Ricardo Brizuela Right-Handed Starting Pitcher 6´3´´ 198 pounds Age: 22 2025 SSS Top Prospect Rank 48 2024 High Level Kannapolis (Low-A) Age relative to high level +0.4 years SSS rank among all right-handed
starters in the system 16 Overall 2025 stats 1-10 ⚾️ 23 starts ⚾️ 86 2⁄3 IP ⚾️ 4.98 ERA ⚾️ 1.419 WHIP ⚾️ 74 K ⚾️ 37 BB ⚾️ 0.1 WAR
A year ago, you might have thought we ranked Ricardo Brizuela so high purely because we were scared to sleep on his talent. The righthander appeared out of nowhere, and got the relatively rare ACL-to-Low-A treatment that indicates he was a talent to dream on.
In 2025, however, everything that had been going right for the righty turned wrong.
Brizuela snuck into the White Sox organization in 2022, from a Latin American country of undetermined origin. His debut in the DSL, at age 19, was nothing of note. Despite a 5.02 ERA served up during a who-is-this-guy hybrid starter-closer role, Brizuela moved Stateside in 2023 and was … OK in Arizona, logging a 4.62 ERA still filling a starter-closer role (seriously how many pitchers in ACL history have recorded a complete game and save in the same season?).
If the White Sox even for sure knew Brizuela was going to suit up in 2024 — they’re not sure where he came from, after all — they might have told him it was a make-or-break year. But even without a memo, Brizuela seemed to get the message: Repeating Arizona out of the gate and shifting to a pure starter role, the righthander killed it with a 2.33 ERA over 10 starts, punctuated with 11.33 Ks per BB that reads as pure stupid. When the ACL broke for the summer, Brizuela got a ticket across country to Kannapolis, where he remained in the rotation and acquitted himself OK; his K/BB fell to mortal levels but he still was tossing less than one hit per inning.
When writing Ricardo up a year ago, I noted that I was fully prepared to see him struggle in 2025 and perhaps even fall out of our Top 100. And lemme tell ya, if not for the thin nature of the White Sox system — and realistically, if not for a large handful of minor leaguers-turned-free agents, Brizuela would have missed the cut. His 2025 was disastrous, where about the only positive you can mention is full health and durability (23 starts, nibbling at 100 innings). But he stalled out at Kannapolis, pitching at age-appropriate, getting mauled in game after game.
It is not inconceivable that the White Sox start Brizuela back in the ACL to get his feet back under him, but realistically he starts a third season at Low-A with sights on a second-half promotion to Winston-Salem.
Full 2026 South Side Sox Top 100 White Sox Prospects Storystream
