What to expect from Colson Montgomery in the Majors

In the summer of 2023, Colson Montgomery was one of the hottest prospects on the planet. Recovered from oblique and back injuries that cost him the first two months of his season, the left-handed-hitting shortstop was tearing the cover off the baseball: a 1.054 OPS in June, a .371/.547/.565 slash line in July.

A first-round selection in 2021, Montgomery looked the part of an impact bat in the middle of a Major League lineup -- and like it would happen soon. Then the White Sox No. 1 prospect, he was so hot, so fast that he surprised even himself.

"If you told me I was going to come out hitting like this, I probably wouldn't believe it,” he said in July 2023.

That run necessitated a new challenge that was also a somewhat familiar one after a 14-game spin the year prior: Double-A. He held his own there well enough (.844 OPS) but some under-the-hood flaws began to show as he struck out multiple times in a game on 13 occasions in 37 contests. He finished his year at the Arizona Fall League, where he whiffed in 27 of his 82 at-bats.

But even amidst the rough waters of facing advanced pitching, there were glimmers of the light -- and potential -- at the end of the tunnel. Montgomery was named AFL Fall Stars Game MVP in 2023 and arrived back in Arizona for spring camp in ‘24 with anticipation building around what seemed to be an imminent arrival on the South Side.

That never came. Instead, the strikeout enigma that began to emerge at Double-A opened into a chasm at Triple-A, where Montgomery posted a 28.6 percent K rate. He was still hitting the ball hard, but in order to tap into his above-average power tool, he had to actually hit it.

So back to the Fall League he went. The organization preached strike-zone discipline and good swing decisions. The results -- albeit in a very small sample size -- were much better, as he delivered a 1.167 OPS in 11 games with more walks (10) than strikeouts (six). After a grueling season that included 141 total contests, the White Sox felt good about his progress.

Entering 2025, there was no true incumbent holding down the shortstop spot for Chicago. Again, it seemed Montgomery’s job to lose, even at 23 years old. But the injury bug cropped up again and limited his exposure to Cactus League pitching. He started the year back with Charlotte.

Almost nothing went right in March and April. The White Sox decided a complete reboot was in order, so the 6-foot-3, 230-pounder was sent back to Arizona, where he worked on his swing at the club's complex. When he returned to Triple-A in mid-May, he recorded hits in each of his first four contests. He enjoyed a 10-game stretch with 14 hits -- eight of which went for extra bases. Montgomery had fallen from the Top 100 Prospects list for the first time in three years, but the traits that once had him as high as No. 17 during the fall of 2023 were still there.

Montgomery is reportedly getting the call now because of how good his swing has looked recently. He went 11-for-25 with seven extra-base hits and eight RBIs in his last six games. Two of the six balls he put in play at 110+ mph this season came during that run, including a left-on-left home run; in total, he's hit 41 balls at 100 mph or better this season. When he taps into that plus power tool, the White Sox No. 5 prospect does it in bunches. Each of the past four games in which he has gone deep have been multihomer efforts.

You can never say never about a return to the Minors, but Montgomery's last swing on the farm as a prospect very well may be the walk-off single he delivered for Charlotte on Wednesday.

In many ways, Montgomery’s prospect journey has been one of peaks and valleys -- when he’s going well, he still looks like that hitter from the summer of ‘23 who torpedoes anything thrown his way to his pull side; when he’s in a rut, there’s a significant dose of swing-and-miss. Earlier this week, he rejoined the Top 100 Prospects list at No. 95, largely because of the return of his old approach and the expectation that he would be able to consistently get to that pop of 25-or-more homers per season.

Long is the list of top prospects who have ascended the Minor League ladder swiftly just to incur a significant setback after discovering the talent discrepancy in the big leagues. No one wants to underperform, but Montgomery believes his struggles will ultimately serve him well in the long run.

“You see kids go up who never struggled in the Minor Leagues, and they go in the big leagues, and they struggle,” Montgomery said last year. “It’s like, ‘How are they going to respond?’ Even though up there the microscope is really on you. It sucked to say the least. You don’t ever want to be playing bad. You want to play good for the organization and you want to play good for the fans.”

Rumors of a promotion have been bubbling beneath the surface for years now. Through it all, Montgomery has kept his feet on the ground, not an easy task with the expectations that swirl around a first-round pick, particularly one who often gets compared to a two-time World Series MVP and five-time All-Star.

During his first Fall League foray in 2023, Montgomery hit a booming home run on an unseasonably chilly night. As he stomped on home plate -- clad in a White Sox uniform -- a boisterous fan stood up behind home plate and yelled, “South Side! We can’t wait for you, Colson!” Montgomery smiled. After the game, he said that he couldn’t wait either.

It might have taken a little longer than he expected, but Montgomery is finally bound for the big leagues.