White Sox prospect Montgomery ends AFL stint in a groove and with a bang

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Colson Montgomery put the final word on his second turn in the Arizona Fall League, and that word was boom.

The White Sox No. 3 prospect homered on Friday in Glendale’s 7-6 loss to Salt River at Camelback Ranch in what he confirmed would be his final game of the 2024 season.

“We had a conversation and they said they're really happy and really proud of what I've been doing and the steps that I've taken after having a little bit of a down year,” Montgomery said. “Finishing strong throughout the regular season and then finishing strong here is a big plus.”

Going deep Friday certainly helped that notion. Facing southpaw Michael Prosecky (COL No. 17) in the fifth inning, the left-handed slugger watched a 91.9 mph fastball miss high to get him ahead in the count, 1-0. When he saw a second heater in the zone at the same velocity, he knew he wasn’t going to miss it.

“He threw the fastball up, trying to change my eyesight,” Montgomery said. "But I saw the fastball pretty much right out of the hand. Then, I had a really good zone I was looking for. I was just trying to see the fastball down and he threw it.”

The result was a 370-foot, two-run dinger to right-center field. It left his bat with a 109.2 mph exit velocity -- Montgomery’s second-highest recorded exit velocity of the Fall League and his highest on an extra-base hit.

After finishing the game 1-for-4, the No. 37 overall prospect completed his AFL stint with a .313/.511/.656 slash line, three homers, two doubles and a 6/10 K/BB ratio through 11 contests with the Desert Dogs. His .511 on-base percentage ranked third among Fall League qualifiers at the time of his departure, while his 1.167 OPS ranked fifth.

Compare that to Montgomery’s regular season at Triple-A Charlotte and the numbers are like night and day.

The 22-year-old infielder slashed .214/.329/.381 with 18 homers and a career-high 28.6 percent strikeout rate this year. Montgomery may have been four years younger than the average International Leaguer, but for a 6-foot-3 player with plus power potential, the results at the top level of the Minors didn’t match many expectations.

Montgomery showed positive signs as the season wore on -- his best monthly OPS came in September (.815) -- and carried that momentum into every plate appearance of the Fall League, right down to Friday’s homer.

“I think the biggest thing was just my mentality,” Montgomery said. “I was thinking that I was swinging every time pretty much -- reading the pitch and learning when to stop -- because I feel like sometimes I can get a little too passive. I would like to say I have a pretty good idea of my strike zone. … The more I stay on the hunt, I feel like the better that I am.”

It’s an approach that Montgomery will take back to Nashville as he begins his offseason Saturday, preparing for a Spring Training return to Major League camp in Glendale where he intends to “go for a job.”

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That’s a shortstop job, by the way, because even though Montgomery made eight of his nine defensive AFL starts at third base, he still considers himself “a shortstop playing third base,” adding that his late addition to a Desert Dogs roster loaded with shortstops (like Reds No. 3/No. 65 overall prospect Edwin Arroyo) made Montgomery more willing to move around to find the at-bats he needed to generate that crucial momentum.

How’s this for progress: Montgomery needed 20 games to hit three homers in his first Arizona Fall League stint last season. With Friday’s blast, he recorded the same amount in nine fewer contests.

“I don't try to hit homers anymore now,” Montgomery said. “Sometimes it just happens. Like I said, end of the season, end of the Fall League season -- to end it with a bang is pretty cool.”