As the calendar turns over into September and the Major League Baseball season enters its final month, the Chicago White Sox will finish with a much better record than last season.
The White Sox were projected to lose over 110 games, but they should finish well ahead of their projected win total thanks to their successful second half and the emergence of young players.
Of those young players, shortstop Colson Montgomery has shown that he can be the future face of the franchise with how he’s performed since getting the call to join the team over July 4 weekend.
Being one of the more consistent power hitters for the White Sox in his short stint with the team, Montgomery didn’t always have this level of success, as he struggled mightily earlier in the season.
Thankfully, and hopefully, those struggles are a thing of the past for the 23-year-old middle infielder after receiving some valuable tutelage from White Sox director of hitting, Ryan Fuller. During Montgomery's time with Fuller at the Spring Training complex in Arizona, he made the necessary adjustments to his swing to make him the player you see currently at the big league level.
That player is someone who, hopefully, will be repping the White Sox for the majority of his career, and who could become a “game changing player”, in the words of Fuller.
Do the Chicago White Sox have a game changer in Montgomery?
In the months since Montgomery spent with Fuller, Montgomery has blossomed into someone who could be a top 20 player in all of baseball over the next couple of seasons. In only 47 games since joining the team, Montgomery’s transformation in swing has been on full display, hitting .229/.284/.553 with an OPS and OPS+ of .837 and 126.
Montgomery's 16 home runs (10 of which came in August) put him second in that category among White Sox players with Lenyn Sosa the team leader at 18. Montgomery also ranks fifth in RBIs (39) in only 170 at-bats.
Montgomery's ability to hit home runs is an asset the White Sox need and could make him a “game changing player”, as Fuller described him. Fuller added that Montgomery's growth through 2025 struggles will define him as one.
"When you struggle, the great thing about Colson is he’s aware of things around him," Fuller said to Jack Ankony of Sports Illustrated. "He knew that this is not what my stat line in Triple-A is supposed to look like in order to get to the big leagues. So real conversations, but it was always the belief of, man, once I get there, I know I’m going to belong."
"You look to what he did when he came up here and it was a couple of home runs early, he proved to himself quickly that this is a level I can compete at and excel at. Those conversations, looking back were really good ones to have in the moment and he was feeling down, but it was always a belief that once I get here, I know what it’s going to look like."
"You see him up here, there’s true belief that he is a big-league game-changing player," Fuller continued. "The maturity swing-wise, I think you can go back and look at what he was doing in April, how much better he’s moving now, the pitches he’s able to cover, the velocity, breaking balls. The personality, you’re seeing him really enjoy this stage. It’s been really fun to watch. So looking at it from where he was to where he is now is a whole lot of fun, but a ton of credit to him."
Montgomery is the future face of the White Sox franchise
Montgomery is among many talented youngsters on the White Sox roster, but nobody outside of him can claim to hold the future mantle of “the face of the White Sox franchise.”
A potential power-hitting shortstop who stands at 6-foot-3 doesn’t come around every day, with the last notable player to display the same level of size, power, and ability to play Gold Glove caliber shortstop being someone like Corey Seager or Troy Tulowitzki.
Tulo, who also stood 6-foot-3, was on a Hall of Fame trajectory before injuries derailed his career. He's a five-time All-Star, a two-time Gold Glove winner, and a two-time Silver Slugger winner.
Colson Montgomery could wind up with the same, if not more, accolades than Tulo when he calls it quits.
Anything similar to a career such as Tulowitzki or Seager would be a huge win for the White Sox. These are the game changing players that serve as the face of a franchise for a decade.