At the December 2024 Winter Meeting, the White Sox drafted pitcher Shane Smith from the Brewers in the Rule Five Draft. And in today's (9th) spring training game with the Dodgers, he faced Shohei Ohtani in both of his shots, and Ohtani strikeouts were eliminated, which made head coach Will Venable more interested in turning him into a starting pitcher.

Smith, who turns 25 in early April, joined the Milwaukee Brewers as a free agent after Tommy John surgery in his senior year, which left him undrafted in the 2021 draft. In the past three years, he has played a total of 73 games in the minor leagues, including 19 starts, 35 relays, and has handed over a good stat of 13 wins, 7 losses, 11 rescues and a 2.69 ERA.

It is worth mentioning that Smith has 16 starts in 2024 with Brewers 2A, which means that the brewers had plans to develop Smith as a starting pitcher at that time. And in the White Sox, where the starting rotation is lacking, of course, I hope he can make it to the big leagues as a starting pitcher.

In today's spring training game, Smith threw 5 balls against Shohei Ohtani in the first game, and the last ball was a 98.4-mile speedball above the good ball belt that made his swing miss, and in the third game, he threw 7 balls against Ogami for the second time, and the last ball was a 97.6-mile speedball with a low inside corner, but Ohtani stood without swinging the bat, and received a strikeout.

Smith shot 3 innings in this game and only hit 1 hit and soared 5K, after dropping 4 points in the first 1.2 innings of spring training, he only hit 1 hit in 2 starts in 5 innings and sent 8 strikeouts, a total of 3 starts in 6.2 innings in spring training and only knocked 2 hits and sent 9K.

In addition to striking out Otani twice, he also knocked out last year's World Series MVP Freddie Freeman, and Smith said after the game: "Consistency is the most important thing, you will always have good times and bad times, but the more good days you can stack, the better."

In addition to the fastest 98.4-mile speedball, Smith also has slideballs, speed balls, and curveballs, but the speedballs are large and effective for hitters. "The most important thing is to get a good ball into the belt, if I don't do it it will be a long day, and if I can throw a good ball on the first ball, it feels like something good will happen."

Venable said: "He struggled a little bit in the first game of spring training but he got better and better, and seeing the adjustments and performances he made in these games were satisfying, I hope he can keep it up."

As a result, Vanable will continue to have Smith as a starter in spring training and build his confidence. Smith said he would concentrate on his own business and try not to be distracted by the outside world. "I try not to think too much about it, especially the days when I pitched, I know what it means to be out and I know what it means to be here, I'm happy to be in this team and I'm happy to have this opportunity, so the most important thing is how I do on the pitch."