Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Jim Margalus talks White Sox: Rikuu Nishida's debut, expectations for David Sandlin

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote were joined by Jim Margalus of Sox Machine to discuss the latest White Sox storylines.

Sox Machine. You know what that music means? Isn't that daft punk? It is. Okay, so it's daft punk and Sox Machine. Self-explanatory. We know the website. Well, this is Rahimi Harrison Grody.

And the managing editor of Sox Machine, we are happy to bring him on on our hotline. He's also on Twitch. Twitch.tv slash the score Chicago. Jim Margulis joins us. Jim, how are you? I'm good. How are you? Happy to talk to you.

For myriad of reasons, number one, I like what you have to say about baseball in general. Number two, you're very entertaining. And number three, the White Sox are relevant in good ways, not just at the professional level, but in the farm system as well, and perhaps more with this draft. This is a good time. Yeah, we don't have to make our own fun anymore. I'd forgotten what it's like when the White Sox share some of the load in providing entertainment and we're more or less commenting on it, reflecting on it, trying to extrapolate meaning from it.

And that's a lot more fun than 300 lost seasons to where we're just mining for something that isn't just mulling over the same mistakes over and over again. Well, and I, yes, mulling over the same mistakes over and over again just describes me and my own personal life. But thankfully not the White Sox now. This is, it's a good time. And I was reminded, Jim, of what we said with James Fegan, or Fegan was on with us earlier and said this is the first time he can remember

when there's so much talent still left in the farm system despite what's already been happening at the big league level. Yeah, they have some powder dry. I mean, you're seeing David Sandlin being called up. He might be the last of their somewhat ready pitchers to be able to take a start. They have some talent left. Like Hagen Smith is just not throwing strikes right now,

but he could feasibly part of the conversation in weeks. Then you have like Duncan David Jonathan Cannon, who have had, you know, varying degrees of major league experience before. But, yeah, Sandlin should be interesting as somebody who throws high in 90s and a real good breaking ball. Like, he's entertaining in sense that he's a big guy who throws really hard. And that gets you a lot of the way there in today's game. Position player-wise, you're seeing the White Sox, like, Braden Montgomery is still figuring out

AAA, which he has every right to do, given where he is in his developments. But you're seeing, like, the Sam Antanachi types or even the Riku Nasheed types of just players who have emerged in ways that make them useful, even if they're not, you know, blue chip prospects or starters are going to be able to handle 150 games at any position. Like they have skills. The White Sox can leverage them and complement them with other players.

And when you have a 162 game season, you know, we see this a lot with Milwaukee, finding those players who can bridge gaps and fill a hole in the lineup or fill a hole in the diamond. Like those are immensely useful in ways that maybe don't show up on their individual stat lines. Yeah. So you have this sort of juxtaposition happening on this White Sox team of, yeah, they're about winning right now. And considering the competition in the American League and even in the division, they should be about winning.

But there's also the development part of it and the bringing up of these guys like Riku Nasheedah and David Sandlin, as you mentioned. Guy, Guy, I want to ask you about two is what have you thought about, what is your evaluation of Noah Schultz? far with the White Sox? It's a little confusing because if you told me that he were to be struggling at the major league level, I would think that he's getting killed in the strike zone, that he's giving up a lot of hits or balls are finding their way over the fence and, you know, the swing and miss issues are coming into play. But really, he's gotten himself into trouble with walks and hit by pitches, which are, that

really hasn't been a part of his profile, at least when healthy. Like last year, when he was dealing with the knee issue, he had like a career, high walk rates. And that was a signal that something was wrong. Here, like in Charlotte, he was throwing strikes, just filling up the zone, gets to the majors. And I'm not sure if it's a case where he feels he needs to be more careful or if he doesn't have like one pitch, the rest of his arsenal kind of wobbles. But yeah, he's just walking more guys than I thought. And you can look at that two ways. You can look at that in terms of like he's Hill has more development to do. And it might be hard earned at the major league level because if he doesn't

have problems throwing strikes in Charlotte, then what's he going to learn there? the other thing is that he could eventually just figure it out and flip a switch and oh yeah here's how I throw strikes you know major league lineups aren't as scary as I'm making them out to be and all of a sudden he's now a you know number three starter at the majors in his rookie year uh yeah I think go either way but he is I think pretty important to what the white socks are trying to do given that you know Tanner McDougal is out Hagan Smith's not throwing strikes uh Shane Smith is out out with a shoulder issue for a while. They kind of need all the starters that they have.

