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 was scheduled to return to the Knights for Jonathan Cannon’s Sunday arrival. 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."
COMPLETE WHITE SOX PROSPECT COVERAGE
His chance to be a guy arrives at the outset of this three-game homestand on April 14, as confirmed by a source to MLB.com. 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 Country, 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.
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.
“I just know he’s continuing to pitch really well, which is awesome to see,” said White Sox manager Will Venable of Schultz at the start of this Royals series. “We have a number of guys down there playing well. So, as we continue to move this group forward, it’s going to take all those guys continuing to take steps forward in their development.”
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 a former pitching coach to get his mechanics in line.
All of that work leads to 6:40 p.m. CT Tuesday. Schultz said 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.”
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.