Arsenal Included, ChiSox Southpaw Noah Schultz Remains a Work In Progress
Noah Schultz remains a work in progress. Fifteen outings and 65 1/3 innings into his major league career, the recently-turned-23-year-old southpaw has a 3-9 record to go with a 6.06 ERA and a 4.86 FIP since debuting in April. Ranked second in the Chicago White Sox system coming into the season, Schultz is currently doing more fine-tuning in Triple-A, having been sent down to Charlotte earlier this month.
Two days before his August 8 demotion, I caught up to the 6-foot-10, high-ceiling hurler to ask how much he has learned about pitching since being drafted 26th overall in 2022 out of an Oswego, Illinois high school.
“A ton,” Schultz replied. “I didn’t know anything when I signed. I didn’t know anything about metrics. I knew that spin rate was good — I knew that I spun the ball well — but that was about it. Velo and spin rate. So, I’ve definitely picked up a ton over the past few years.”
Enough that he would now consider himself a data nerd?
“I would like to say no,” Schultz said to that supposition. “But yeah, I probably am. There are a lot of fun numbers, things like BABIP, and different things about myself as a pitcher that I’ve learned. For example, I know that my four-seam doesn’t get a ton of vert, but it has a better approach angle than some guys. That adds some play to it. My changeup… we’re working on getting more depth to it, but I’m a guy that gets more run than depth. I’m understanding things like that, and talking to my coaches how to go about it. Instead of trying to have my pitches, my shapes, look like someone else’s, I’m seeing what works best for my arsenal.”
That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been some tinkering, or that his tinkering days are done. Again, he’s still a work in progress. Schultz has thrown just 300 innings at the professional level — injuries have played a part in that — and as James Fegan wrote prior to the season, Schultz possesses “a profile built around the absence of a bat-missing fastball.” Hence the efforts to optimize an arsenal delivered from what Fegan described as “a funky low slot.”
“There are some things we’ve experimented with, trying to get different shapes on different stuff,” Schultz told me. “My old slider that I’ve thrown my whole life… we tried throwing a sweeper, but it came out being, really, a different pitch. We also tried to incline my arm slot to get a little more vert on the four-seam, but that changed the shapes on some other pitches. So, there is a lot we’ve experimented with this year, including in spring training.”
I asked Schultz if he could elaborate on the sweeper efforts.
“My whole career, it had kind of always been described as a sideways curveball,” the low-slot lefty replied. “It was never really a slider. It was a curveball grip, but from my angle it was -3, -4 [inches of vertical movement] and 10 horizontal. It was kind of my pitch. The last year or so, we added in the sweeper, wanting it be around zero and 15 to 16. A lot of other guys are throwing sweepers of that type, but we found out that by increasing the vert on it, I wasn’t necessarily missing right-handed bats at all.”
“The last couple of weeks, we’ve added back a little more depth to it,” Schultz went on to say. “Instead of ranging between +3 and -1, now it is from -3 to as low as -6. Those few inches make a huge difference as far as getting under bats. I’ve always been more of a groundball pitcher, and I think that plays better for me.”
Again, a work in progress. Schultz’s groundball rate over his 65 1/3 big league frames is just 34.6%, whereas last year it was 47.2% between the Double-A and Triple-A levels. Moreover, it was an even-higher 51.7% in 2024. Given that he hasn’t exactly thrived this season, might a permanent move away from his sweeper be in order? Perhaps not. As Schultz explained, having a variety of shapes in your arsenal is advantageous. Much for that reason, he views the pitch as being in his back pocket, as opposed to scrapped for good. Reintroducing it in the future remains a distinct possibility.
Factor in the need for Schultz to improve his command — never one of his strong suits — and it is readily apparent, arsenal certainly included, that Schultz remains an unfinished product.
“That’s probably a good way to put it,” said Schultz. “You’re always trying to evolve with the game. Every few years there are pitches that everyone seems to start throwing, and recently that has been a sweeper. Who knows what the next pitch is going to be? You need to be able to adjust to that on the fly, but at the same time, know what works for you. I feel like I’m getting there.”