Chicago White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery has found himself in a brutal place on the stat sheet. In September alone, he has gone to the plate 87 times and struck out 39 times, a staggering rate that has pushed his season total into the record book.
On Friday, Sept. 25, Montgomery fanned against the Colorado Rockies for the 223rd strikeout of his season.
That swing-and-miss broke Adam Dunn’s American League single-season record and also tied the all-time mark set by Mark Reynolds in 2009. The White Sox still have two games left in the regular season, so Montgomery could end up standing alone atop the list, even if that’s not the kind of company anyone is chasing.
Montgomery, 24, has offered no hint that he plans to dial back his approach. Speaking to MLB.com, he said, “I’m still a really young player, so I’m trying to still learn my swing to perfect it,” he told MLB.com.
“Learn my game and things like that. I’m not a finished product by any means.
It’s one of those things you have to accept. Your talent is you can change the game with one swing so I’m not going to change my swing.
I’m not going to try to shorten up or do any sort of that stuff.”
The strikeouts are glaring, but so is the power. Montgomery has 31 home runs, a total that points to a bat with real damage in it.
The problem is the overall line: his .692 OPS for the season is far too light for a hitter with that kind of pop, and his last home run came Sept. 5.
White Sox hitting coach Derek Shomon didn’t sugarcoat the issue when he spoke to MLB.com. “I would be sitting here lying to you if I’m OK with strikeouts.
No one is. They are not,” he said.
“But on the other side, what are you gaining? Why are the strikeouts occurring?
Is it a ton of in-zone miss? Is it a byproduct of chase?
Is it a byproduct of chase with two strikes?”
For Montgomery, the answer appears to start with contact quality. Statcast shows he has squared up only 14.6 percent of the pitches he’s hit, the worst rate in the majors. He is not among baseball’s worst chase hitters, but too many of his swings are missing pitches in the zone.
There’s still plenty of raw ability here, and Montgomery’s elite bat speed helps explain why the White Sox are willing to live with the ugly stretches. Even so, the shape of his swing may need to change if he’s going to carve out a long career in the majors.
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