If one is looking for a nightly comedy show for the past month, Comedy Central is the furthest place you look. Try NBC Sports Chicago, the TV affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, who finally won a game – with the help of a former Arkansas star – on Tuesday.
A 5-1 win over the Oakland Athletics snapped the White Sox’s skid at 21 games, which tied the 1988 Baltimore Orioles for the longest such streak in American League history, but their overall record sits at a paltry 28-89 — a full 15 games behind anyone else in the league.
Andrew Benintendi, who won the Golden Spikes Award with the Razorbacks in 2015, played a huge role in ending Chicago’s misery. His two-run homer in the fourth inning started the scoring and then he added a double in the ninth that led to an insurance run. It was only fitting that he caught the final out of the game on a lazy fly ball in left, ensuring the White Sox wouldn’t go down in baseball infamy.
Chicago was back to its losing ways Wednesday, though. Despite the efforts of Benintendi, who hit another two-run home run to give the White Sox an early lead, they faltered late and fell to Oakland 3-2. That proved to be the final straw for manager Pedro Grifol, who was fired Thursday morning.
Even with some recent solid play, it hasn’t been all good for Benintendi or fellow former Arkansas center fielder Dominic Fletcher, as both have been a shell of themselves in a White Sox uniform this year.
Despite hitting .348 in the last seven games, and regaining some of his power with 11 home runs this year, including three in the last four games, Benintendi is hitting just .210 with a .613 OPS. After flashing in a short stint with the Arizona Diamondbacks, posting a .301 average in 93 at bats, Fletcher is hitting just .182 in 88 at bats at the major league level this year.
The White Sox will need to go at least 14-31 in the final 45 games to avoid the most losses in a season by a team in the modern era, a record currently owned by the 1962 New York Mets, who went 40-120 as an expansion team.
Hagen Smith to the Rescue?
So is there any hope for White Sox fans? While it’s difficult to pin a team’s struggles on just one player, if both sides could have a do-over, the White Sox probably wouldn’t have signed Andrew Benintendi to the largest free-agent contract in team history and the former Arkansas slugger would have taken his services elsewhere.
In the same vein, though, the White Sox may also be counting on some former Razorbacks to help jumpstart the rebuild, starting with none other than Hagen Smith.
Despite not throwing a professional inning of baseball yet, Smith is already the No. 35 overall prospect in baseball and No. 2 in the White Sox system, according to Prospects Live.
“We’ve got a lot of pitching,” MLB Hall of Famer and White Sox studio analyst Frank Thomas – who got an up-close look at Smith this season – said on the postgame show. “I’m really hopeful of the pitching staff. We’ve got a couple more, Hagen Smith, along with this kid [Ky Bush], along with [Garret] Crochet. We could have the nastiest lefties in all of baseball.”
Although there would be no point for Smith to come up and contribute to a team that is perhaps on a collision course to become the worst team in MLB history, Smith could potentially reach the big leagues as early as the first part of the 2025 season.
In fact, the rest of the White Sox rotation is so bad that Hagen Smith is already listed as the organization’s No. 4 overall starter on the video game MLB: The Show, which is notable given big league teams utilize five-man rotations. Again, there’s a reason the White Sox are 61 games below .500.
Other Former Arkansas Stars in the White Sox System
Hagen Smith isn’t the only player who used to dawn an Arkansas baseball jersey that gives White Sox general manager Chris Getz hope that the rebuild won’t take years of historical misery before turning the team around.
The most notable one outside of Smith is Peyton Pallette, who pitched for the Razorbacks from 2020-21 before blowing out his arm in 2022.
His velocity is slightly down from his Arkansas days, as his 99 mph fastball now sits more around 92-95, and like his time at Arkansas, Pallette has struggled with command. He had a walk rate of 3.2 per nine innings in Fayetteville and that has jumped to 3.9 per nine this year in High-A.
Despite this, Pallette is still the No. 10 overall prospect in the White Sox’s system, according to MLB.com. He should continue to get more chances to rise up the ranks and maybe one day join Smith in Chicago as part of the rotation.
Smith may also be throwing to his former college teammate. Michael Turner is currently in Double-A and stuck behind top-100 prospect Edgar Quero in the system as a potential catcher to come up to the big-league club.
The White Sox also just drafted fellow SEC catcher Jackson Appel from Texas A&M in the sixth round to fortify their catcher depth as well. However, given that the White Sox have employed three catchers this year, none with an OPS over .600, the opportunity is there for Turner to rise up the ranks.
A lot has to go wrong for a team to lose 88 games the first week into August, but at least Benintendi was able to halt the White Sox from going into the baseball record books, so fans perhaps let out a sarcastic Hog call.
Perhaps, with plenty of Hog blood coming behind in the pipeline, maybe one day the Pro Hog call in these parts won’t be meant in jest.
Pro Hogs in the MLB
Here’s a list of former Arkansas baseball players who have appeared in the MLB this season:
- Brian Anderson
- Jalen Beeks
- Andrew Benintendi
- Isaiah Campbell
- Dominic Fletcher
- Dallas Keuchel
- Heston Kjerstad
- Grant Koch
- James McCann
- Colin Poche (began career at Arkansas, but transferred to Dallas Baptist)
- Jackson Rutledge (began career at Arkansas, but transferred to San Jacinto J.C.)
- Drew Smyly
- Ryne Stanek
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