Noah Schultz enters the MLB Pipeline Pitching Lab

It’s hard to imagine Noah Schultz looking up to anyone. Standing at 6-foot-9, he’s shorter than only one Major Leaguer this season, and that’s 6-foot-11 Sean Hjelle, the tallest pitcher on record in AL/NL history.

But if you ask the White Sox southpaw who he admired most as a lanky kid on the mound, he rattles off the names like they’re the usual suspects: Chris Sale (6-foot-6), Andrew Miller (6-foot-7), Randy Johnson (6-foot-10).

“It’s cool to look up to those guys, but overall, I’m my own pitcher,” Schultz said. “I want to be someone other guys can look up to in the future.”

MLB Pipeline’s No. 13 overall prospect is nearing that goal.

The 2022 first-rounder posted a 2.24 ERA and 0.98 WHIP over 23 starts (88 1/3 innings) between High-A Winston-Salem and Double-A Birmingham this season. He was even better at the higher level with a 1.48 ERA that ranks fifth among 278 Double-A pitchers with at least 50 innings in 2024. He fanned 29.4 percent of his batters faced in the Southern League and held opposing batters to a .202 average.

Part of that success derived from Chicago’s slow rolling of Schultz at this early stage in his career. The left-hander didn’t throw more than 67 pitches or pitch more than four innings in a single 2024 start. A flexor strain and shoulder impingement in 2023 were impetuses for the cautious approach, and it’s worth noting that Schultz’s only time on an injured or inactive list this summer came when he traveled to Texas for the All-Star Futures Game in July.

But even with those limits, the top White Sox prospect doesn’t change who he is as a pitcher.

“It’s always full intent,” he said.

MLB Pipeline caught up with Schultz to chat about his full arsenal in the latest edition of the Pitching Lab:

FASTBALL

To understand Schultz’s heater, you have to understand his arm slot.

Schultz grew up working with a pitching coach back home in Illinois who stressed that a pitcher should keep his shoulders square to the plate at the moment of release. By focusing on that, Schultz went from throwing over-the-top to a low three-quarters delivery that felt most natural for his body type and athleticism.

After taking the prep pitcher with the 26th overall pick in 2022, the White Sox continued to build on that foundation by working with Schultz to switch fastball types to one that would be a better fit for his arm slot.

“My whole life, I’ve always thrown four-seam,” said the hurler. “Right after the Draft, we were experimenting with new pitches and added a two-seam. Just a straight-up two-seam. Nothing new, nothing special [with the grip]. … Try to get through it, rip it and get horizontal break.”

Per Synergy Sports, Schultz has averaged 95.3 mph with his two-seam fastball at Double-A, touching as high as 99 mph. He threw 12 such pitches in front of Statcast at the All-Star Futures Game, and all 12 came between 14.5 and 17.1 inches of armside movement. True to sinker shape, none reached higher than eight inches of induced vertical break.

This is not a pitch designed to get whiffs at the top of the zone. It isn’t even a whiff-heavy pitch in its own right. Schultz has gotten only 38 misses on 204 swings (18.6 percent) against his Double-A fastballs, according to Synergy; the average whiff rate for all Major League fastball types is 19.7 percent.

Schultz’s fastball generates contact -- Southern League batters are hitting .309 against Schultz heaters – but at least it’s weak contact. Of his 25 hits allowed against the fastball, five have gone for extra bases, and all five were doubles. That .370 slugging percentage-against is below the MLB average of .428 against fastballs, but more experienced hitters might be able to do better damage.

From Schultz’s arm slot to his decision to pitch exclusively out of the stretch from the third-base side of the rubber (thus keeping the ball in on lefties and away from righties), it’s all part of a piece.

“Everything works together,” Schultz said of the two-seamer. “I think it’s the best pitch for me.”

SLIDER

For those who prefer whiffs over weak contact (i.e. almost every scout, coach and evaluator), Schultz’s main breaking ball does the trick much better.

An 81-84 mph offering, the White Sox pitcher’s breaking ball has sweeping shape, flirting with 19-20 inches of horizontal break across the zone away from lefties and backfooting righties.

With Schultz’s back starting turned in his delivery, he can deceive the hitters who might be sitting on the fastball moving one way, only for them to wave at a breaking pitch that’s much slower and headed the other direction. The 36.3 percent whiff rate on the breaker at Double-A is nearly double that of the fastball, and it jumps to 43.8 percent against lefties.

It shouldn’t be a shock that Schultz has thrown the pitch 50 percent of the time against lefties in 2024, given its effectiveness at generating whiff and chase outside of the zone (36 percent against batters from both sides).

You might be tempted to call it a sweeper. Schultz has been tempted to call it something else, though he’ll stick with slider.

“It’s not really a slider grip,” he said. “It’s a curveball grip, but this is the grip I’ve always thrown. Thrown it my whole life. It’s the pitch that I stay with. I wouldn’t say I hug it that much. There’s a little space. Try to rip through it, try to get it through the zone, so I can get a strike out of a ball.”

Schultz added that he’ll play around with the grip slightly to get more variance.

“The most important thing is how hitters react to it,” Schultz said. “It could be the best pitch in the world [metrically], but if hitters see it, then is it really the best pitch in the world? But I think the most important test is how it plays in the game.”

A .265 slugging-against. A ton of whiffs and chase. The slider is a plus-plus pitch that plays well in games.

CUTTER

For modern pitchers with serious heat and softer breaking pitches, many modern pitching coaches will prescribe the following: a cutter.

“It’s something to bridge between the slider and the fastball,” Schultz said. “Fastball’s mid-90s, slider’s low-80s, this is about 88-90, something in that middle. Something to keep hitters guessing and stay more effective.”

Schultz picked up his specific cutter grip – a variation on a four-seam grip with slight rotation that he rips through with his middle finger – from fellow White Sox pitcher Jonathan Cannon, who has thrown his cutter 19.5 percent of the time in the Majors. Schultz’s cutter usage is much lower at Double-A (Synergy has registered only 36 cutters in his 16 Birmingham starts), and most of it has come against righties.

But the point isn’t to be a plus-plus pitch on its own. Rather, the tweener velocity and tighter movement is more about setting up Schultz’s more prominent pitches.

“I’m happy with this,” he said. “Definitely a good work in progress, still working on it though.”

CHANGEUP

Like many pitchers coming from the prep ranks, Schultz has been on a journey with his cambio. He’s worked with different grips. He’s tried pronating. He’s tried supinating. As of this season, the version he’s settled on comes with a two-seam grip with his middle fingers while his pointer and thumb form a circle and his pinkie rests on the side.

“I don’t really hug it either,” he said. “I keep it loose and think, ‘Rip through it’ to get some seam-shifted [wake], to kill the spin efficiency and get it to dive down and away.”

Schultz has worked with White Sox senior pitching advisor Brian Bannister on the changeup development to make it a weapon against batters from both sides, but for now, it’s an 86-89 mph pitch with spin around 1800-1900 rpm that’s used against opposite-side bats.

All 128 Schultz Double-A changeups registered by Synergy have come against righties, and those have resulted in 39.7 percent whiff and 30 percent chase rates. Southern League righties have batted just .125 with no extra-base hits off the Schultz change in 2024 and own a .224/.293/.291 line with 51 strikeouts in 181 plate appearances against him overall.

Settling in on a changeup grip and approach that makes it more than an average third pitch is another reason why Schultz is one of the best pitching prospects in the Minors and why his proximity to the Majors could bring optimism to Chicago’s South Side as early as next summer.