Chicago White Sox: Breaking down the top three prospects

3. Alec Hansen

Newcomer Luis Robert just missed out on this spot, but who knows? With a strong showing in Class A ball Winston-Salem, the uber-talented outfielder could possibly jump Hansen.

Then again, Hansen’s going to be very hard to upstage if he improves on his performance from last season.

Hansen, along with the other two top names on this list, made a Minor League All-Star team (second team) last season. And he did it by basically mowing down everyone in his path, no matter what level he pitched at.

in 2017, the young right-hander led the Minor Leagues in strikeouts with 191, including 17 in 10.1 innings pitched at Class AA Birmingham. Overall, he had a 2.80 ERA and 1.17 WHIP in 26 starts and 141 1/3 innings at three levels.

The key to getting him MLB-ready, though, will be honing his changeup, based on what he told the Tribune’s Colleen Kane.

“My fastball command has been pretty good, but that could get a little bit better,” he said. “Besides that, the biggest thing (to work on) is being able to command my breaking balls — my slider, my curveball — for a strike better.

If he can keep locating that pitch and continue learning how to change speeds effectively, he’s definitely going to get Major League innings in 2018.

As was seen with Reynaldo Lopez and Lucas Giolito last year, that likely won’t happen until he gets some Class AAA innings first, though. Rick Hahn likes to play things slow with his pitchers.

That said, if he continues his trajectory, I could see him coming up with the White Sox probably sometime before the September call-ups happen.