Spring Training Prospect Spotlight: Nick Nastrini

The White Sox have a record 70 guys in camp. Some are veterans trying to keep their careers afloat, some are proven MLB players, and the rest are young guys trying to make an impact. One of those young guys is Nick Nastrini, who was the headliner in the Lance Lynn to the Dodgers trade. He ranks in as one of our best pitching prospects and should be in the majors at some point this year.

Nastrini made his Spring Training debut today against the Texas Rangers, giving up one run, one hit, and struck out one in two innings of work. The game was not televised so the only people who saw him pitch were the ones at the game and those people had high praise for his outing today, which is a good start.

Before this start, he was already getting high praise around camp, as according to Vinnie Duber, manager Pedro Grifol had high praise for Nastrini, saying this: “Dylan Cease was absolutely incredible. Velocity was really high, as sharp as you can possibly be, presence. Nastrini came almost right after. I thought I was looking at the same guy. This kid’s got it.”

If you are getting compared to Dylan Cease, that is a great thing, as he is one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. Nastrini has a far way to go to get to that level, but he has proved himself in the minors to this point.

In his first professional season, he split time between the Arizona Complex League and Low A, where he would toss 14 innings of 1.93 ERA baseball. In those 14 innings, he struck out 32 batters, which is more than 2 per inning, which is absolutely insane. This would lead to him starting in High A in the 2022 season.

At High A, Nastrini started 21 games, throwing 86.1 innings. He would strike out 127 batters and hold them to a low .192 batting average against. This would be good for a 3.86 ERA, which earned him a promotion to AA for the latter part of the 2022 season.

At AA, he would start six games throwing 30 innings. He would strike out 42 batters and hold them to a .140 average. He had an elite WHIP too, sitting at .99. Somehow despite those great numbers his ERA was 4.15, which doesn’t add up as he didn’t get hit hard or walk too many batters, sounds like he was just unlucky.

He would start off pretty good at AA in 2023, as before the trade to the White Sox, he started 17 games, throwing 73 innings. He would strike out 85 batters, but he would get hit a bit more than last year and walk a few more batters, en route to a 4.03 ERA, 1.4 WHIP, and a .232 average.

Once he was traded to the Sox, he struggled at first but started to figure out things as he got promoted to AAA. Overall, between both of the levels, he would post a 4.17 ERA over 41 innings. He would strike out 54 while walking 17 batters. Once he got to AAA, he only allowed a .154 average and had a 1.02 WHIP. It is understandable to be a bit rocky after a significant trade.

He ended the season on a heater for the White Sox, so he is looking to continue this momentum into camp this year. I would love to see him break camp with the White Sox, but with all the veteran additions, he will have an uphill climb. He will likely be up if someone suffers an injury or starts to perform poorly. His development is key this year, as he could easily be a top of the rotation arm for the White Sox.