There’s a new potential star of the future atop the White Sox’ organizational rankings.
Shortstop Colson Montgomery is at the big league level. And lefty pitcher Noah Schultz was shut down for the season with an injury after struggling at Triple-A.
Meanwhile, outfielder Braden Montgomery – the lone member of the return package in last winter’s Garrett Crochet trade yet to debut for the major league team – is the highest rated prospect in the Sox’ system.
The 22-year-old Montgomery put up an .804 OPS across three minor league levels. A broken ankle suffered at the close of his 2024 college season sidelined him after he was drafted by the Red Sox last year, making the 121 games he played for Class A Kannapolis, Class A Winston-Salem and Double-A Birmingham this year his first taste of pro ball.
Montgomery collected 34 doubles, a dozen home runs and four triples, to go along with 14 stolen bases, and has the Sox dreaming big about the impact he could one day make on the South Side.
“For somebody who didn’t get the opportunity to go out last year in the year that he got drafted,” farm director Paul Janish said Monday, “this was a pretty dang good first full season.
“It’s crazy how much he wants to be good. I joke about some of the guys that I had the opportunity to play with, you run across a lot of guys who were good on accident. But I didn’t run across any that were great on accident. And Braden’s got that kind of makeup, he’s got the ability.”
In addition to the offensive numbers, Montgomery also earned plaudits for the strides he’s made on defense and running the bases.
Montgomery isn’t on the doorstep of the major leagues quite yet and is out for the remainder of Birmingham’s season while dealing with a fracture in his foot after being hit with a pitch last week.
But much like fellow Crochet-trade acquisitions Kyle Teel and Chase Meidroth, Montgomery is looking like a cornerstone for the rebuilding Sox as they sketch out a brighter future.
“He can do some things other people can’t do,” Janish said. “There’s one league that he wants to play in, and assuming health, I’m pretty comfortable [saying] he’s going to get there. We’ve just got to make sure it’s the right time.”
Lefty pitcher Hagen Smith – who the Sox drafted out of Arkansas seven picks before the Red Sox took Montgomery – is expected to be another one of those cornerstones.
It hasn’t been as smooth of sailing for Smith, who has had mixed results in his first full year as a pro. In 20 starts with Birmingham, he’s got a 3.57 ERA and 108 strikeouts. But he’s also walked 56 batters in 75 2/3 innings for a BB/9 of 6.7.
Smith is still pitching with Birmingham in the Southern League playoffs, and like Montgomery, he will be part of the Arizona Fall League as the Sox try to get their young building blocks more time to develop before the offseason hits.
“We learned a lot about Hagen. I think Hagen learned a lot about Hagen,” Janish said. “He’s finishing the year strongly.
“From a work standpoint, he’s going to put in what he needs to. There’s no question there. … Some of the ‘small things’ are one of our takeaways this year with him. He knows that. We are going to help him.”
Smith’s campaign coupled with Schultz’s struggles in Triple-A paint a far less thrilling picture of the Sox’ pitching future compared to how things looked before the season. But player development is undoubtedly a waiting game and not one that always takes the expected path.
“We have to give a little grace to the rate at which individuals develop. We just do,” Janish said. “We have to trust our processes and our people to make good evaluations.”