White Sox Send Prospect Colson Montgomery To Arizona For Development

CHICAGO – The White Sox are sending infield prospect Colson Montgomery to the team facility in Arizona for developmental work, general manager Chris Getz told reporters Tuesday at Rate Field. Montgomery, 23, was the No. 22 pick in the first round of the 2021 MLB Draft out of Southridge High School in Huntingburg, Ind.

He's ranked No. 4 among White Sox prospects, No. 36 in the MLB Pipeline rankings and No.



27 among hitting prospects. But Montomgery is off to a slow start in his second season with the Triple-A Charlotte Knights, posting a .149/.

223/.255/.479 slash line with 43 strikeouts across 103 plate appearances.

"We are going to get some one-on-one work with him outside of kind of the Charlotte day-to-day and work on his swing," Getz explained. "We anticipate that to be a fairly short period of time, but felt like it was appropriate. He’s on board.

There have been plenty of examples in this game of guys that stepped out of their respective affiliates and go to work on something. We’ve done it in the past. We are going to do it with Colson.

" "Josh [Rojas] had experience with [Geraldo] Perdomo over in Arizona. I know MacKenzie Gore is another one that felt like it was best for him, for these players to get into a different environment and work on their swing or pitch arsenal or mechanics. We are going to do that with Colson and we’ll kind of take it from there.

” Getz anticipates Montgomery will be in Arizona for a week or two and then return to Charlotte. Much of the focus will be in the batting cage and on the field, but he'll also play in extended games. He'll be working with director of hitting Ryan Fuller, who traveled with the White Sox during their recent road trip.

"[Fuller] and I had some really good conversations about different ways to develop players," Getz said. "He’s coming from Baltimore and he referenced how many strides they were able to make at the alternate site years ago with some of the adjustments those players had to make. It got me thinking about our experience at the alternate site as well with not having to rely so much on game feedback, game results.

And then developing these players. So we decided to attack it this way and Colson is on board. We are optimistic we are going to be able to make strides.

Players often times, they wait until the offseason to make some of these adjustments. We figured, why wait? Let’s attack this, and we look forward to seeing what we can do." Montgomery began the season 4-for-45 at the plate, then improved with a 9-for-28 stretch during a six-game hit streak.

But he's been cold of late, going 1-for-21 over the last six games. So, why send him to Arizona now? "It’s a difficult kind of question to answer," Getz answered. "There are some mechanical things that do need to be adjusted.

And sometimes it’s just best to take a step back and not play in regular games and stare at your numbers. So, we just felt like this was the right time to do it and with the feedback we are getting from Colson, we felt like it’s the right time." Strikeouts have been among the most glaring issues as Montgomery has two or more in 15 of 23 games this season, equating to a 41.

7% strikeout rate. The issues appear to be mechanical and mental. "It’s a little bit of both," Getz said.

"To get into the psyche of a hitter is probably a place you don’t want to go at any stage. To get him out of that environment, not worry about his numbers, and focus on some adjustments, both physical and certainly approach, to be able to improve some things. We look forward to this opportunity to do it.

He’s on board and we think good things will come out of it." Montgomery produced strong results across 64 games during the 2023 season, spending time at Double-A, High-A and Rookie Ball. He finished with eight home runs, 37 RBI, 56 walks, 56 strikeouts, a .

287 batting average, a .456 on-base percentage, a .484 slugging percentage and a .

940 OPS. But after being promoted to Triple-A, his numbers went in the wrong direction. In 130 games with Charlotte in 2024, he had 18 home runs, 63 RBI, 69 walks and 164 strikeouts to go with a .

214/.329/.381/.

710 slash line. Regarding the decision to send Montgomery to Arizona, Getz said it's part of the development process. "He’s 23 years old.

In a way he’s still at the beginning of his career," Getz said. "We didn’t want to wait any longer. We felt like let’s go and attack this now.

He’s open to it. I feel like we are going to make strides because of it." Related stories on the Chicago White Sox INJURY UPDATES: Ahead of Tuesday's game against the Brewers, Chicago White Sox general manager Chris Getz commented on the health of Mike Tauchman, Chase Meidroth, Josh Rojas, Korey Lee and Austin Slater.

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