This off-season, the Milwaukee Brewers saw a pair of their former pitchers be selected in the MLB phase of the Rule-5 draft. 24 year old Shane Smith, whom the Brew Crew left unprotected, was the first overall selection. Additionally, Evan Reifert was taken fifth by the Washington Nationals, in which a few years ago he was traded by Milwaukee in order to acquire Mike Brosseau.
Smith, now a member of the Chicago White Sox, recently generated some buzz for his velocity during a spring training game. Here is how fast and frequently the flamethrower was performing.
Former Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Shane Smith pumped several pitches 99 MPH+ with the Chicago White Sox
According to Pitching Ninja on X, on Saturday Smith threw seven pitches that were 99 MPH+, with one reaching triple digits. He also had seven additional pitches that clocked in at 98 MPH. That is a grand total of 14 pitches of at least 98 MPH.
Shane Smith statistics
This spring, Smith initially surrendered four earned runs during his season debut. Across 1.2 innings pitched he also walked three batters and threw just 16 out of 32 pitches for strikes. He rebounded nicely during his second outing as he tossed two scoreless innings and did not allow a runner to reach base.
With the Brewers, Smith has had an impressive previous few seasons. In 2023 he posted a 1.98 ERA across 59.2 innings pitched and last year his ERA was 3.08 over 94.1 innings. Smith did reach Triple-A in 2024, but the vast majority of his appearances came in Double-A.
While leaving Smith unprotected this off-season was risky by the Brewers, and he is now in the headlines with some impressive velocity, he could always be returned to the organization if he doesn’t spend the entire season on the White Sox’s active roster.
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