KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The next chapter of the White Sox’ rebuild begins in earnest on Tuesday, when the team is expected to call up top pitching prospect Noah Schultz and highly touted utility man Sam Antonacci from Triple-A Charlotte.
General manager Chris Getz’s organizational overhaul is leaning heavily on the powerful left arm of Schultz, the Oswego East High School product and 2022 first-round draft pick who’s rated as the Sox’ No. 2 prospect and No. 46 in baseball per MLB Pipeline.
He’ll join the big-league squad in Chicago on Tuesday for the series opener against the Rays along with infielder and left fielder-in-training Antonacci, the Springfield native who turned heads at the World Baseball classic for Team Italy, sources confirmed late Saturday.
Schultz’s pending promotion was first reported by FutureSox, and Antonacci’s by Southside Showdown.
They mark the most pivotal promotions of Getz’s rebuild since shortstop Colson Montgomery’s debut last summer, and figure to be the first in a steady stream of heralded prospects arriving to the South Side this season.
Schultz and Antonacci both shined in spring training and excelled over the first two weeks at Charlotte, where the Sox wanted to see how the 6-10 hurler settled into a rotation routine after a nagging knee injury cut his year short last season — and they asked the WBC participant to learn the outfield.
Antonacci, a fifth-round draft pick in 2024, mostly played second base in 2025, but the team is desperate for production from a decimated outfield corps.
While the Sox can rightly claim that rationale for keeping the players in Charlotte for the first two and a half weeks of the season, calling them up in mid-April is no small consideration. The team will have waited out the calendar just a few days beyond the minimum required to guarantee an extra year of control over Schultz and Antonacci, who won’t be able to accrue enough roster time to record a full year of service.
But they looked more than ready for The Show during their brief ‘26 Charlotte sojourns.
Schultz (3-0, 1.29 ERA) racked up 19 strikeouts across 14 innings in his three outings, walking two and holding hitters to a measly .089 average.
The 22-year-old’s fastball can touch 99 mph, but it’s the wicked slider that has made scouts drool and underscored comparisons to the equally towering Randy Johnson. Schultz will be instantly tied with the Hall of Famer and a few others in MLB history as the second-tallest ever to play in the bigs.
Schultz’s numbers last year (4.68 ERA in 17 appearances between Double- and Triple-A) were hampered by tendinitis in the knee he lands on.
“I have a ton of goals,” Schultz said at spring training. “Staying healthy is the No. 1 thing. Improving some of the things that probably took a dip last year every day. Just getting 1% better every day.”
Antonacci, a left-handed hitter, swiftly ascended the Sox’ farm system last season and tore up Triple-A pitching in his first 12 games with Charlotte this spring (.317/.509/.488 with a double, two homers and four stolen bases. He swiped 48 bags last year across three minor-league levels.
Other names expected to come up from Charlotte this year include right-hander Tanner McDougal, lefty Hagen Smith and infielder William Bergolla Jr., who was put on the seven-day injured list after an outfield collision with Antonacci that had the Sox holding their breath on Thursday.
Before the Sox’ home opener, Getz said the next crop of talent wasn’t quite ready and cautioned against getting “too jumpy.”
“These guys are such a significant part of the future of the White Sox. We want to handle this with care in making sure that they’re ready when they come here,” the GM said.
They’re jumping in now.
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