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Noah Schultz Made a Change, Now He’s Dominating for White Sox
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- Noah Schultz Made a Change, Now He’s Dominating for White Sox
Noah Schultz looks different.
That's probably the simplest way to describe what the Chicago White Sox have gotten from their prized left-handed pitcher since bringing him back to the major leagues.
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Schultz looks more confident on the mound. He's working with conviction. He's throwing strikes. Most importantly for a White Sox pitching staff desperately searching for quality innings down the stretch, he's getting outs.
After struggling for a period of his rookie season as a starting pitcher, battling an injury and eventually getting sent back to Triple-A Charlotte, Schultz returned to Chicago last week in a completely different role. The White Sox aren't asking him to start games anymore. Instead, they're using the 6-foot-10 left-hander as a multi-inning weapon out of the bullpen.
So far, it's working.
Schultz retired all six batters he faced over two perfect innings against the Cleveland Guardians on September 16. He returned to the mound against the Detroit Tigers on Saturday afternoon and delivered another 1.2 scoreless innings in a high-leverage situation, allowing two hits while striking out four.
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That's 3.2 scoreless innings without a walk since returning to the big leagues. Schultz has faced 14 batters across those two appearances and allowed only one hard-hit ball. Even that contact was driven directly into the ground and resulted in a routine groundout.
Obviously, we're talking about an extremely small sample size. Two relief appearances don't suddenly erase the struggles Schultz experienced earlier this season, nor do they prove that he's a finished product. But for a promising left-hander who was once one of the highest-rated prospects in the sport, the production will always command attention.
And the early success isn't even the most compelling part.
Schultz is pitching differently. When you dig into how the White Sox have changed his approach, particularly against the right-handed hitters that tagged him for 89 total bases through his first 15 MLB appearances, there's reason to believe his early success out of the bullpen is more than a coincidence.
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Simpler Is Better for Noah Schultz
When Schultz was pitching out of Chicago's starting rotation, he generally attacked hitters with the same basic pitch distribution regardless of which side of the plate they stood on.
Take his July 27 start against the New York Yankees . Schultz threw 72 pitches, with 40% of them being sinkers and 29% cutters. Against right-handed hitters specifically, those numbers barely changed. He threw 42% sinkers and 29% cutters.
Five days later against the Tampa Bay Rays , it was essentially the same story. Schultz threw 67 pitches, with 40% sinkers and 22% cutters. Against righties, he threw 43% sinkers and 25% cutters.
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That nearly identical usage is especially notable because of Schultz's unusual pitching profile. At 6-foot-10, the left-hander generates extreme arm-side movement, with his mid-90s sinker averaging roughly 18 inches of horizontal break and his four-seam fastball averaging around 11. Both pitches naturally run away from right-handed hitters, giving Schultz tremendous movement but also presenting a significant challenge when it comes to command.
There have been games when control has been the issue and walks have gotten him into trouble. There have also been games when Schultz has thrown enough strikes but hasn't commanded them particularly well. There's an important difference between the two. A pitcher can find the strike zone and still leave too many pitches over the heart of the plate.
For a 23-year-old trying to harness his long limbs, unique delivery and an arsenal with extreme movement, the White Sox appear to have decided that simpler might be better.
That's where his cutter comes in.
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Implementing the Cutter
Schultz's cutter isn't a new pitch, and interestingly enough, the pitch itself hasn't changed much in its overall shape or profile.
It averaged 90.8 mph in both of those previously referenced starts against New York and Tampa Bay . Since returning in a bullpen role, it has averaged 90.6 mph against Cleveland and 90.7 mph against Detroit. The spin rate hasn't increased, either.
What has shifted is how often Schultz uses it.
Against Cleveland last week, Schultz threw 18 pitches in his relief appearance. Seven were cutters, accounting for 39% of his arsenal, while his sinker usage fell to 17%.
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Against Detroit , 12 of his 32 pitches were cutters, another 38%, while only 16% were sinkers.
Schultz also faced nine (9) right-handed hitters between those two appearances. He threw 33 pitches to them, and 18 were cutters. That's more than half of his offerings.
Of the 19 cutters Schultz has thrown since being recalled by the White Sox, 18 have been thrown to right-handed hitters. That's a dramatic departure from what we saw when he was starting, and there's a logical reason it could be helping him.
While Schultz's sinker and four-seam fastball feature higher velocity and significant arm-side movement, Schultz's cutter averages approximately nine inches of induced vertical break, meaning its spin helps it resist about nine inches of natural drop on its way to the plate. Combined with minimal horizontal movement towards his glove side, that gives Schultz a much straighter pitch than his other fastballs.
