The White Sox came out of the 2026 MLB Draft with a fifth-rounder who looks a lot better than fifth-round money usually buys. Cal Scolari, the Oregon righty, signed with Chicago for $550,000, per Jim Callis of MLB.com, essentially right at slot value for pick No. 137.
Jim Callis broke the signing news along with the scouting profile that has evaluators buzzing.
The number matters less than the arm attached to it. Scolari sits 94-95 mph and touches 98, and pairs that heat with a mid-80s slider that misses bats. Callis called him a physical specimen and noted he's reportedly one of MLB Pipeline's Jonathan Mayo's favorite sleepers in this class -- which is the kind of tag that ages well when a guy starts climbing prospect lists in Year 1 of pro ball.
This wasn't some can't-miss blue-chipper who fell due to signability. Scolari went undrafted out of San Diego last year after Tommy John surgery wiped out chunks of his high school and college careers. He transferred to Oregon for a one-year audition and delivered: a 5-1 record, a 3.32 ERA and 85 strikeouts across his starts, with opposing hitters batting just .220 against him. That's a full-blown breakout in a walk year, and it's exactly why a fastball that jumped from the low-90s to 98 mph got him drafted this time around.
For a White Sox org that's been living off high draft picks and lottery-ticket arms the last few cycles, landing a power arm with a real bat-missing slider in the fifth round is a solid value swing. He's still raw in terms of pro innings and his control was scattered enough at Oregon to draw some reliever risk, but the stuff is the kind teams bet on developing rather than pass on.
Now it's about usage. Whether Chicago slow-plays him as a starter to stretch out that fastball-slider combo or fast-tracks him to the bullpen where the stuff could play up immediately, Scolari is one of the more intriguing names buried in this year's White Sox draft class. Worth checking back on him once the full-season assignments start rolling out.