25 K

Chicago’s first-rounder in 2023 was dunked right into pro action, getting more than a month’s worth of play in after signing. The results were less than ideal, with zero power stroke. However, did not let his hitting issues sway his selectivity, as his near 1.00 BB/K reflects the batting-eye trend of the overall draft class.

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Jordan Leasure

Right-Handed Relief Pitcher
Age 25
2023 SSS Prospect Poll ranking N/R, acquired in July from L.A.
2023 High Level Charlotte (AAA)
Age relative to high level -2.9 years
Overall 2023 stats 2-4 ▪️ 11 saves ▪️44 games (22 finished) ▪️ 48 1⁄3 IP ▪️ 3.91 ERA ▪️ 24 BB ▪️ 79 K ▪️ 1.262 WHIP

After acquiring him from the Dodgers, the White Sox advanced Leasure to Triple-A for the first time in his career, and he held his own; and in the AFL, Leasure starred against some of the best prospects in the game (1.08 ERA, 0.480 WHIP). He is poised to possibly break north with the White Sox next March, or be the first arm up early in 2024.

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Cristian Mena

Right-Handed Starting Pitcher
Age 21
2023 SSS Prospect Poll ranking 8
2023 High Level Charlotte (AAA)
Age relative to high level -6.9 years
Overall 2023 stats 8-7 ▪️ 27 starts ▪️ 133 2⁄3 IP ▪️ 4.85 ERA ▪️ 64 BB ▪️ 156 K ▪️ 1.414 WHIP

While stumbling some against the much older competition in Charlotte (and honestly, even Birmingham), Mena is still the top starting prospect for the White Sox, Nick Nastrini hype aside.

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Nick Nastrini

Right-handed starting pitcher
Age 24
2023 SSS Prospect Poll ranking N/R, acquired in July from L.A.
2023 High Level Charlotte (AAA)
Age relative to high level -3.9 years
Overall 2023 stats 9-5 ▪️ 25 starts ▪️ 114 2⁄3 IP ▪️ 4.08 ERA ▪️ 139 K ▪️ 54 BB ▪️ 1.308 WHIP

After moving over to the White Sox organization and getting the call to Triple-A for the first time, Nastrini really tightened up his game, shrinking his WHIP to almost 1.00. That fearless approach, as well as an utter dearth of competition in Chicago’s high minors, pencils Nastrini in as First Starter Up to Chicago in 2024 — if the lack of depth doesn’t see him break north with the White Sox altogether.

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Peyton Pallette

Right-handed starting pitcher
Age 22
2023 SSS Prospect Poll ranking 11
2023 High Level Kannapolis (Low-A)
Age relative to high level +0.4 years
Overall 2023 stats 0-4 ▪️ 22 starts ▪️ 72 IP ▪️ 4.13 ERA ▪️ 78 K ▪️ 41 BB ▪️ 1.361 WHIP

The 2023 season was Pallette’s first after missing all of 2022 with injury, and the early returns were promising. He’ll start at Winston-Salem this year, with an expectation of Birmingham in the second half.

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Edgar Quero

Catcher
Age 20
2023 SSS Prospect Poll ranking N/R, acquired in July from the Angels
2023 High Level Birmingham (AA)
Age relative to high level -3.6 years
Overall 2023 minor league stats 101 games ▪️ 6 HR ▪️ 57 RBI ▪️ .255/.380/.351 ▪️ 72 BB ▪️ 76 K ▪️ 12-of-57 (21.1%) CS

Sorry no warning, you might have needed to sit down before reaching this point, because seeing a catcher from the White Sox system so highly regarded is a stunner; of course, Quero is not a White Sox product per se! Blessed with a great hit tool-batting eye, Quero doesn’t pack a ton of power; that could still grow. His throwing arm was plenty hyped, but one-in-five isn’t going to hack it.

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José Rodríguez

Shortstop
Age 22
2020 SSS Prospect Poll ranking 32
2021 SSS Prospect Poll ranking 21
2022 SSS Prospect Poll ranking 3
2023 SSS Prospect Poll ranking 5
2022 High Level White Sox (MLB)
Age relative to high level -5.9 years
Overall 2023 MiLB stats 106 games ▪️ 21 HR ▪️ 62 RBI ▪️ .262/.292/.437 ▪️ 31-of-40 (77.5%) SB ▪️ 20 BB ▪️ 108 K

More home run power, but not a big jump in slugging percentage overall (seven points) given the sell-out for power (more than a K per game). Can’t say Popeye’s career is at a crossroads, but he’ll likely need Tim Anderson gone from Chicago to see significant time in the majors in 2024.

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