2 The Bigs

By Sal Corso:

If you’re a White Sox fan, you most likely have jumped head-first into their minor league system recently. That’s because the major league club has been nothing short of an embarrassment the past few years.

Not enough winning given their talent level in the MLB? Yes. Not enough talent potential? Not a chance. The team has pieces, a lot of young pieces.

A 26-year-old potential phenom and MVP candidate in Luis Robert.

A 26-year-old power hitter who went for 31 home runs and 79 runs batted in in his rookie year in Eloy Jimenez.

A 27-year-old Cy Young runner-up in right-hander Dylan Cease.

A solid surrounding cast including outfielder Andrew Vaughn, outspoken shortstop Tim Anderson and outfield prospect Oscar Colas.

Clearly the talent in Chicago is not the issue (and I’ll save the management and front office rant for another time).

But, the depth of talent and fostering of that talent may be the issue. This means there’s always room for more talent to come in and seize an opportunity.

Enter, Colson Montgomery.

The White Sox No.2 1 prospect is a 6-foot-4, 21-year-old shortstop with an impressive 60/60 power/hit tool. Do I need to I say more?

He was taken in the first round of the 2021 MLB Draft and has done nothing but impress during his time in the minors so far which is most likely the reason that MLB.com has him projected to get the call up to the MLB next season.

Here are Colson’s lines across each of the three minor league levels he played at last year:

Rookie Ball: .353/.511/1.0999 in ten games

High-A: .345/.537.1.089 in 17 games

AA: .244/.400/.827 in 37 games

The average drop coming with the jump to Double-A is expected.

The jump from High-A to Double-A is known across baseball as the hardest jump to make and succeed in within the minors. But I want to dive deeper because I don’t think you’ll see advanced metrics that will have you feeling extreme (good, or bad).

The good: he was fifth across ALL minor leaguers in on-base-percentage last season (.455) and top-20 in walk-rate. A .287 batting average is great to see as well, given these issues below.

The bad: he pulls the ball WAY too much (51 percent of the time). He finished in the bottom half in strikeout-rate (19 percent), hard-hit rate (27 percent) and was outside the top-150 in slugging percentage (.484).

So, he gets on base, but doesn’t hit the ball hard (yet). Does that remind you of a current White Sox shortstop?

Here at 2 The Bigs we LOVE good hitting statistics (high batting average, high on-base percentage and low strikeout-rates).

That’s a good sign for Montgomery.

Also, his 37 games at Double-A is most definitely not a big enough sample size to draw any conclusions this early. He’ll likely start back at Double-A at the start of the 2024 season. There, we would like to see less strikeouts and more hard-hit balls, which we believe will happen.

One thing to note is his progress already underway in the Arizona Fall League.

111.8 mph off the bat for Colson Montgomery (@whitesox)! 

The bases-clearing triple by MLB's No. 17 overall prospect is the second-hardest hit ball in the @MLBazFallLeague this season: pic.twitter.com/jvGl69Zre2

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) October 20, 2023

Montgomery’s 1^st Bowman card comes in the 2022 Bowman Baseball set. He is another one of those first round draft picks of the year’s prior MLB Draft that Topps holds out to bolster the next years’ Bowman Baseball set.

I like his value here too. Montgomery base auto’s are selling in the $65-$80 ranger and some color refractor PSA 9’s are selling in low $100s.

Like I said, the hitting tools are there to buy at this price. These are the types of prospects that pan out in the pros. A lengthy-lefty at the most valuable position in baseball, coming up to revive a high-potential, low-performing team?

I’ll look to add 1-or-2 of his autographs later this winter.