Even Colson Montgomery is surprised by how well he's playing since returning to action.
Ben Weinreb of MiLB.com talked to Montgomery about his injury, his rehab, and how he's managed to hit .384/.567/.603 over 104 plate appearances between the ACL White Sox and Winston-Salem.
He doesn't have an explanation for that last part ...
"If you told me I was going to come out hitting like this, I probably wouldn't believe it," he said. "It's kind of all of the built-up motivation and all the drive for wanting to play. And now being set free, it's made me really focused. I'm playing 100 percent, and I'm playing hard every second of the game."
... but he said he was able to make use of the downtime recovering from his oblique and back injuries to work on other points of his game.
But the No. 20 prospect in baseball, per MLB Pipeline, made the most of his downtime. In his breakout 2022 season, Montgomery learned to control the controllables. At the plate, that means having competitive at-bats and staying disciplined. In this case, it meant focusing on smaller goals and working on parts of his game that didn't aggravate his oblique.
One result: Montgomery feels as good as he ever has defensively. Drills in Arizona on his footwork and hands really improved both. And his plate discipline numbers are off the chart, with 27 walks to 11 strikeouts after sporting a combined 67-to-105 ratio in his first two seasons.
ACL Angels 6, ACL White Sox 1
- Jacob Gonzalez made his professional debut, starting at short, walking twice and striking out once.
- Ryan Burowes was 0-for-4 with a K.
- Ronny Hernandez, 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
DSL Blue Jays 13, DSL White Sox 8
- D'Angelo Tejada went 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Abraham Nunez was 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Rafael Alvarez singled, walked and struck out twice.
- Luis Reyes in relief: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K
