White Sox select Arkansas left-hander Hagen Smith with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft

(670 The Score) The White Sox selected Arkansas left-hander Hagen Smith with the No. 5 overall pick in the MLB Draft on Sunday evening.

The 6-foot-3, 225-pound Smith was named the National Pitcher of the Year in college baseball this past season, when he went 9-2 with a 2.04 ERA, 0.89 WHIP and 161 strikeouts in 84 innings across 16 starts. Smith, who’s 20, led the country with an NCAA-record 17.3 strikeouts per nine innings.

"Hagen’s many accomplishments are incredibly impressive and certainly speak for themselves,” White Sox director of amateur scouting Mike Shirley said. “Despite all of his success, I was struck most throughout the scouting process by his humility. We believe Hagen can be a foundational piece to what we are building in our organization in the years to come. We have something of a special history drafting and developing left-handed pitchers, and we envision Hagen being the latest in that line to deliver a powerful impact at the Major-League level.”

Smith’s fastball clocks in around 95 miles per hour, and scouts view his slider as his best pitch, according to the MLB Network broadcast. In one of the best pitching performances in college baseball last season, Smith struck out 17 Oregon State batters in six scoreless innings in late February.

"I feel I am one of the better pitchers in the draft," Smith said when asked how rapidly he could progress to the big leagues. "I put a lot of work into it for it to be that way. Having an opportunity to do that would be awesome. I don't know what the lord has planned for me, but I hope to be able to do that in the near future."

Signing Smith is the next step for the White Sox. The slotted amount for the No. 5 pick is about $7.76 million. The White Sox's total draft bonus pool available to spend is about $14.59 million.

Smith was a two-time All-American at Arkansas. He’s a native of Bullard, Texas.

At No. 43 overall in the second round, the White Sox selected Okemos (Michigan) High School shortstop Caleb Bonemer. At No. 68 overall with a competitive balance round pick, Chicago drafted IMG Academy (Florida_ left-hander Blake Larson.