It was a nightmare start to the 2025 season for former Chicago White Sox first round draft pick Colson Montgomery.
Montgomery was the No. 9 prospect in all of baseball at the start of 2024. He seemed like a lock to become the next face of the franchise on the South Side. He slipped a little bit in the rankings after some struggles in a full season at Triple-A, but there was still optimism that Montgomery could break camp with the Major League team as the White Sox starting shortstop.
Not only did Montgomery not make the team, but he started looking overmatched in the minor leagues. At the end of April, Montgomery was hitting .149 with an OPS of .479 in 103 plate appearances for the Charlotte Knights (AAA).
That caused Montgomery to be swiftly dropped from every Top 100 prospect list and removed from game action to go work on his swing mechanics with White Sox director of hitting Ryan Fuller.
Even in the Arizona Complex League while he was working with Fuller, Montgomery did not have much success. But ever since he returned to join his team in Triple-A, it's been a different story.
Montgomery has retured to form
Montgomery has two multi-homer games since returning to Charlotte. That includes Thursday night, when he launched two balls well over 400 feet.
Colson Montgomery goes 435' to dead center for his 6th HR on the year. #Knights trail 2-1. pic.twitter.com/mxMilXK3kZ
— FutureSox (@FutureSox) June 5, 2025
In 16 games since rejoining the Knights, Montgomery is hitting .276/.382/.586 with a .969 OPS. He has four home runs and 10 RBIs over that span and has even played through some pain after getting hit by a pitch on the kneecap.
Montgomery's OPS for the season is crawling back up to a respectable mark. It's currently sitting at .668 despite his .197 batting average.
With all the power Montgomery has and his command of the strike zone, he is always going to get on base and hit extra-base hits. If he can get his strikeout rate down and improve his bat-to-ball skills, he will continue to play like the Top 10 prospect in baseball he was once ranked as.
Given his recent success, I wouldn't be surprised if we still saw Montgomery's MLB debut come some time in the second half of the 2025 season. The White Sox are still going to ship out a few veteran players at the deadline and will want to get at-bats to their young talent as soon as possible.
It's far too early for White Sox fans to give up on Montgomery. He has shown us over the last three weeks that he can still be an elite middle-of-the-order bat when he's locked in. Seeing him succeed has been a huge relief.