(670 The Score) White Sox shortstop prospect Colson Montgomery’s timeline for reaching the big leagues remains unclear, director of player development Paul Janish said Monday.
The 22-year-old Montgomery has had a rough season at Triple-A, hitting .210 with 14 homers, 50 RBIs and a .702 OPS in 106 games. He has also struggled with a 29.3% strikeout rate. Montgomery is the second-ranked prospect in the White Sox’s organization, according to MLB Pipeline.
"The one thing I think we can all agree on is that Colson has struggled a little bit for the first time in his career,” Janish said. "This will be his first full season of complete health, knock on wood, so we have that going on.
“He has played a very good defensive shortstop even when struggling on offense. As we all agree at some point, we will ask him to come to Chicago and play the shortstop position. That's a big deal.”
The White Sox selected Montgomery at No. 22 overall in the first round of the 2021 MLB Draft. The organization believes he'll grow and learn from his struggles.
"Talking to Colson, he is understanding about the fact he has not performed the way he can,” Janish said. “He is very intent on becoming a very good major league player, which we are fully supportive of at this point. I give him a lot of credit for how he has handled this first time he has ever struggled. Hopefully, this year is part of the process of him playing at the major league level.”
The White Sox don’t have an exact set of criteria or thresholds for Montgomery to reach before he gets his call-up to the big leagues, Janish said.
"That type of criteria-based conversation is a slippery slope approach,” Janish said. “It shouldn't be that he needs to have this average or this OPS. That is especially true at this juncture, where he hasn't had a ton of offensive success. From an ability standpoint in the past, he has proven he can hit. He can do some things other people can't do offensively. We will continue to support him and get him going in the right direction. We want him to finish the season healthy.”
Janish didn’t close the door to Montgomery possibly being called up in September.
“Hey, he is not done with this season yet,” Janish said. “There is a chance if Colson gets hot, we will promote him to the big leagues this year. We need to be intentional about not being in a big rush with Colson. We need to do what's best for him. That is not necessarily black and white. We will include him in that process with good communication. He is unique because we want him to be a part of the White Sox team for a long, long time. He has plenty of self-awareness knowing he can play better. He knows he's a good player. He knows he wants to be a good major league player. We look at some of the struggles he has had as a positive.”
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.