Danvers Pitcher Top Pick In Major League Baseball Rule 5 Draft

DANVERS, MA — Danvers pitcher Shane Smith could be ticketed for a spot on the opening day roster of the Chicago White Sox after the Governor's Academy alumnus was taken with the top pick in Major League Baseball's Rule 5 draft on Wednesday.

Smith, who pitched in parts of two seasons at Wake Forest University before signing with the Milwaukee Brewers, was drafted as part of the MLB draft that makes players eligible for selection if they were left off their parent club's 40-man roster after multiple years of minor league experience. The team selecting the player must keep that player on the active MLB roster for the entire following season or offer him back to the former squad for $50,000.

In Smith's case, that means the White Sox must keep him from opening day until the end of the 2025 season or they must either send him back to the Brewers, or otherwise work out a trade.

Smith, at 6-foot-4 and 235 pounds, was one of the top pitching prospects in the state at Governor's Academy, as well as a star in basketball and football before choosing to attend Wake Forest University.

His time in Winston-Salem was complicated by injuries and the COVID-19 health crisis that cut short one of his seasons.

He was 2-0 during the COVID-19 season of 2020 coming off shoulder surgery in 2019 before athletics were shut down for the remainder of the spring. He returned the next year but pitched just five innings before an injury forced him to get Tommy John surgery.

The 24-year-old Smith turned professional and signed with the Brewers in 2021 where he flashed with a 7-4 record and 196 ERA in 38 games in 2023 and 6-3 with a 3.05 ERA in 32 games with Triple-A Nashville and Double-A Biloxi.

Smith displayed a dominant fastball in his minor league seasons and joins a White Sox team that also on Wednesday traded ace hurler Garrett Crochet to the Boston Red Sox for four minor-league prospects.

Increasing his chances of remaining with the big club for the duration of the upcoming season is that the White Sox are in desperate search of talent coming off one of the worst seasons in MLB history where they went 41-121.

The record was the worst in Major League Baseball in 125 years dating back to 1899.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)