The Chicago White Sox have a stacked farm system, with most of their top 100 prospects at Charlotte or Birmingham.
The White Sox have six players on MLB’s top 100 list, with left-hander Noah Schultz ranking the highest at 15.
Most of these guys will be up either this year or next to aid in the rebuild and form a new nucleus of players that can lead the Sox to success and recapture the feeling of the postseason, which has been absent for a few years.
One player in the White Sox system they are high on could find it hard to break onto the Major League roster as he has struggled to start this season, and those struggles have carried over from the spring.
A tale of one Chicago White Sox prospect’s struggles
Colson Montgomery is ranked as the fourth-highest prospect in the White Sox system and 38th on the top 100. The White Sox drafted the now 23-year-old in the first round (22nd overall) in the 2021 MLB Draft to be their shortstop of the future.
So far, Montgomery has not had the best start to his professional career. In five minor league seasons, Montgomery has a career slash line of .249/.373/.410 with an OPS of .783.
Montgomery’s struggles were present this spring, as he only hit .111/.111/.444 with an OPS of .556 in just four games. It didn’t help that he was dealing with back spasms, which limited his time on the field and cost him his chances to win the starting shortstop spot.
Now, those struggles present during spring training have carried over to the regular season and are getting into Montgomery’s head.
Montgomery’s rough start to the year
Even though he’s played in five games with the Charlotte Knights, Montgomery has been terrible, to put it mildly, and it is starting to get concerning.
Montgomery has a .050/.136/.200 slash line and an OPS of .336 to start the season, but the most concerning feature is how much he’s struck out to start the year. In 20 at-bats (22 plate appearances), Montgomery has 15 strikeouts and no walks.
The concern here is that striking out this much will start to affect Montgomery’s confidence and his development, which are critical for him to take the next step in getting called up.
Others on the roster, such as Chase Meidroth and Kyle Teel, are off to great starts, and in the case of Meidroth, he and Montgomery are competing to get the call-up, and at this rate, Meidroth has a clear advantage over Montgomery.
Montgomery will need to turn this around
Montgomery will need to start shorting up his swing and finding a better approach at the plate to pull himself out of this slump.
Possibly, manager Sergio Santos should start considering a drop in the lineup for Montgomery to see more fastballs and lessen the pressure on him.
Whatever the case, this is a concern not only for Montgomery but for the White Sox, who see Montgomery as a key contributor to their lineup.
Hopefully, this is just an overreaction, and everything will work out with Montgomery becoming the player he looked like in the Arizona Fall League.
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