{"id":713938,"date":"2026-04-08T18:40:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/713938\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T18:40:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:40:22","slug":"white-sox-demote-shane-smith-to-charlotte-after-erratic-outing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/713938\/","title":{"rendered":"White Sox demote Shane Smith to Charlotte after erratic outing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shane Smith, the South Siders\u2019 2026 Opening Day starter, was optioned to Triple-A Charlotte on Wednesday. Smith\u2019s demotion comes after his start on Tuesday, where he flashed some of that nasty swing-and-miss stuff we saw for stretches last season.<\/p>\n

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Smith was still erratic, however. He walked five Orioles, plunked a sixth, and burned through 99 pitches in 3 2\/3 innings. Despite failing to end the fourth inning, Wednesday was still Smith\u2019s longest outing of the year. That kind of tells you everything you need to know right there.<\/p>\n

The issues are easy to diagnose. Smith has completely lost the ability to spot his fastball. Compare his 2025 heat map to 2026:<\/p>\n

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At his best, Smith features one of the liveliest four-seam fastballs in baseball. The pitch can overpower hitters even when they are sitting on it. Smith also added 1.3 inches of rise to his four-seamer early in 2026, which could help generate more swings and misses in the strike zone. None of this does a pitcher any good, however, when he\u2019s constantly missing wide of the zone.<\/p>\n

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James Fegan got Smith and some of the White Sox development staff to talk about the fastball issues on Monday, and I was struck by this quote from Brian Bannister:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe lost some of the qualities that made him unique,\u201d Bannister said. \u201cHe had this unique little step forward that threw hitters off on their timing, and then he would speed up right after that to go slow, fast. You get some visual deception in a way that Tarik Skubal does.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Bannister has talked about \u201cvisual deception\u201d this season. Bannister is one of those guys who is always looking for the next big thing; in 2024 and 2025, he bet on the kick changeup and was correct. He\u2019s now wagering on \u201cfunky,\u201d a concept that has long been a staple of Japanese baseball culture but has grown more en vogue recently in MLB, from the more obvious (Nestor Cortes\u2019s double leg kick) to the more subtle, like Shane Smith\u2019s herky-jerky tempo from last year. The organization even has a term for them: \u201cresiduals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith took it upon himself over the offseason to regulate his windup tempo \u2014 we\u2019re left to infer that Bannister hadn\u2019t communicated his philosophy of funk to his pitchers before the offseason \u2014 and in doing so, he took away a piece of what made him a budding star last year. It\u2019s like taking the loud parts out of \u201cSmells Like Teen Spirit\u201d\u2014now the song is just some mumbly guy playing two notes over and over.<\/p>\n

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While an early-season demotion does not seem so bleak after last year\u2019s extended Spring Training, where Colson Montgomery got his groove back, it also doesn\u2019t instill much confidence in a ballclub when the Opening Day starter can\u2019t make it to Tax Day. It\u2019ll be up to the White Sox brain trust to get Smith back to the funk.<\/p>\n

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