The Chicago White Sox have not held the No. 1 overall pick in the MLB Draft in nearly 50 years, so Saturday was already a big deal on the South Side before a single name got called. They used that top pick on UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky, a Golden Spikes finalist who helped the Bruins win 52 games and a Big Ten title. That would've been enough of a headline for one draft class. Then the White Sox got to pick No. 34 and made things a lot more personal.
With the Comp A selection, Chicago took Landon Thome, an infielder out of Nazareth Academy in La Grange Park, Illinois, and the son of White Sox Hall of Famer Jim Thome. Jon Heyman broke the news, noting the obvious: like his dad, the kid is an infielder with a big bat.
Chicago White Sox select Landon Thome, son of Hall of Famer Jim Thome, with pick No. 34. Like his dad, he’s an infielder with a big bat. Played at Nazareth Academy in La Grange Park, Ill.
This isn't just a cute name-recognition pick, either. Jim Thome didn't just play for the White Sox and mash his way into Cooperstown, he's currently a special assistant to Sox GM Chris Getz and an assistant coach on Landon's own high school team. So the front office had about as close a look at this prospect as a front office can get. Landon was Illinois' Gatorade Player of the Year this spring, hitting .532 with 8 home runs, 35 RBI and 54 stolen bases as a senior, and he'd been committed to play at Florida State before Chicago called his name.
There's a real baseball case here beyond the bloodline. Scouts have pointed to Landon's pitch recognition and plate discipline as advanced for his age, paired with the kind of bat speed that made his dad a 612-homer, first-ballot Hall of Famer. Nobody's promising he becomes Jim Thome 2.0, that's an absurd bar for anyone, but the tools and the swing-first fanbase reaction speak to why the Sox didn't hesitate at 34.
Zoom out and it's a pretty stark thing for a rebuilding franchise: same draft, same day, the No. 1 overall pick and a second premium bat with a direct pipeline to the organization's own front office and alumni network. For a fan base that's had precious little to celebrate lately, landing baseball's presumptive best player available and then a hometown Thome felt like the kind of draft class the South Side needed. What happens next is the boring-but-important part, signing bonuses. Cholowsky's reported $9.5 million bonus is expected to push money down the board, which could affect what it takes to lock up both Cholowsky and Thome before the signing deadline.