So Schultz right now, he deserves some leeway as a rookie making his way through the majors for the first time. But it would really behoove him, the White Sox, to figure it out well enough to go five innings on a reliable basis because they really need something like that because if it's not him and David Sandlin will see who he's replacing, but they might need everybody who's currently in the rotation to hold their spots for a while. And Jim, there's not much that is similar about the White Sox from one regime to the next, surprisingly. But I do think, I wondered about, if you remember when Dylan Seescott called up, I feel like there was a bit of that that happened, where he was ready enough, but then they knew what his stuff was and it was just a matter of getting reps at the major league level.

I wonder if that's what's happening here in a way. Yeah, I think there's always cases on both sides of the ball where hitters or pitchers are just too talented for what either. you know, pitchers are throwing or what, you know, hitters are seeing. Like, yeah, I would say the position player equivalent would be like Avicel Garcia of just somebody who, every time we went to AAA, he was hitting 340 and slugging 550 and just, they couldn't do anything to him. And it was like years of hard earned progress for him where he finally, you know, had an all-star year and had some productive years with the White Sox and Milwaukee and I think he went to raise. And it just took him a long time to just register what he was seeing.

and combat what pitchers were doing to him well enough. And yeah, I think with Schultz, it's just the extreme heights, the really good sweeper, the two fastballs. You don't see many guys like that at AAA. The hitters are at AAA probably couldn't handle his guys in the majors or coming up from double A still haven't seen many like him. So he might get by a lot in the Meyer League levels on novelty alone. So at that point, yeah, it's just a case where.

need to call him up and he needs to figure it out. And I think CIS is a good example of somebody who just, velocity was too much, the breaking ball is too sharp to really phase or to really, you know, just find a challenge of AAA and everything needed to be hammered out against major league hitters who made him come in the zone. Obviously Tanner McDougal injured right now.

You mentioned Hagen Smith. I want to hear more about him and what his story is because I thought we'd be talking more about him being promoted to the big league level right now. But you say he's a little bit wild right now. now. Yeah, it's just, uh, it seems like it's mechanics, seems like it's kind of an inning to inning thing where he has some innings where it looks pretty simple. And he gets by on, uh, a 94 mile per hour fastball, which plays up and then a slider that, you know, really can grab strikes

or be a wipeout pitch. And he gets, uh, some goofy swings and misses. And then he has, uh, a string of batters where he gets off is the release points kind of askew and just, uh, is walking guys on five pitches or he needs to find a slider to get in the strike zone and he can't you know for a few batterers he just needs to get back to the dugout to kind of recalibrate and uh those innings drag on for a while and eat his pitch count so the talent is there i think the question right now is like is it a starter or is it more of a reliever is it more of a um you know somebody who just needs to throw an inning or two at a time because the the prospect of throwing four five six innings without these big lapses that really just wastes

pitch count are just too much to overcome and plan around for a major league staff. We're talking to Jim Margulis of Sox Machine here on 1043 The Score, Rahimi Harris and Grotie. And Jim, Rekun Nishita's debut went about as well as anybody could have asked for when you consider seven putouts, had an outfield assist from right field, you know, not his natural spot. What do you think of just the atmosphere he created? What he was able to do his first game and then where he goes from here?

