College Baseball

Former Hog Hurler Making History After Just One Pro Season

There is little doubt who is the greatest pitcher in Arkansas Razorback history. Now his mission is to become the best in all of baseball, or at least a star who can help lead his downtrodden team back to glory.

Hagen Smith, last year’s college pitcher of the year, was the No. 5 pick in the MLB draft in July by the Chicago White Sox. After just 7.2 innings of minor league ball, he’s already being recognized as an up-and-coming talent.

Smith is the No. 2 ranked left-handed prospect in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline. The only southpaw listed ahead of him is Noah Schultz, his White Sox teammate who was drafted No. 26 overall out of high school in the 2022 draft.

Smith set an NCAA record of 17.25 strikeouts per nine innings in 2024 and signed for $8 million last July, a record that topped Brendan McKay’s $7 million with Tampa Bay in 2017. Smith’s bonus bested the Arkansas record of $5.2 million Heston Kjerstad got from the Baltimore Orioles in 2020.

Schultz signed with the Sox for $2.8 million but suffered a few injuries and began last season with High-A Winston-Salem before moving up May 25 to the Double-A Birmingham Barons. His combined record was 0-4 in 23 starts but his ERA was 2.24 with 115 strikeouts in 88.1 innings.

Schultz is 6-foot-9 and 220 pounds, the White Sox’s top-ranked prospect and No. 16 in baseball. Smith stands 6-3 and weighs 225; he’s third on the ChiSox prospect list and 30th in baseball.

White Sox general manager Chris Getz said in a recent interview: “I don’t want to say (Schultz is) knocking on the door (to the big leagues) but he’s not far off. (Smith) was arguably the top pitcher (in the draft) and we thought he was. … I don’t think we’re that far off of watching Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith at the front of a rotation for the White Sox. I think it’s in the very near future.”

While talking of Smith, Getz invoked the name of National League Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes, who was the Pittsburgh Pirates’ overall No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft. He debuted for the Pirates on May 11 and went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA and 170 strikeouts in 133 innings. He was third in the Cy Young voting and started the All-Star game.

“You look at what Paul Skenes did, and I don’t want to put (Smith) in that category, necessarily, because of what Skenes was able to accomplish last year,” Getz said. “Some of these top college arms, pitching in the SEC, they can move quickly.”

The White Sox will protect the valuable left arms of their two 21-year-old prospects, no matter how dominant they might have been so far in their careers. How dominant was Smith and why did Getz judge him even better than Chase Burns, the former Tennessee pitcher who threw for Wake Forest last year and went No. 2 overall to the Cincinnati Reds?

Check out these numbers that were highlight on MLB Network when the White Sox selected Smith fifth. For pitches in the strike zone as a junior with the Hogs, Smith’s fastball was swung at and missed 38% of the time and his slide 39%. That compares to the Division I averages of 14% on fastballs in the zone and 19% on sliders.

That added up to a 9-2 record with a 2.04 ERA (fourth in the country) and 0.89 WHIP (seventh best) despite giving up three earned runs on a hit and two walks in the season opener on a cold and miserable day at Baum Stadium. He struck out 161 in 84 innings across 16 starts.

The White Sox started him at their High-A club in Winston-Salem, where he made three starts, went 0-1 with 3.52 ERA and struck out seven in 7.2 innings. After the high-stress innings he threw at the end of Arkansas’ season, the White Sox treated him with kid gloves.

When Smith’s short stint with Winston-Salem ended, he was invited to Chicago where he spent the day delivering food to a downtown fire stations, doing interviews and signing autographs before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch of the Sox games against the Cleveland Indians.

In the third inning, he joined the White Sox broadcast team of play-by-play man John Schriffen and color analyst Steve Stone, the 1980 Cy Young Award winner thanks to his 25-7 record with the Orioles. Smith said during his time the minors, he “played with my cutter early games a little bit, mixed it in a little more and tried to get game reps.” He told Stone he only threw it about five times a game with Arkansas.”

Asked about being so effective against left-hand hitters, Smith said, “After my freshman year, I moved to the first-base side of the (pitching) rubber.” That gave him more of a crossfire motion against lefties. Smith said his goal during the off-season was gaining consistency with his cutter and splitter.

Smith also said he had originally committed to play college ball at Oklahoma State but changed his mind during his sophomore year and chose Arkansas after his recruiting visit to Fayetteville. He was dominant for small Bullard High School, where he threw seven no-hitters to tie the Texas prep record.

Smith’s second start of his last season at Arkansas was as overpowering as he was in high school.
He whiffed 17 in six shutout innings while allowing three hits and one walk on an economical 78 pitches at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. The 17 strikeouts tied the Arkansas record set by Jess Todd’s on 118 pitches in the 2007 SEC Tournament.

That kick-started a great season as Smith was named Pitcher of the Year by American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings, College Baseball Foundation, and Perfect Game. He joined Kevin Kopps (2021) as College Baseball Foundation’s choice as top pitcher. He set the Arkansas record for strikeouts in a season with 161 and broke the career mark with 360.

Smith led the country in three categories: his record for strikeouts per nine innings, hits per nine (4.4) and lowest batting average against (.144). He was SEC Pitcher of the Year while going 7-0 with a 1.35 ERA and 110 strikeouts in 60 innings in 10 conference starts.

Smith is the third-highest pick in the draft in Razorback history, the fifth to be in the top 10, and the 10th to be taken in the first round. Third baseman Jeff King was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1986 draft and outfielder Heston Kjerstad was second overall in 2020.

Other top 10 draftees were outfielders Kevin McReynolds at sixth in 1981 and Andrew Benintendi seventh in 2015. The other five in the first round were left-handed pitcher Nick Schmidt (23rd in 2007), third baseman Zack Cox (25th in 2010), right-handed pitcher Dave Walling (27th in 1999), righty Ryne Stanek (29th in 2013) and third baseman Logan Forsythe (46th in 2008).

Now Smith hopes to fulfill the promise that the White Sox and everyone else in MLB sees in him. If he does that, he’ll have a better pro career than any Razorback.

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