The White Sox made noise this year with 84 wins and a Wild Card berth, then ran into the Guardians and bowed out in five games in the Division Series. Even so, Chicago has a base to build on, and the club’s position player group is a big part of that. At the center of it is shortstop Colson Montgomery, whose 2026 season was equal parts loud and messy.
Montgomery appeared in 153 games and came to the plate 638 times. The raw production jumped off the page: he led American League shortstops with 31 home runs, 87 RBIs, and a .206 isolated slugging percentage.
That power kept him in the lineup every day even though his bat was only a 91 wRC+. His defense gave the profile even more value, with Montgomery finishing at +10 Outs Above Average at shortstop and in the 94th percentile in Fielding Run Value, per Statcast.
By FanGraphs’ measure, Montgomery was worth 2.8 wins above replacement, right in the middle of the pack among qualified shortstops. On paper, that’s the kind of season that looks like a solid regular.
The problem was everything that came with the power. Montgomery hit .197/.282/.403 and struck out in 35.6% of his plate appearances, the highest strikeout rate in the league among qualified hitters at any position.
His teammate Munetaka Murakami was next at 35.4%.
Murakami could offset his swing-and-miss with a huge walk rate. He walked 16.6% of the time, reached base at a .347 clip despite batting .207, and posted a 129 wRC+.
Montgomery wasn’t nearly as forgiving at the plate. His 8.5% walk rate was much closer to average, and he got on base less than 30% of the time, which left him as a below-average hitter even with the 31 homers.
That makes 2026 a sharp contrast to Montgomery’s debut stretch in 2025. In 284 plate appearances, he hit .239/.311/.529 with a 130 wRC+.
His walk rate stayed about the same, but he struck out 6.4% less often. A 29.2% strikeout rate still wasn’t pretty, but it was far more workable because he was making better contact.
Add in his 21 home runs and strong defense - +7 Defensive Runs Saved and +6 OAA at shortstop - and he was worth 2.7 fWAR in less than half the games he played in 2026.
There’s still a case to be made that a 35.6% strikeout rate can survive when the power output is this loud and the total value lands at 2.8 fWAR. But the structure underneath it is fragile.
If the power backs up, or if an injury chips away at the bat, the strikeouts could drag Montgomery from merely below average to unplayable. Even with that glove, he’d start looking more like a 1.0-1.5 fWAR role player than a dependable everyday shortstop.
The fixes start with pitch selection. Montgomery chased more often this year, with his chase rate rising from 30.5% to 32.4%, a mark that put him in the 32nd percentile according to Statcast.
He also made contact 6.8% less often when he went after those pitches. FanGraphs’ chase-swing rate tells the same story, climbing from 19.8% to 28.4% in 2026.
He even swung at “waste” pitches 9.2% of the time, up from 3.8% a year ago. Pitchers started staying out of the zone more, and Montgomery helped them by expanding.
He also needs a better answer for four-seam fastballs. Last year, he was worth +2 Run Value against the pitch.
This season, that number dropped to -13. He hit just .154 against four-seamers, the second-worst mark among pitches he saw at least 5% of the time.
His strikeout rate against the pitch jumped 11.2%, his hard-hit rate fell 8.7%, and his slugging percentage dropped by 200 points. Since four-seamers are the pitch he sees more than any other by over 20%, that’s a problem he has to solve if he’s going to get back to being an above-average bat.
For now, Montgomery looks a lot like a Joey Gallo type of player, though with a lower walk rate and better defense at shortstop. The White Sox would surely prefer that his path doesn’t mirror Gallo’s career arc.
A return to his 2025 form would be a big step in the right direction. Chicago does have some time before the contract math starts to matter in a major way, since Montgomery doesn’t reach arbitration until 2029 and likely won’t cost more than $5 million until the 2030 season at the earliest.
There’s also another layer to the conversation: a possible trade. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco floated that idea in our Offseason Outlook series, with Montgomery potentially being moved for starting pitching.
Chicago has Sean Burke, Davis Martin, and Anthony Kay lined up for the rotation, and the club tried to add to that group by acquiring Luis Castillo at the trade deadline. Castillo, though, struggled badly in 31 innings and remains under contract for 2027.
The White Sox still need more pitching if they want a deeper postseason run.
And then there’s Roch Cholowsky, this year’s No. 1 overall draft pick and Chicago’s eventual shortstop of the future. He could arrive in late 2027.
That should give Montgomery most of next season as the starter, but the clock is ticking on his hold at the position. Cholowsky is viewed as an excellent defender, and at some point he figures to take over.
However long Montgomery remains in Chicago, the path forward is clear: keep the power, trim the strikeouts, and make the bat fit the glove.
In Other News...
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White Sox Still Have Two Costly Obstacles This Offseason
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Andrew Benintendi and Luis Castillo sit near the center of that discussion because both carry meaningful money and limited margin for error. Benintendi is down to one year on his deal, while Castillos contract stretches into the next couple of seasons and has been complicated by his performance and injury history, leaving the White Sox to weigh whether there is any real market for either player or whether they are better off holding on and hoping for a bounce-back. [Read more 🡒]