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Against a right-handed hitter, that gives Schultz a hard pitch he can use to attack the inner half without having to account for the massive arm-side run of his sinker. That can make the cutter considerably easier to command.
Looking through the locations of his cutters over these two appearances, Schultz isn't simply throwing everything inside to right-handed batters. There are pitches off the plate and pitches in other areas of the zone. But there's a clear willingness and intentionality to attack the glove-side portion of the plate with it.
More importantly, Schultz is consistently landing the pitch for strikes.
Noah Schultz Attacking Right-Handed Hitters
Over his last two appearances against Cleveland and Detroit, 12 of Schultz's 19 cutters have resulted in either a called strikeor a swing-and-miss.
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The cutter's effectiveness was especially apparent in the way Schultz navigated individual at-bats against Detroit on Saturday.
He started Spencer Torkelson with a cutter for a called strike. Later in the count, another cutter generated a swing-and-miss. Then, with the count full, Schultz went right back to it and froze Torkelson for strike three.
Against Dillon Dingler , a cutter generated a swing-and-miss for strike two before another froze him for strike three.
Rather than repeatedly trying to harness an 18-inch-running sinker against righties, Schultz can establish the inner portion of the plate with a much straighter cutter.
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The White Sox want Schultz's hard stuff working in on a hitter's hands, which makes his plus-plus sweeper that much more effective. Against left-handed hitters, that means attacking with the four-seam fastball and sinker, using their higher velocity and natural arm-side run to get inside. Against right-handed hitters, the cutter has increasingly become the primary offering to accomplish the same thing.
Schultz has also somewhat limited his sweeper usage against right-handed hitters since moving to the bullpen. Taken together, it looks like the White Sox have simplified his entire approach to attacking right-handed bats.
They're leaning into a more intuitive formula that takes advantage of the natural movement Schultz already possesses and the deception created by his unique arm slot.
Better Velocity and More Strikes
I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention the uptick in velocity, which could simply be a product of pitching out of the bullpen and feeling a new liberty to let it rip. That's the advantage of asking a young pitcher to get five or six outs rather than 15 or 18.
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Schultz's four-seam fastball averages 95.2 mph this season. In his most recent outings as a starting pitcher, it was sitting right around that 95 mph mark. Since moving to the bullpen, it has been closer to 97 mph on average.
The sinker has experienced an even more dramatic jump, averaging 97.4 mph against Detroit while also showing slightly higher spin rates.
The end result of all these changes is a version of Schultz that has some of his best stuff while displaying considerably better control. He threw 13 strikes on 18 pitches against Cleveland and 22 strikes on 32 pitches against Detroit.
That's a 70% strike rate out of the bullpen, which will absolutely play. More importantly, he hasn't walked anybody.
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As mentioned previously, command and control are two different things, and both have given Schultz problems at times in 2026. But the more he incorporates the cutter into his arsenal, the more effectively he can establish the inner half of the plate against right-handed hitters.
That gives hitters another movement profile to account for, allows Schultz to attack the edges rather than either nibbling off the plate or leaking pitches over the heart of it, and ultimately makes his entire arsenal more effective.
What It Means for Schultz and the White Sox
It's only 3.2 innings, and that's important context. We need to keep everything in perspective. But if White Sox fans are looking for a tangible reason why Schultz has looked better, there's legitimate evidence behind it beyond simply throwing more strikes or benefiting from fortunate batted-ball luck.
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The long-term goal for Schultz hasn't changed. The White Sox still plan to develop him as a starting pitcher, and it remains clear that he has the upside to become one of baseball's premier arms.
b But for the immediate future, with a division race on their hands and a postseason berth potentially in the cards in 2026, the question is straightforward: How can Noah Schultz help this team right here and right now?
It appears the White Sox have found an answer that allows them to continue developing Schultz while also getting meaningful contributions from him at the MLB level.
We've already seen with fellow rookie Hagen Smith how much a converted starting pitcher can change the complexion of a bullpen when he's effective in multi-inning appearances. If Schultz keeps this up, he can join Smith as another valuable bullpen weapon and make Chicago's pitching staff that much more dangerous in a postseason series.
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For now, though, what's clear is that these results haven't come out of nowhere. The White Sox and Schultz have made tangible changes to his arsenal and approach, and they appear to be operating with real intentionality.
The sample remains small, but there's reason to believe what we're seeing could be sustainable. And even beyond what Schultz can provide during a potential playoff run, there's long-term value in that process.
The more Schultz learns about himself as a pitcher, and the more the White Sox learn about how to help him harness some of the most unique stuff in baseball, the closer they may be getting to unlocking the pitcher they've envisioned for years.
