White Sox prospects Braden Montgomery and Christian Oppor win awards after promotions

As August turns to September, the Major League Baseball season has reached its final month.

The Chicago White Sox will limp to the finish line at the bottom of the AL Central once again, but an influx of young talent has given fans a reason to be optimistic about the future.

While many young players have already made their debuts in Chicago, the White Sox still have some promising young players in the minor leagues.

Each month, the White Sox organization hands out a Minor League Player of the Month award to the position player with the strongest months, and a Minor League Pitcher of the Month award to the pitcher in the same category.

On Tuesday, the White Sox announced that OF Braden Montgomery and LHP Christian Oppor were the winners for August. 

Braden Montgomery continues to rake 

Braden Montgomery was acquired this past offseason as part of the deal that sent Garrett Crochet to the Boston Red Sox.

Montgomery was the first round pick of the Red Sox last year, selected 12th overall, and he likely would’ve gone even higher had he not fractured his ankle during the College World Series.

Because of that injury, Montgomery never played a game in the Red Sox organization, and didn’t make his pro debut until April, when he took the field for Low-A Kannapolis. In the three months since his debut, Montgomery has been a steady force at the plate, and has certainly earned his way all the way up to Double-A Birmingham, where he currently plays.

Overall, Montgomery is hitting .278 with 12 homers and an OPS of .823 across three levels. MLB Pipeline’s midseason update now has Montgomery as the No. 1 prospect in the White Sox organization, and it’s easy to see why.

Once known as a power bat with questions about his hit tool, Montgomery's contact skills seemingly reached a new level in August, as he hit .323 with an impressive 13 doubles in 12 games.

Montgomery will look to finish the season strong, and he has likely put himself firmly in the mix for a 2026 MLB debut. 

Christian Oppor’s emergence

In a year where the White Sox saw many of their young pitchers go down with catastrophic injuries, the team needed someone in the minor leagues to step up, and Christian Oppor answered the call.

Oppor was drafted twice by the White Sox, but he most recently selected in the 5th round of the 2023 MLB Draft.

Injuries limited him to just 38 innings in 2024, and both Oppor and the team hoped that 2025 would be his big breakout season. The 21 year-old made five impressive starts in Kannapolis to begin the season before a promotion to the High-A level, where he has more than held his own.

Oppor features wipeout stuff that has allowed him to strike out 112 hitters in 82.2 innings this season, and he has started to find his control more and more as the season has gone on.

August was Oppor’s best month yet, as he posted a 1.93 ERA in six August outings, with 31 strikeouts in 23.1 innings. The White Sox will need to find a way to increase his innings count and keep him healthy, but Christian Oppor has some of the best stuff in the White Sox system, and he could be an important part of the team’s future rotation. 

With only a couple weeks remaining on the minor league calendar, the White Sox will be looking to finish strong and have something to build on entering 2026.

We’ve already seen a huge increase in young talent joining the Major League club this season, and in players like Montgomery and Oppor, more is on the way in 2026 and beyond.