Shane Smith

Note: This page is for 2020s pitcher Shane Smith; for others with the same name, click here.

Shane Jeffrey Smith

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 4", Weight 235 lb.
• School Wake Forest University
• High School The Governor's Academy
• Debut April 1, 2025

• Born April 4, 2000 in Danvers, MA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Pitcher Shane Smith was the top selection in the 2024 Rule V Draft, taken by the Chicago White Sox from the Milwaukee Brewers.

A native of New England, he went to college at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, but went undrafted after making just 2 starts for the Demon Deacons in 2021 due to injuries. He had been redshirted in both 2019 (due to an injury) and 2020 (due to COVID-19), so 2021 was officially his freshman season, but by then he wanted to get his professional career underway as he was already 21. One reason that had made him chose Wake Forest was that coach Tom Walter had been his father Jeff's coach when he had played baseball at George Washington University in the 1990s.

He signed with the Brewers on July 27, 2021, and started his career in 2022 with the ACL Brewers Gold, on an injury rehabilitation assignment, making 3 starts and pitching just 3 innings. He was finally healthy in 2023, when he pitched 38 times for a total of 59 2/3 innings spread among three teams at three levels. He had excellent results overall, combining to go 7-4, 1.96 with 10 saves and 86 strikeouts. In 2024, he started the season in AA with the Biloxi Shuckers, with whom he had pitched 2 innings the year before, and went 5-3, 3.08 in 27 games, including 16 starts. On September 3rd, he was promoted to the AAA Nashville Sounds, where he continued to do well in 5 relief outings, with an ERA of 2.70 in 6 2/3 innings. His K/W ratio was an excellent 113/29 in 94 1/3 innings, but the Brewers failed to add him to their 40-man roster after the season, exposing him to the Rule V Draft, where the Sox wasted no time in snapping him up.

He made the White Sox out of spring training in 2025 and started the team's fifth game of the season, against the Minnesota Twins on April 1st. Remarkably, the White Sox's starting pitchers had gone 23 innings without allowing a single earned run in the team's first four games until them (there had been two unearned runs) and he was able to keep the streak going for five more innings, allowing just 2 hits and 2 walks, before he tired in the 6th inning. He gave up a pair of walks to Byron Buxton and Trevor Larnach with two outs, then gave way to Penn Murfee, who allowed both inherited runners to score and coughed up what was a 3-0 lead by allowing four hits and a hit batsman without retiring anyone. Shane ended up with a no-decision as Chicago lost the game, 8-3.

Related Sites

• Shane Smith on mlb.com
• BR Minors page
• Wake Forest bio