'Punched in the mouth' in '24, McDougal counter-punched in breakout 2025

LAS VEGAS -- Tanner McDougal’s overall 2024 performance did not go anywhere near as planned for the current No. 7 prospect in the White Sox organization, per MLB Pipeline.

But the right-hander’s 0-11 combined record and 6.04 ERA in 22 starts between Single-A Kannapolis and High-A Winston-Salem set up his recently completed 2025 breakout season.

“Up until that point [in 2024], I hadn’t struggled with baseball and with the mental side of baseball,” McDougal told MLB.com from his home in Las Vegas during a recent interview. “Obviously, it sucked in the moment. The weight of the world is on your shoulders, and you can’t get out from underneath it. But I needed it.

“I kind of needed to be punched in the mouth a little bit, for lack of a better term. [It was] a wakeup call and just, ‘Hey you’ve gotta really lock in as you go up.’ It’s not just throwing stuff by people. You’ve gotta pitch. You’ve gotta know what the hitters do. You’ve gotta know the tendencies. You have to locate well. You have to make your pitch when you need to make your pitches.

“After you get your teeth kicked in a few times, you taste blood and don’t really like it. You start punching back,” added McDougal with a laugh. “I learned all of that honestly from struggling.”

Those 2025 counter-punches landed during a 13-start return to the Dash and then 15 starts with Double-A Birmingham, with McDougal producing a 3.26 ERA with 136 strikeouts over 113 1/3 innings. This confidence reinforcement pushed McDougal to the point he always knew was possible after he missed the ’22 campaign while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, with his fastball topping 100 mph -- including later in his pitch count at times -- in ‘25.

McDougal was pitching more than throwing during the success of 2025, by his estimation, with a mix featuring that fastball, a changeup, a slider and a curve. He made his pitches more than he did in the year before.

“Basically, I was trying to be like, ‘Here it is. Hit it.’ It’s what I was living by, which is super self-explanatory,” McDougal said. “I had to simplify. I was trying to be too cute at times.

“There’s no need to nibble. Just let it eat, and if they hit it, tip your cap. If not, good job, you did your job. I stopped worrying about all the outside stuff and just worried about what Tanner McDougal does. It really clicked.”

Among the 2025 individual highlights was McDougal’s first regular-season victory since his debut at age 18 with the Rookie-level Arizona Complex League White Sox on Aug. 14, 2021, after he was selected in the fifth round of the MLB Draft that year. Pitchers’ wins clearly don’t mean what they once did, especially at the Minor League level, where McDougal’s innings limits often would cost him a chance for an individual game honor.

One victory for the Barons over Knoxville on June 29 morphed into wins in three straight starts. But his 21 strikeouts and eight hits allowed over 17 scoreless innings during that span meant more to McDougal than his name in the win column.

“My first one was funny because everyone was like, ‘Wait, that was your first win.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, first regular-season win [in four years],’” McDougal said. “They were like, ‘Holy crap. That’s crazy.’

“Honestly, I was just happy with continuous success, getting people out, getting deeper in games. Just proving to myself I belonged in Double-A -- that’s a big jump. So, just giving the team the best chance to win.”

The White Sox almost certainly will add McDougal, who is eligible for the Rule 5 Draft, to their 40-man roster by Nov. 18. The 22-year-old could get an early chance in 2026 to help the big league team.

Whether it’s in the starter’s role he knows or as a reliever, McDougal’s 2025 showing proved to himself as much as anyone else he’s ready for that next step.

“He proved to everybody he can start, and it's really about where does he fit, what's the best way to plug him in,” White Sox director of pitching Brian Bannister said of McDougal. “He'll have an opportunity to prove himself at Spring Training. And with the stuff I saw on multiple occasions, it was overwhelming.

“Especially with what he did midway through the year and second half, he proved that he's a starter for now and can handle the durability of starting. Even though we did have to throttle his workload a little bit just because he was so far past what he had thrown in the past, innings-wise, there's definitely a starter future for him. But breaking in, it's just the best way to fit him into a team, like everybody else.”