CINCINNATI -- Colson Montgomery only went 3-for-17 with two walks, four strikeouts and zero extra-base hits over five games in the Arizona Complex League, so the White Sox weren't touting his results for why his sabbatical was ready to end. But a two-hit day, including an RBI knock and a 109 mph ground ball single off a Craig Kimbrel curveball in his return to Triple-A Charlotte on Tuesday was closer to something to hang their hat upon.
"More importantly, he just looked more like himself today, so hopefully he can continue to build off of that," said assistant general manager Josh Barfield. "That first day, him and [director of hitting Ryan] Fuller sat down and kind of talked about what they wanted to get out of it. What he felt like when he was going good. They talked about not only like last year, but years previous, like the feels that he had and just trying to get back to some of those feels and some of those cues. And I thought they did a really good job of kind of hashing all that out and now being able to kind of carry some of those cues and feels forward into the season."
Barfield was on staff with the Diamondbacks when they pulled former top prospect and now All-Star shortstop Geraldo Perdomo back to the team complex in 2021 for a month-long swing overhaul. While Barfield referenced that experience, he also stressed describes Montgomery time in Arizona as more tweaks to restore his past success rather than a complete swing change. The White Sox want Montgomery's posture, his first negative move upon starting his swing and his lower half movement all more balanced to create better zone coverage and pitch selection.
"Much more tweaks than a rebuild," Barfield said. "It was getting back to [being] athletic, getting back to a lot of those feels that he had before, and getting better coverage over the plate. I think it's being able to handle pitches in all four quadrants, to put himself in a position for his tools to play out. I think that really was a focus. It doesn't look like, to the naked eye like, oh man, this is completely different. It's more subtle changes."
⚙️⚙️⚙️
Hagen Smith just straight up not making his next scheduled start for Double-A is a less than subtle response to a dip in his velocity last time out, a two-inning appearance that was also shortened by weather. But it's also the type of move that was foreshadowed before the season by a White Sox leadership that said they would ration innings and outings for Smith, Noah Schultz and Grant Taylor as needed.
"It's feel, right?" Barfield said. "In some ways we went through it last year with [Garret] Crochet in the big leagues and trying to navigate not having a ton of workload. Hagen's in his first full year. I think he only threw like 80 innings last year, so we want to make sure we're managing that workload. It won't be just him. A lot of the young arms, we've got a lot of young, talented arms in the minor leagues, and we'll make sure that we build in some rest for them. During those rest periods, too, you're able to get good work on and off the mound and continue to work and develop your pitches, so it's mutually beneficial for him and for us."
⚙️⚙️⚙️
The new White Sox front office is possibly a bit more open in discussing potential Plan B outcomes for prospects than the last one. But even allowing for that, has been fairly open since the outset of the year in acknowledging that Grant Taylor could end up as a reliever long-term.
Even at just 17⅓ innings over six intentionally shortened starts, Taylor could easily eclipse his workload total from last year by the end of the month. So there's definitely a health management angle to Taylor shifting to some bullpen work at Double-A, but also a lot of overt acknowledgement that one of the most talented pitching prospects could end up there, despite not really any prolonged struggles at any minor league level yet.
The tradeoff that Barfield offers is that Taylor could pitch in relief in Chicago this season.
"There is a definite possibility that at some point he comes up here and especially early on, that could be as a reliever," Barfield said. "You see a lot of guys, as they break in, that role is as a reliever, and then it can grow into more, grow to a starter. But it's that and it's managing the workload. He's a guy between the injuries, in college and last year, he's missed a lot of time. Knowing that he's not going to be able to go out there and throw 130, 140 innings this year, we want to make sure we manage those innings and save enough so if the opportunity comes up, maybe later on in the year for him to come up, he still has he has some work in him left."
⚙️⚙️⚙️
The White Sox knew Braden Montgomery was probably too good for Low-A. They just wanted him to get rolling first after so much missed time due to his ankle injury at Texas A&M.
"He was still building up in spring training," Barfield said. "We probably could have sent him to Winston to start out the year but we wanted to make sure he got his feet underneath him. Got off to a good start and he hit the ground running and he hasn't looked back. He's gone up to Winston and he's hitting even better. It's the quality of the at-bats and really from both sides, which has been really encouraging. In college he was a better hitter lefty than he was righty, and we're seeing production from both sides. Having him run around out there in center field he's doing a nice job. Just the teammate he is, he's been really impressive all the way around."
Charlotte 8, Gwinnett 5
- Austin Slater started his rehab stint at DH, going 1-for-3 with two walks.
- Korey Lee had the same line, but with a strikeout.
- Mike Tauchman was 0-for-4.
- Colson Montgomery returned to Charlotte and went 2-for-5 with a strikeout.
- Bryan Ramos was 0-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Mike Clevinger: 4 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 36 of 56 pitches for strikes.
- Nick Nastrini: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, 11 of 18 pitches for strikes.
Birmingham 4, Chattanooga 1
- Rikuu Nishida went 0-for-2 with a walk and an HBP.
- William Bergolla was 1-for-3 with a walk, and got caught stealing.
- Wilfred Veras, 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Ryan Galanie went 1-for-4 with a triple and a strikeout.
- DJ Gladney, 1-for-4.
- Jacob Gonzalez was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.
- Noah Schultz: 5 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 54 of 76 pitches for strikes.
- Peyton Pallette: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, 6 of 10 pitches for strikes.
Brooklyn 7, Winston-Salem 2
- Jeral Perez struck out all four times up.
- Braden Montgomery singled and struck out thrice.
- Samuel Zavala was 0-for-3 with a strikeout.
Hickory 7, Kannapolis 0
- Caleb Bonemer went 0-for-2 with two walks, and was caught stealing.
- Ronny Hernandez was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Lyle-Miller Green struck out twice and walked once.
- George Wolkow, 0-for-3.
- Abraham Nuñez was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
- Blake Shepardson is fixed? 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, 8 of 11 pitches for strikes.
- Pierce George: 1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HBP, 18 of 27 pitches for strikes.
ACL Reds 15, ACL White Sox 3 (7 innings)
- Alvaro Rios struck out in his 2025 debut as a pinch hitter.
- T.J. McCants was 1-for-3.
- Jurdrick Profar went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
- Angel Bello: 1 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 0 K.
