KANSAS CITY -- When Noah Schultz makes his Major League debut for the White Sox on Tuesday night against the Rays at Rate Field, Duncan Davitt most likely will be pitching for Triple-A Charlotte.
Davitt made his big league debut with one scoreless inning Friday night in Kansas City, but returned to the Knights for Jonathan Cannon’s arrival on Sunday. Before Davitt exited, he had nothing but praise for Schultz, who is the No. 2 White Sox prospect and No. 46 overall, according to MLB Pipeline.
“Oh, he's the man. He's awesome,” said Davitt of his Charlotte teammate. “He's young, but he's wise and mature beyond his years and he's so fun to watch pitch.
“Just a nightmare for a hitter. He's kind of hard to play catch with sometimes just because it's funky and it's hard. He's going to be a guy when he gets his chance."
His chance to be a guy arrives at the outset of this three-game homestand on April 14. It’s also a magnetic schedule giveaway night, which seems fitting as White Sox fans will want to mark this debut for posterity. The 6-foot-10, 240-pound southpaw was the organization’s top pick in the 2022 Draft out of Oswego East High school at No. 26 overall.
Residents from this area with approximately 40,000 people in Kendall County, located just under an hour from Rate Field with good traffic, soon will be celebrating their native son. Schultz has a 3-0 record and 1.29 ERA over three appearances (two starts) for Charlotte this season, striking out 19, walking two and allowing four hits.
COMPLETE WHITE SOX PROSPECT COVERAGE
“He's about as nice a guy and polite a guy as can be, but he does have an edge when he goes out there and pitches, which you love to see,” said White Sox manager Will Venable of Schultz. “Obviously, really dynamic with his size and how he throws and his ability to keep his body under control and repeat.
“His delivery is impressive. So, yeah, just overall an impressive guy.”
General manager Chris Getz has stressed how the White Sox won’t rush their top prospects to the Majors on a need-based reason. But to be honest, Schultz would be needed more if he could hit instead of pitch at a high level with the White Sox carrying a 20 inning scoreless streak into Sunday’s series finale against the Royals.
Simply put, Schultz is ready for the big leagues and ready to excel in the big leagues.
As is the case for most prospects, even the best of them, Schultz’s development has not been linear. He was bothered by patellar tendinitis in his right knee off and on for much of the 2025 season, leaving Schultz with a 9.37 ERA over five starts after being promoted to Charlotte before eventually being shut down following his appearance on Aug. 30.
Now, he’s 100 percent healthy after rehabbing his way back during the offseason. Schultz also spent three months of work at the Boras Sports Institute in Miami, while reconnecting with former pitching coach Mark Sheehan to get his mechanics in line.
This promotion adds Schultz to a White Sox rotation featuring Davis Martin, Sean Burke, Anthony Kay and Erick Fedde. Shane Smith, the team’s lone All-Star in 2025 and their '26 Opening Day starter, was optioned to Charlotte on Wednesday to focus on regaining his four-seam fastball command. Schultz will have a workload watch after throwing 73 innings in ‘25 and 88 1/3 innings in ‘24.
“We'll monitor that as we go,” Venable said. “As far as the exact number, not something that we've outlined to this point. We'll monitor it knowing that there is going to be thoughtfulness on what he gets to, but we'll talk about that as we get going.
“The plan is not to bring him up and send him back out here, right? The thought is that we bring him up here when he's ready, and go and let him do his thing.”
All of that work leads to 6:40 p.m. CT on Tuesday. Schultz spoke at the start of Spring Training of a desire to break camp with the team. As it turned out, he was only off by 16 games.
“There were a lot of ups and a lot of good things. A lot of things I think I can work on,” Schultz told MLB.com at the start of Spring Training concerning his '25 campaign. “A lot of things I think I really hammered in the offseason.
“I’m excited to go out and show it. A lot of mechanical things. I was kind of drifting away from some of the things I had done in the past that we cleaned up. I’m really happy with where I’m at.”