Chicago White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery gave the club a strange first full season to sort through. On paper, the numbers pop: 31 home runs and 87 runs driven in over 153 games. But the bigger picture is much harder to sell, because Montgomery’s bat came with a strikeout total that made history for all the wrong reasons.
He fanned 227 times, setting an MLB single-season record, and finished with a .197/.282/.403 line and a .685 OPS. That was a sharp drop from the previous season, when he posted an .840 OPS with 21 home runs in 71 games. For a player who looked like a borderline All-Star candidate at one point, the finish was jarring.
The split numbers only added to the oddness. Montgomery hit better against lefties, putting up a .778 OPS, than he did against righties at .644.
He also performed better on the road than at Rate Field. And for a while, it looked like the power was about to carry everything else with it.
In the first half, he slashed .220/.302/.469 with 23 home runs, a pace that had him looking like a possible 40-homer threat.
Then the second half hit like a wall. After the All-Star break, Montgomery batted just .163, hit eight home runs, and struck out 106 times in 62 games.
By season’s end, he was parked near the bottom of the order, and the underlying numbers were brutal: a 35.6 strikeout rate and a 37.4 whiff rate. Baseball Savant had his xBA, squared-up rate, whiff rate, and strikeout rate all in the first percentile.
That’s why Will Venable had him batting ninth in the playoffs.
The problem was the same one over and over. Montgomery chased too much, especially fastballs above the zone and breaking balls away.
With two strikes, he hit just .111 with a .426 OPS. After the break, there’s no softer way to say it: it was a nightmare stretch.
Still, the White Sox have reasons to keep the panic in check. Montgomery actually showed some life in the postseason, even with 11 strikeouts in 26 plate appearances. He hit .238/.385/.429 with a home run and a double, and he did a better job of laying off some of the pitches that had buried him during the regular season.
His defense remained part of the equation too. While the bat sagged, his glove held up, as reflected by a +12 Outs Above Average. And White Sox director of hitting Ryan Fuller has already worked wonders with Montgomery before.
That doesn’t mean the White Sox should be thinking about trading him after one full season. The whole team had strikeout issues down the stretch, especially against the Cleveland Guardians in the postseason.
But 2027 looks like the year that will define where this goes next. The 2026 No. 1 overall pick, Roch Cholowsky, is waiting in the wings, and the organization has other solid infield prospects in the pipeline. If Montgomery doesn’t make a real jump at the plate, the pressure around his future in Chicago is only going to get louder.
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The move comes after Shirley had been placed on administrative leave while the team conducted an internal investigation, and the search now turns to who will guide the next wave of draft decisions. An internal answer is very much in play, with crosschecker JJ Lally viewed as a potential candidate, giving the White Sox a choice between continuity and a broader reset in a department that matters plenty to Chris Getzs long-term plan. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Roster Crunch Could Force Tough Decisions Sooner Than Expected
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Chicagos situation is made trickier by the number of pitchers still working back from Tommy John surgeries, leaving several futures hanging in the balance as the club plans its next round of moves. The added wrinkle is the possibility that a MLB lockout could freeze the market and complicate the normal flow of offseason transactions, which could leave the White Sox with even less flexibility than usual. For a team already facing a roster crunch, the timing of those decisions may matter as much as the decisions themselves. [Read more 🡒]