White Sox bring back Tanner McDougal

McDougal has not appeared in an MLB game since August 13th. He has been moved to a bullpen role as he recovers from a forearm injury that sidelined him for almost three months earlier this season. He likely remains a starting pitching option long-term for the White Sox.

He threw 25 pitches and recorded one out while walking three and hitting a batter yesterday. McDougal’s future is still promising, but the White Sox needed a fresh arm.

McDougal has made a significant leap from a development standpoint thanks to noticeably improved command and control over the last two years. The 23-year-old has compiled a strong 2.84 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and 40/20 K/BB ratio across 34 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level this season. He gets the call to the big leagues as emergency relief depth behind veterans Anthony Kay and Davis Martin after a misstep by White Sox manager Will Venable forced the club into an unexpected bullpen game against the Guardians on Friday night. He’s unlikely to deliver an immediate fantasy impact, but he’s an interesting pitching prospect that needs to be monitored.

Noah Schultz and David Sandlin will both be sent down. This is more about having fresh arms available than anything to do with performance, but Smith and McDougal are among the team’s best prospects. Smith, the fifth overall pick in the 2024 draft, was moved to the bullpen at Triple-A Charlotte earlier this month and has since pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings in five appearances.

McDougal has now made three appearances out of the bullpen at Triple-A since returning from right forearm tightness, pitching one inning in each of them. In his first six outings of the year, McDougal had been operating as a starter, but the 23-year-old, who was put on the injured list back on April 29th, seems to be operating as a reliever for the remainder of the 2026 season. It remains to be seen if that is simply to keep his arm healthy or to expedite his path to the big leagues, but we would expect McDougal to go back to starting games in the 2027 season.

McDougal has been sidelined since late April with forearm tightness. The 86th-ranked prospect in baseball, according to Baseball America, should be back in games around the end of the month and could be an option for the White Sox near the end of the summer if all goes well.

McDougal is the 86th-ranked prospect in all of baseball, according to Baseball America, and a consensus Top 10 prospect in the White Sox’s system. He has a 3.13 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, and 26/13 K/BB ratio in 23 innings at Triple-A this season. The White Sox will hope that the forearm tightness is not a precursor to a more significant injury.

Schultz’s fantasy stock has cratered over the past calendar year as his strikeout and walk rates continue trending in the wrong direction. He’s been plagued by injuries, which limited him to just 17 minor-league starts this past season. The 22-year-old southpaw was one of the top pitching prospects in baseball just a few years ago but he isn’t close to pitching in the big leagues entering 2026.

McDougal, one of the team’s top pitching prospects, had a 3.26 ERA and a 136/49 K/BB in 113 1/3 innings between high-A and Double-A last season. He’ll head back to Double-A to begin 2026. Davitt was one of the three prospects the White Sox got from the Rays in the Adrian Houser deal. He had a 5.03 ERA in nine starts in Triple-A after being acquired, but the White Sox still didn’t want to risk another team grabbing him in the Rule 5 draft.