This White Sox Prospect Owns Two Of The Best Tools In The Minors
As the offseason winds down, most baseball outlets have released their top-100 prospect lists. Most of them have the White Sox tabbed with five top-100 prospects: Braden Montgomery, Hagen Smith, Noah Schultz, Caleb Bonemer, and the White Sox 2025 first round pick, Billy Carlson.
This is an extremely solid group of prospects, and the White Sox have a few more that are knocking on the door of top-100 consideration. When you factor that in with the amount of young talent already on the team, the White Sox are certainly trending up.
After MLB Pipeline released their top-100 list, Jim Callis of MLB Pipeline released an article that highlighted the prospects who have the best tools on the new list.
70-grade fastball
75-grade speedHere's who has the best tools on the new Top 100 Prospects list: https://t.co/cvJvvmenz7 pic.twitter.com/Nd45a4B4My
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) January 28, 2026
This was a good list for the White Sox organization, as a White Sox prospect appeared not once, but twice. This prospect is none other than Billy Carlson. According to the article, they have him as the best defender and the prospect with best arm. These are some pretty impressive traits to be considered the best of the best in.
Here’s what Callis said about Carlson’s arm and fielding:
“The consensus among veteran scouts is that Carlson is the best defensive shortstop they’ve ever seen on the high school level. Besides his arm, he has fluid actions, range to both side, reliable hands and a finely calibrated internal clock.
Carlson went 10th overall in the 2025 Draft as a shortstop but also could have gone in the early rounds as a right-handed pitcher who could reach 97 mph with his fastball and spin an impressive curveball. He has the arm strength and instincts to make any throw from any angle needed at short.”
Jim Callis, MLB Pipeline
This is some very high praise for Carlson, as to be considered the best defensive shortstop coming out of the high school level is a true accomplishment, as there are tons of prep shortstops that come out of the high school level each draft.
Carlson didn’t get a chance to play any professional games after he was drafted last season, but he sits at #73 on the new prospect list. I would imagine he starts off in Low-A Kannapolis with the Cannon Ballers and spends most of the season there. If he has a nice season, there is a chance that he could get promoted to the Winston-Salem Dash by the end of the year.
If Carlson can continue to improve his hitting, he could be one of the best shortstops in the major leagues with his fielding ability. That is the only question scouts have about him to this point, and he will get a chance to show off what he can do this season. With the revamped scouting and player development system in the White Sox organization, I actually have faith that they can work with the pure talent that Carlson has and turn him into a good major league hitter.
If that’s the case, the White Sox will have quite the logjam at shortstop in a few years, as Colson Montgomery was one of the better defensive shortstops last season in the MLB. Caleb Bonemer is another top-100 prospect in the White Sox organization, and the White Sox are projected to draft a generational shortstop prospect in Roch Cholowsky. This is a good problem to have, but it will be very interesting to see how the positioning plays out if everything goes right.