Shane Smith really liked how he threw the ball toward the end of last season. The right-hander tried to emulate that throughout the offseason going into 2026.
“I thought it was really consistent,” Smith told the Tribune on Monday. “In trying to make it consistent, I lost some of the things that: A, made me unique. And B, I probably created a little more inconsistency than I thought.”
After earning All-Star honors as a rookie in 2025, Smith has a 19.29 ERA through two starts this season. The right-hander has made some adjustments with the delivery ahead of his next scheduled outing, Tuesday against the Baltimore Orioles at Rate Field. It’s a game that has been moved to a 2:10 p.m. first pitch from the original 6:40 p.m. start because of a forecast of cold temperatures.
“So now we’re just, let my body move naturally, let me rotate in a natural window and I think that’s going to let the baseball come out a little bit cleaner,” Smith said.
Senior adviser to pitching Brian Bannister said the Sox are working on getting Smith “back to what made you you, what we’ve always liked about you.”
“He came into camp with a more simplified delivery this year,” Bannister said on Sunday. “He had a huge workload spike last year, and I think his goal was to throw more strikes. But what it has proven is just throwing him off a little bit. … He just lost some of the qualities that made him unique. Pitchers often do that in an effort to actually become better pitchers or build upon the previous year. But in reality, sometimes it forces them to take a step back.
“The goal is to recreate some of that magic he had that made him an All-Star last year.”
Chicago White Sox pitcher Shane Smith throws during the first inning of an opening-day game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)
Smith has allowed 12 runs (10 earned) on 11 hits with three strikeouts and four walks in 4 2/3 innings this season.
“Obviously, I need to make adjustments,” Smith said. “The way I’ve been throwing the ball is not good enough. I’m just trying to make those adjustments and make sure I can go out (Tuesday) and feel confident in my ability to throw the ball.”
He surrendered three earned runs in 1 2/3 innings on opening day against the Brewers in Milwaukee and seven earned runs on eight hits in three innings on April 1 against the Marlins in Miami.
“As we evaluated him in the minor leagues with the Brewers in the context of selecting for the Rule 5 (draft), one of the things we liked is that his fastball really performed,” Bannister said. “It wasn’t unique on paper as far as the movement or anything. But you look at him, go watch him move, he’s a very hyper-mobile guy. He can get into positions a lot of pitchers can’t.
“There were several elements of his delivery we liked. He had this unique little step forward that threw hitters off on their timing and then he would speed up right after that. So he’d go slow, fast. He would get his front side up and back a lot, so you’d get some visual deception in a way that (Detroit Tigers ace) Tarik Skubal does.”
Bannister believes that in Smith’s case, previously eliminating some of those elements “also eliminates some of those things that are hard to quantify.”
“We call them residuals — the timing deception, the visual deceptions,” Bannister said.
The Sox are confident some of those unique factors will be on display again.
“I think what’s good, and I’ve had a lot of success with it, is when you are doing things the pitcher has done before, you are not asking him to do something new,” Bannister said. “You are just recreating a period in time.”
Smith believes the tweaks should help with his fastball command.
“Just creating tension in my upper half,” Smith said. “Not muscularly, like white-knuckling it. I can rotate really well, and I think I’m hindering my own rotation. So, just trying to get back to not like, ‘Hey, do exactly what you did last year,’ because it’s so hard to emulate what you did, because deliveries evolve and repertoires evolve.
“But try to take some of the pillars of what I did last year and make them work in the now.”
Sox claim pitcher Doug Nikhazy off waivers
Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Doug Nikhazy delivers against the Boston Red Sox during the first inning in the second game of a doubleheader, Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Cleveland, (AP Photo/David Richard)
The Sox claimed left-handed pitcher Doug Nikhazy off waivers from the Cleveland Guardians on Monday and optioned him to Triple-A Charlotte.
Nikhazy, 26, was designated for assignment by Cleveland on March 30.
Nikhazy made two appearances (one start) with the Guardians in 2025 in his first major-league season, allowing six runs on five hits over four innings (a 13.50 ERA).
With the move, the 40-man roster increases to 40.