For the last couple years his name has entered many households in the 773/312/708 space without being household. It hovered on the fringes, in the margins in outposts, came through the mouths of sports know-it-alls, describing him as the next, great, franchise centerpiece prospect for the South Side. The “savior” was always the word they came close to never saying.
The centerpiece who held the power to turn 90 losses into 90 wins before his first White Sox contract extension.
His name, in many of these places, is the one mentioned now being not only before the team but as the team’s beholder: Colson Montgomery and the White Sox … is no longer an abnormal opening. So he stands, swings, leads, in front of us as not the heroic reasons (those belong to Munetaka Murakami and Davis Martin) the White Sox are over .500 and hovering around first place in the AL Central approximately 40% deep into the season, but as the central and essential reason this could not only last until September but be the norm as this “dream” continues.
He, the cornerstone. The building block. Year after year. Brick after brick. The White Sox’ Pete Crow-Armstrong … only with a legit chance to be (don’t say it, don’t write it!) better. Damn.
Last season, after watching the PCA ascension, all South Siders looked North and said: “That’s him. That’s who Colson Montgomery is going to be — has to be — for us.” Those words more demand than aspirational now that a new hope has approached and unexpectedly crept into the White Sox universe this season. The PCA comp is no longer just a comparison for Montgomery, it is his and our fate.
It was almost to the exact week last year that a column was written on PCA “separating himself from the balance,” coming into his own. Stating claim about what he was about to mean to the Cubs. Now it’s Colson’s turn. To be the most invaluable player on the Sox. To have members of the media say about him, as Patrick Norton said about PCA, “If you take him out of the lineup, this team I don’t think survives.”
And in a way the media, at least locally, already has. As CHSN did a “Blind Resume” of AL shortstops on a recent show displaying three players’ WAR, HRs, OPS and SB. So solid are Colson’s numbers this year that the other two comps used along with Colson: Bobby Witt Jr. and Gunnar Henderson. Two of the three best shortstops in all of baseball. Nice company if Colson can keep it.
The 21 home runs during last year’s rookie season for Colson launched him into this ahead-of-schedule space. His follow-up this season, only made the “Sox version of Crow-Armstrong maybe better” more accelerated. And the juxtapositioning of the two justified.
In PCA’s first full season for the Cubs, his slashes: .237/.286/.384/.670, his data: 10 home runs, 27 stolen bases, six triples, 13 doubles, 46 runs, and 47 RBI. So far in this his first full season for the Sox, Montgomery’s slashes: .222/.316/.471/.788, his data: 15 home runs, 50 hits, 11 doubles, 28 runs, 36 RBI.
Other alignings: Both born the same year. Less than one month separated. One was drafted 19th in the first round, the other 22nd. One year separated. Colson made his major-league debut for the Sox on July 4, PCA for the Cubs on Sept. 11. Significant days. Two years separated. Both debuts were against the Rockies. Trippy, right?
All these written similarities are to make a greater point in both the role and responsibility that is about to be placed on the second-year, coming-of-age, former basketball star from Indiana who chose baseball as if it were his calling as he walks into the White Sox epicenter as their leader. To become in less than a year the cynosure, the central nucleus (not the main character as Marukami has that on-lock for the moment) of the most unexpected story of the first half of the MLB season.
To carry the team, to be the heart and soul of whatever happens next, to discover exactly what he’s made of, and for us to witness what the building of and around him could begin to look like. When drafted in 2021, Colson spoke of himself in a way that when read now sounds so PCA-like it comes off as haunting and prophetic at the same time.“I’m just very confident in what I can do,” he said, “and I’m very confident in myself in everything. I like standing out in unique ways. I’m a unique person, a very unique athlete. I’ll back it up, for sure.”
Got those PCA vibes all over it. But without Colson standing in Crow-Armstrong’s shadow in anyway; standing on his own South Side square. Because just like PCA last season, this season Colson Montgomery’s time has arrived. Just, precisely and perfectly, a little ahead of time.