Chicago White Sox: One top prospect’s stunning fall from grace

With the MLB season in full swing and prospects starting to graduate and get promoted to the big leagues, MLB Pipeline decided to re-release their top 100 prospects, and, thankfully, the White Sox find themselves having five of their top prospects making the top 100, with Noah Schultz ranking the highest at No. 13. Others who made the list are: Kyle Teel (28), Hagen Smith (30), Braden Montgomery (38), and Edgar Quero (58).

”Prospects who debuted on MLB Opening Day rosters graduated today, giving us an opportunity to update the list:

Here it is, with a shakeup at the top:”

Surprisingly, shortstop Colson Montgomery was on MLB Pipeline’s list before the season started, but it has been removed entirely. Even more surprising about Montgomery’s fall from grace is that Montgomery dropped two spots on the White Sox’s top 30 prospects, going from No. 4 to No. 6.

Montgomery’s struggles

Since Montgomery was optioned to Triple-A, Montgomery’s bat has not come alive and has been colder than the Antarctic. Overall, in 28 games, the 23-year-old Montgomery is hitting .153/.230/.243 for a horrible OPS of .473.

Even more concerning is that the former first-round pick has shown little to no power, only hitting three home runs and one double in 111 at-bats. These numbers won’t do, especially for a player playing a premier position such as shortstop, and for someone whose power is their best tool, grading out at 55/80.

Montgomery’s struggles became so much of a concern for the White Sox that they decided to have him pause participating in and playing games to go out to Arizona to work one-on-one with the White Sox director of hitting, Ryan Fuller. Working with Fuller should help Montgomery, who is still young and can work through these struggles.

Not every prospect pans out as some will fail, and won’t pan out, but the White Sox need Montgomery to work out, given they aren’t deep with shortstop prospects. If Montgomery has any hopes or aspirations of making it to the show, he has to figure things out and turn things around.