For a prospect coming up in an organization such as the Dodgers or Red Sox, the public expectations rest in something like living up to a well-established standard for performance, or fitting into a veteran-laden clubhouse.
For a White Sox prospect in 2025, it's all about being expected to start something new, representing change.
"It's a little different spot than I was in last year," said Chase Meidroth, who went from blocked at Triple-A Worcester to competing for a roster spot this spring.
"We've got one of the best groups of younger guys in this organization," said Miguel Vargas, who wore the tumult of being dropped into the White Sox nightmare second half on his face and frame last year. "We're all trying to go out there and prove that we can be in this league at the end of the day."
Colson Montgomery has yet to play a major league game and is coming off a down year in 2024, and was a contender for the biggest cheers during Friday's SoxFest introductions until Mark Buehrle was called up to put everyone in their place. There are times where he seemed a little surprised by how much ink was dedicated to a 22-year-old who needed to make a mechanical tweak with his lower half movement in Triple-A, but as someone who has the path to a major league starting shortstop job cleared ahead him, Montgomery echoes many in embracing the level of unfettered opportunity that few young players are offered.
"It's very exciting, it's very cool that we can be part of this...rebuild," Montgomery said, pausing over a word choice that is both obvious and not the preferred branding this time around. "We're all just looking forward to the opportunity to show what we can do."
Newly signed left-hander Martín Pérez was not at SoxFest, nor even in the country this weekend. But in a Zoom call from Venezuela, Pérez struck the sort of tone to which a front office more focused on long-term organizational improvement are less suited.
"I know these people and the fans, they may be saying it’s going to be the same year," Pérez said of his new team. "It's not going to be the same year. We're going to do better. Our mindset has to be different."
All notions of a veteran addition becoming a clubhouse leader are aspirational until the rubber meets the road. But Pérez certainly seems both already invested in filling such a role, and invested in the idea that a group of young pitchers that throw harder than him can learn something from the mentality and feel for disrupting timing that he requires to survive while throwing 90-92 mph sinkers. Pérez also views his 2024 season less in terms of a tweak to his pitch mix keying 10 good starts with the Padres down the stretch, and more about regaining confidence in his body after a groin strain limited his performance in the first half before sidelining him for a month.
"I came back, it was a little hard for me to find the way how to pitch, and I was a little scared with my leg," Pérez said. "You’ve got to stop thinking that way, because when you have a lot of excuses -- and you always have excuses -- it's too hard to go out there and perform, and have your mind in it in the right way and in a good position to compete. I think that’s one thing, and I know I’ve got to do it, because I'm the older guy. But I believe in my teammates, man."
Braden Montgomery is a fan of fancy pitch machines not just because they improved his pitch selection enough to make him a first round draft pick, they also form the bulk of the live pitching he's been able to face since a fractured ankle suffered at Texas A&M sidelined him through the end of the minor league season.
"I got back into baseball shape around late October, when I was in Florida," Montgomery said. "That was about the time I was able to get back on machine. So I had about a full month of hitting off the machine, which felt like live at-bats. That was my first experience with the Trajekt machine, and it was crazy how the ball plays and how true the pitcher it looks like off the screen. It was amazing. It felt like real game type pitching."
The White Sox are expected to have a Trajekt in spring training, so Montgomery should feel right at home, though he seems a bit more interested in returning to live games.
It's possible that the last hour of SoxFest was not the moment to get the fan base hooked onto discussing the merits of one-knee catching stances -- the audience was really loving Noah Schultz -- but Kyle Teel did his best to argue that it's improved both his framing and blocking, especially in the second half of last season.
Based on talking to bench coach Walker McKinven, who helmed a lot of pitch-framing success stories the Brewers before joining Will Venable's staff, Teel will be staying on one knee, but still expanding a skill set.
"You don't ask guys to do things they're not comfortable with, so it's definitely catered to the individual. That said, there are some things that make good receivers good, so you try to pair that all together," McKinven said. "With young catchers, it's about exposing them to the asks of being a major league catcher. Those are different asks from being a minor league catcher. We ask a lot of major league catchers in terms of retaining information, taking care of stuff defensively and then they have to do the offensive stuff like everyone else. I'm biased, but catchers have the hardest job on the field. Getting Kyle and getting Edgar [Quero] to see that up close and personal with guys that have done it before and with this coaching staff, that's the goal."
Things we'll expand upon
-- It was obscured by the full wool turtleneck he was wearing under his jersey (he's from Cuba, he was cold) but Vargas says he's added 20 pounds over the offseason. While this sounds like a typical best shape of his life story delivered a few weeks earlier than usual, Vargas was specifically tasked with adding bulk by the White Sox after he lost approximately 15 pounds over the course of last season and his exit velocities plummeted in kind. Vargas swung at good pitches last year, he just didn't do anything with them.
-- Brian Bannister, Matt Zaleski and White Sox pitching development have been cautious about asking two top pitching prospects like Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith -- both known for ripping off elite sliders -- to turn around and rotate their wrist the other direction for a changeup. As a result, both are working on changeup variants that respect their supination bias. Smith said he's been pleased with his progress on a splitter this winter, and Schultz has been working on a seam-shift changeup that he learned from Bannister directly.
-- Colson Montgomery detailed that an August Zoom meeting between the White Sox and the hitting coaches he works with through his representation at the Bledsoe Agency triggered the adjustment he made that keyed his strong finish to the 2024 season. He's grown a few inches and added more than a few pounds of muscle since being drafted in 2021, and his mechanics needed to change along with his body.
