Arizona Fall League Update: Colson Montgomery comps continue

As long as Corey Seager and the Texas Rangers remain alive in the postseason while Colson Montgomery is active in the Arizona Fall League, the comparisons are going to keep coming.

Montgomery continues to get press in the Arizona Fall League after another big week. His line is a little uncharacteristic, particularly the 17 strikeouts against just one walk over 55 plate appearances, but he's driven in 14 runs over 12 games with an assortment of extra-base hits, so he's putting himself in the center of the action.

An MiLB.com story leaned hard into the Seager comps, although that's partially because Seager played for the Glendale Desert Dogs himself 10 years ago, ...

Montgomery drilled an 111.8 mph triple down the right-field line Thursday night at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, plating three runs to open the scoring for Glendale in an eventual 10-9 win. Just moments earlier, if you looked quickly, it seemed like he had also swatted a game-tying solo home run in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series. Only, that wasn’t Montgomery, but rather Seager. The Chicago wunderkind has long drawn comparisons to the four-time All-Star for the similarity of their lightning-quick strokes at the dish.

“Just the fact that he's a big shortstop too, you know, and I'm a big shortstop. So just watching the way he pre-sets in the infield and also how he swings and things like that. Especially being a big body, I mean, it's not easy being 6-foot-4 and playing shortstop and also being able to swing. I just look at his game and just try and take little things from it.”

... while Mark Gonzales' story about Montgomery in the Sun-Times makes a passing reference to the Seager comp beyond "tall shortstop," and finds it slightly lacking:

One longtime talent evaluator thought it might be too extreme to compare Montgomery’s potential to Seager at this point, mentioning that Seager’s swing is more level.

But the more interesting part of Gonzales' story involves the mixed review of Montgomery's defense. Gonzales remarked upon a play Montgomery didn't make, and "merely" could be carrying a lot of weight when he includes Chris Getz's thoughts:

Montgomery’s frame has led some to believe he eventually will shift to third base. He let a grounder skip past him for a hit after third baseman Rowdey Jordan ranged to his left Monday against Peoria.

Getz believes Montgomery merely needs to get better reactions off the bat and take cleaner angles on grounders. He believes his size benefits him at the plate and on the field.

While we're leaving it an open question, here's where I'll include Keith Law's two-sentence recap of the limited look he got:

I only got one game each with Colson Montgomery and Jace Jung, and none with Royals outfielder Gavin Cross. Jung was the DH in the game I saw and didn’t play the other two times I saw his club, including a day off on Saturday’s showcase day. Montgomery also had Saturday off, so there was more than one manager with no feel for the situation. In the one game I saw, Montgomery struggled quite a bit at shortstop.

I still think the more conclusive answer about Montgomery's defense future will arrive at some point next year, after what is hopefully a more normal and healthy offseason and spring training. While the strikeout-to-walk rate is slightly concerning, I can also spin it into a positive sign that he's not afraid to generate action. When I saw him at the end of the year in Birmingham, he seemed like he was conserving his energy at the plate, but his last couple of weeks in the desert suggest he's not compensating for a core injury.

Arizona Fall League Update

While Montgomery continued to draw all the headlines, his position-player cohorts also picked up their production over the last week.

Bryan Ramos in particular had some loud nights, including four hits on Friday ...

... and another homer on Saturday:

Colson Montgomery: 14-for-52, 3 HR, 2 3B, 1 2B, 1 BB, 17 K, .269/.291/.538

Bryan Ramos: 13-for-49, 2 HR, 3 2B, 2 BB, 11 K, .265/.294/.429

Jacob Burke: 14-for-58, 2 HR, 3 2B, 7 BB, 19 K, 4/4 SB, .241/.353/.397

Jake Eder: 8.1 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 HR, 8 BB, 10 K

Josimar Cousin: 7 IP, 15 H, 10 R, 9 ER, 3 HR, 2 BB, 3 K

Jordan Leasure: 5 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 HR, 1 BB, 8 K

Fraser Ellard: 5 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 HR, 1 BB, 6 K

Adisyn Coffey: 3.2 IP, 7 H, 11 R, 11 ER, 1 HR, 8 BB, 5 K