Sold on Colson Montgomery's turnaround, White Sox end his fall-ball stint

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Colson Montgomery returned to the Arizona Fall League with the mindset of playing the entire six-week schedule.

But White Sox officials, pleased with the improvement Montgomery displayed during an 11-game stint, pulled their top position prospect from the Glendale roster and allowed him to return home.

“I just put it in my head I was going to be here the whole time,” Montgomery said Friday at the end of his second stint in the AFL. “So I didn’t really see the finish line or anything like that. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I really didn’t know how long I was going to be here, so just went out every day and did my job.“

Montgomery, who appears taller and more muscular than his listed 6-3, 225-pound frame, batted .313 with three home runs and a 1.167 OPS in 32 at-bats, but there was more that satisfied team evaluators. Montgomery struck out once in his first 20 at-bats and finished with a .511 on-base percentage.

“It worked out very well,” said Paul Janish, the Sox director of player development. “We felt pretty good about the way it went for Colson.”

The main purpose for sending him to the AFL for a second consecutive October was to get him some at-bats and keep him working on specific goals — which he addressed convincingly.

“He took care of business,” Janish said. “Now he can have a good offseason.”

Montgomery punctuated his AFL stint by hitting home runs in his final two games.

“If he keeps that up, the Corey Seager comps will return,” one American League scout observed, referring to the Rangers’ left-handed-hitting All-star shortstop.

The momentum Montgomery had built since the Sox drafted him in the first round in 2021 took a hit last summer, when his strikeout rate soared from 19% at three lower levels in 2023 to 28.6% at Triple-A Charlotte. His walk rate also dipped from 7% to 12%.

With the Sox in the midst of a full-blown rebuild even before this past season, much of their external hype revolved around when Mont-gomery — who hadn’t previously played above Triple-A — would get his major-league promotion.

That scrutiny mounted internally as the Sox’ losses began piling up toward their record-setting 41-121 debacle and Montgomery admittedly tried too hard to earn the promotion. He found himself chasing pitches out of the strike zone, leading to 164 strikeouts, a .214 batting average and an 88 wRC+.

“I would say during the year, I just felt a little bit of pressure on my side,” Montgomery said at Camelback Ranch, where he will return for spring training in 3œ months. “I just put it on myself just because you see what’s going on up there in the big leagues. And you know there’s a lot of opportunity, so you want to do everything right.

“But being perfect in this game, there’s no such thing right now. So I think that was just the biggest thing. I was putting a lot of pressure, unneeded and stupid pressure on myself, thinking I got to do everything perfect. But if I just do everything, how I do it, it’s going to be good enough.”

Montgomery said it was simply a matter of trusting his eyes.

“I would say that’s pretty much the biggest thing that I’ve really honed in on and really took pride in, and in my work every day,” Montgomery said. “I always got to do something that challenges me. So that’s why I constantly I have to do that.

“I was an athlete in all three sports [at Southridge High School in Huntingburg, Indiana], so I was being challenged all my life. And there was a time this year I just kind of got away from that of challenging myself every day, not in the game. So once I got back to that, things just started to click again.”

A video call with Sox instructors in early August assured Montgomery the organization still had faith in him, despite his struggles. The instructors didn’t try to revamp his swing, merely reminding him they were available as resources.

He produced a .263 batting average and .465 slugging percentage in his final 99 at-bats, and his continued improvement in the AFL was enough proof to excuse him for the remainder of the fall.

“It makes me feel really good that they noticed that,” Montgomery said. “They talked to me all the time. When they first told me to come out here, there’s that ego. ‘Oh, I was there last year. Why do I go again?’

“But I kind of put that aside and really just took it as a positive thing. This is going to be a good thing for me in the long run, come out here and see competitive pitching, and there’s nothing wrong with getting more at-bats. They’re really just proud of how I put the ego and pride aside and just came out here and do what I did.”

Montgomery acknowledged his 2024 performance wasn’t worthy of a promotion to the majors. Besides, he’d rather earn it.

“They’re like, ‘Nothing’s going to be given to you, even if we got nothing up there [in the majors]. Everything’s got to be earned,’ ” Montgomery said. “That’s kind of how I want it because you don’t want handouts. So it’s always good to feel that accomplishment when you earn something.”

Some have wondered if Montgomery will outgrow his ability to play shortstop, and that opinion percolated as he played third base for nearly his entire AFL stint.

But Janish said that the late decision to add Montgomery was based solely on getting him at-bats and that he remains in the Sox’ plans as a shortstop.

Montgomery was more direct.

“I am a shortstop, period,” he said. “I talked to Janish the other day. He’s like, ‘Don’t look too much into it. It’s more just be able to get in the lineup.’

“I was a late add to the fall league. So a lot of other teams had their priority guys sent in. But I’m not a third baseman. I’m a shortstop.”