MESA, Ariz. — Colson Montgomery smiles a lot when you talk to him. There’s a happy, rural boyish charm about the 22-year-old White Sox shortstop prospect that’s noticed seconds into a conversation.
Born in Jasper, raised 15 miles away in the town of Holland (population 615) and a graduate of Southport High School in Huntingburg (population 6,422), this southern Indiana boy hasn’t played a major-league game yet, but he already has handled countless interviews, which comes with the territory of being an organization’s top prospect. He stands tall at 6-4 and handles himself with ease.
“That’s why I’m doing pretty good with it; you get a lot of it,” he said of the attention coming his way in spring training. “But you want that, right? You want to be popular with all that stuff, right? I think I do pretty well with it. It’s just conversation; that’s how I think of it. I would say it kind of comes naturally.”
As does playing the game at shortstop, where Montgomery likely will make his major-league debut this season. The Sox declined a $14 million option on Tim Anderson, but breaking camp with the team seems a long shot as the Sox plan to go with veteran Paul DeJong while Montgomery gets more seasoning at Triple-A Charlotte. Joining the club during the season, when the time is right, is much more likely.
“That’s a question I get a lot,” Montgomery said, “but I can’t think about it too much because when you start thinking about all these external factors, decisions that are out of your control, that’s when your game goes down. Put too much pressure on yourself. So I’ve learned to control what I can control, which is my effort on the field and how I am as a teammate. I just have in mind that it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen this year. If it doesn’t this year, it [stinks], but at the same time, maybe I’m not ready. I know they have my best interests in mind, and they want me to be ready when I get there.
“Because when I get there, I won’t have any intention of going back down.”
The people who rank prospects eyeball Montgomery’s talent to varying degrees, as high as No. 8 (ESPN), 9 (MLB Pipeline), 13 (FanGraphs) and 15 (Baseball America).
Scouts like his plate discipline, bat-to-ball skills and on-base chops. In 64 games at Double-A Birmingham and below last season — he was limited by back and oblique injuries — Montgomery had a .287/.456/.484 batting line with a .940 OPS. He hit eight home runs, 14 doubles and three triples.
But against a backdrop of first-year general manager Chris Getz’s design on fielding good defensive teams, Montgomery’s glove is not his strongest suit. While he wouldn’t balk at a position change to third base or second base, he’s also digging in against the idea.
“Oh. Yeah,” he said when the shortstop question is brought up. Again.
“But I think I’ve proven that I can be a shortstop and stay at shortstop,” he said. “I’ve gotten a lot of doubters, people doubting that I can stay at shortstop. All you can do is don’t listen to that and use that to fuel the fire and prove them all wrong. I’ve been working my butt off to stay at shortstop, been playing shortstop my whole life, and that’s where I’m comfortable.”
In his second major-league camp, Montgomery has appeared in five games, going 1-for-8 with two walks and two strikeouts, He also made a fielding error at shortstop.
The plate discipline, a skill sorely lacking on Sox teams of recent years, is evident and figures to stabilize the body of offensive work.
“I’ve always been like that,” said Montgomery, a left-handed-shooting basketball-baseball star drafted 22nd overall in 2021 out of Southport, where he didn’t face overwhelming pitching. “It kind of came natural, but I really work hard and focus on my craft.”
When will it be on display in Chicago?
“Who knows?” manager Pedro Grifol said Friday. “I mean, really, prospects like him will let you know when they are ready. It could be a year. It could be three weeks.
“He’s coming up here to play every day, so the whole package has to be in place.”
