(670 The Score) White Sox top prospect Colson Montgomery’s rapid success has been the biggest storyline in the team’s farm system this season, but it hasn’t come as a shock to director of amateur scouting Mike Shirley, who had an inkling Montgomery would live up to expectations after Chicago selected him at No. 22 overall in the first round of the 2021 MLB Draft.
“Did it surprise me?” Shirley said on the Mully & Haugh Show on Thursday morning. “I mean, the expectations with Colson, I love the kid. I’m probably his biggest fan. The first time I saw Colson play, he was a freshman in high school playing in the state championship game. People were already starting to talk to me about this kid, so I finally said, ‘I need to go see what this story is about.’ Because I was tired of hearing about a kid who was like ghost. So I had to go see what the ghost was about. You walk into the state championship game and you see the frame, you see the swing and I’m like, ‘Oh, wow, that’s different.’ So just to watch him unlock this career and then get to meet the kid and know what he’s about as a human being, how his mom and dad raised him. He’s always been a star. He was such a big-time basketball star down in Indiana. He’s managed what it’s like to have a lot of expectations on his shoulders already. It’s nothing new for him.”
A lefty-swinging, righty-throwing shortstop, the 20-year-old Montgomery is tearing the cover off the ball at high-A Winston-Salem, hitting .323 with four homers, nine RBIs and a .976 OPS in 18 games. Earlier this season, he hit .324 with a .900 OPS in 45 games at low-A Kannapolis.
Which is all to say, the White Sox have been really enthused by his progression.
“We really liked Colson last year,” Shirley said. “To be honest with you, I thought the White Sox did a great job with him because I just felt like we valued him that much. We were thankful to get him. He was our guy all along, and we’re just so happy for what Colson is doing. I think that’s going to continue. He’s just got a lot of talent, and the makeup is really good.”
MLB Pipeline currently projects Montgomery to reach the big league level in 2025, though that could be pushed up if he continues to prove himself quickly at each level in the minor leagues.
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