Jeral Perez, Chicago White Sox, High-A, Rank: 16

Ok Chicago White Sox fans, this one’s for you! You’ve got the number one overall pick in the 2026 MLB draft, Caleb Bonemer broke out in 2025, Braden Montgomery came over after a trade with the Boston Red Sox and showed flashes of being a star, and the two-headed monster of Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith are on the cusp of pitching in Chicago. The farm system outside of those notable prospects was pretty bleak headed into the 2025 season though, but then emerged a relatively unknown prospect, one that came over alongside Miguel Vargas in a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Jeral Perez. Not only did Perez put himself on the map for White Sox fans, but he also drastically increased his prospect value and standing within the organization, so much so that I dare say, he will be a major league second baseman one day and could provide a ton of value to dynasty players.

Perez’s journey in professional baseball began in January of 2022 when he signed with the Dodgers for $397,500 out of La Romana in the Dominican Republic. He wouldn’t have to wait long to begin showing off his skills, as he would start his career by playing 48 games that same year in the Dominican Summer League (DSL). Across 205 plate appearances, he would establish himself as one of the top power bats that season, smacking eight home runs on his way to slashing .278/.371/.500, and adding 11 doubles. His eight home runs put him just outside of the top 10 for the season in the DSL, behind other notable big power hitters like Lazaro Montes, who ended his play there with 10 home runs. Unlike Montes though, Perez would not display the big swing and miss issues, he ended with a strikeout rate at 16.6%. One of the more standout aspects of his profile at such a young age (17-years-old), was that he had a relatively high home runs per flyball rate of 15.4%. He was hitting the ball hard (23.2% line drive rate) and to the pull-side more often than not (55.2% of the balls in play were pulled). This is usually a good sign for a hitter to develop solid pull-side power and to maintain it through development. After a relatively surprising showing in the DSL, he was ready to take the next step in his career and head stateside to the Arizona Complex League (ACL).

2023 saw Perez dive head-first into the ACL and take on more advanced pitchers than he went up against in the DSL. He was up to the task and then some, his plate appearances there saw a slight boost from the DSL, jumping up to 221 in 53 games. He never missed a beat at the plate though, squaring up 11 balls and sending them over the fence and ending his time in the ACL with the second most home runs in all of Rookie-ball (only 23-year-old Dakota Kotowski had more). While his power stayed at the forefront of his loud tools, his plate discipline was a mixed bag of results. His walk rate had drastically improved, a 4.6% increase from his time in the DSL (16.3%), but his strikeout rate also bumped up from 16.6% to 23.1%. He had really established himself as a legit power threat, increasing his home run per flyball rate to 16.9% and keeping his pull rate right around 55%. The only real red flag that he would display in the complex league was the absence of consistent hard, solid contact; his line drive rate plummeted from 23.2% in the DSL, down to 12.7% at Rookie-ball. His 126 wRC+ there also stayed steady compared to his time in the DSL (127) and he ultimately received a late season promotion up to Single-A Rancho Cucamonga. He ended the 2023 season playing in just seven games at Single-A, but it gave him a taste of what the higher level would be like and how he would need to improve to keep progressing towards the major leagues.

The 2024 season would be a little bit of a whirlwind for Perez, as he was traded mid-season to the Chicago White Sox. In the 76 games he played for Single-A Rancho Cucamonga he continued to produce on par with his professional career to that point. He had a 125 wRC+, slashed .264/.380/.420, hit 10 home runs, and added 15 doubles. His plate discipline remained the same as his time in the ACL, but his walk rate did experience a marginal decrease down to 13.7%. He was becoming a hitter with an exceptional knack for drawing walks and hitting the ball hard, his line drive rate jumped back to over 20% and he had an above average contact rate (79%). The pitchers there were giving him more of a challenge, as his home runs per flyball rate tanked down to 5.4% before the trade. After the trade, he experienced an adjustment period where he wasn’t himself, he only hit two home runs in 30 games for the White Sox, his strikeout rate bumped up to 25.2% and his walk rate came down to 10.7%. He needed a bounce back in 2025 to steady himself and regain his prospect shine with his new team.

Perez stepped up to the plate in 2025 and knocked it out of the park, not just metaphorically, but also literally, as he powered High-A Winston-Salem’s offense with an eye-poppingStacy Revere/GettyImage 22 home runs (99th percentile) on the season. It wasn’t his only contribution at the plate either, he added 29 doubles (92nd percentile), and four triples on his way to a slash line of .244/.315/.448. He cut his strikeout rate down to 20.9%, but saw his walk rate also drop to 8.2%. He produced a 124 wRC+, a decent amount above average, much the same as he has done at every stop along his progression through the minor leagues. His line drive rates took a hit though, falling to 17.7%, while his home runs per fly ball rate rose back to a solid 13.6%. He even maintained a good contact rate of 76.7% on the year. He had become relevant again, not just in a marginal way, but one which showed he could possibly be a part of the next playoff contending team on the south side of Chicago.

Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, Perez has a number of things to work on, with the biggest possibly being his batted ball profile. He tends to sell out for the long ball, he gets to it more often than not, but it comes at the expense of his batting average and OBP. If he can turn some of those near 45% fly balls into line drives, he could make himself into a force to be reckoned with. However, if he continues to progress through Double-A Birmingham and Triple-A Charlotte with a status quo profile, he should still make it to Chicago as a power-hitting second baseman and could move Chase Meidroth down a slot to a utility guy. Even looking at his floor, launching balls high into the night air in Chicago will get him a large chunk of at-bats. I see a Dan Uggla type of hitter from the second base position in his future and you can’t tell me it won’t satisfy the downtrodden fans in Chicago seeing him launch balls into the stands alongside Munetaka Murakami, Colson Montgomery, and who knows, maybe even Roch Cholowsky!