It was very on brand for him, both with the outfield assist and with like the single that kind of squibs through the middle, you know, hits it on the ground and runs like hell. That's pretty much his game offensively. It's funny. After we hang up here, I'm going to be driving to Birmingham to see the Rickwood game. And it was last year at the Rickwood game where I watched him from left field throughout two runners at home plate, basically identical plays, singles where he's just. charging, coming up firing, and getting the runner at home by a step. And it almost seemed like

the first one couldn't be believed, you know, whether it's his size, whether it's kind of like he'll take some unsure routes from time to time, especially last year when he was really dedicating time to learning the outfield. And so maybe they thought like he's not going to be in position to throw or, you know, given how small he is, you know, perhaps there's not going to be much in that arm. And then twice in a row, bam, bam, just two outs. And like he's running back to dugout and teammates are holding two fingers in his face to say, you did it twice. And, you know, he's got that kind of pull and charisma to where everybody's rooting for him. Like, I even remember this going back to his draft day when he was drafted in the 11th round.

And he saw college baseball writers who were happy for him and saying, like, this guy was so much fun at Oregon. Like, I'm not sure if he has a major league profile, but he deserves to be playing at the next level and then seeing how far he can take it because like just the entertainment value of watching him. and then just what everybody says about him, you know, in the clubhouse and the dugout on the field, you know, playing multiple positions and in scoring runs. Just everybody saw that that need to be rewarded somehow.

And then it's been the same story, basically in the White Sox farm system of just seems like, okay, double A, surely his magical run out. Okay, AAA, surely pitchers with major experience will not to get him out.

And he just keeps posting 400 on base percentages or higher every single level to where, yeah, try him in the majors. reward that performance, especially when this White Sox outfields kind of mess right now. There's opportunities for a left-handed bat there. There's opportunities to get some reps in the infield. So yeah, it's kind of calling out for his skill set and profile.

And even if it doesn't work out, it's a worthwhile experience just to see based on what he'd done at AAA, seeing it works. And if it continues to work, he's going to be immensely popular. just, you know, and we saw it in the first game, just how everybody seems to rally around him when he's in a clubhouse in a dugout. And then, Jim, we know that Josh Nelson is in Omaha. He was keeping an eye in the Big Ten tournament. What can you tell us about his assignment? Yeah, he went down to see UCLA and Rock Chilowski, still the number one ranked prospect on most draft boards and trying to figure out where he is. And it's a mixed bag right now. like defensively, he's fine.

The skill set is still there. The strength is there. But, you know, Josh says that he's kind of in between swings right now. And he's not really driving the UCLA offense. And I think for White Sox fans who were hoping for, you know, what they thought when the draft lottery happened of just looking for a surefire, number one pick, no brainer. Yeah, I think Chalowsky is still that guy in terms of the draft boards being number one.

But he's not having the kind of. of performance to where he's running away with it or cementing it or kind of closing off avenues for other opportunities for the White Sox like draft a high school shortstop or something like that. I will say that when it comes to prospects like Chalowski who build up so much hype in their sophomore year and then have like an okay by their standards junior year, it reminds me a lot about Carlos Rodan when he was supposed to be the top overall pick out of NC States, had a shorter season and wasn't as effective, a few more walks.

you know, the White Sox had the third pick that year. They, everybody thought, oh, there's no way they're getting Rodan. He's the first pick overall. And then he falls to third, White Sox pick him. And the first two picks are high school pitchers who never, I think, get above a ball. So there is always a risk of prospect fatigue, I think, especially when you're following a guy who is the presumptive number one pick for this draft from the previous year. But there is, I guess, at this point, a little bit of doubt in terms of just where he is swing-wise. and the kind of instant impact, I think, that probably should temper the idea of him rising through the ranks and contributing to the White Sox in 2027.

But I think if you're going to be heartened by something, I would say that if he's between swings, if nothing else, the White Sox have shown this year, an ability to help guys figure out swings. And that's something we couldn't have said before with the White Sox and developing hitters. Absolutely. Jim Margulis, always a pleasure catching up. Have fun at the game tonight. Thank you. I will. That is Jim Margulis, the managing editor of Sox Machine. We are happy to have him on 104,3, the score. Next here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, David Ross graced the cover of the Suntime Sports Section today

and had a very candid article that was written about him regarding his feelings toward the Cubs and the divorce that happened between him and the team as manager. So we'll examine what he said, and then also it reminded us of something that he had told a podcast, that we want to play for you next.