The White Sox reassigned Braden Montgomery among the most recent round of cuts that thinned the major league camp ranks to 48, and considering he entered the spring with no pathway to the Opening Day roster, he made the most of an opportunity that was always going to be limited.
In terms of top-level results, he posted an even 1.000 OPS by hitting .348/.348/.652 with a homer, two triples and six strikeouts over 24 plate appearances. With underlying stats, he showed some improvement in contact rate, connecting on 73.7 percent of his swings, as opposed to 68.9 percent over his 34 games in Birmingham last season.
The aesthetics matched, as he followed up his successful Arizona Fall League stint with some loud on-camera spring training contact, giving the White Sox social media department additional hype reel material featuring Montgomery wearing a major league logo. This doesn't necessarily mean anything with regards to the sustainability of his prospect stock, and Will Venable recently echoed what Ryan Fuller told James about Montgomery’s right-handed swing actually being ahead of his left in terms of avoiding ground balls. But he generated interest from all angles, and that's all he could be expected to do with the task at hand.
As a result, Jim Callis highlighted Montgomery as a "camp standout" in his spring summary of White Sox prospects, which included Paul Janish's most recent read:
"Braden is in a class of his own with pure upside," Janish said. "He's so talented. We've been talking to him about swing decisions and strike-zone awareness. He wants to be an All-Star, and we're just helping him be aware of what it will take to be an All-Star. We're encouraging him to play more free defensively and on the bases."
An ambitious assignment for Billy Carlson
Caleb Bonemer didn't appear in a professional game until he opened the 2025 season with the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers, and all he did was win the Carolina League MVP en route to consensus Sox Machine top prospect status.
So if a seemingly aggressive ask failed to faze the top prep pick from the most recent White Sox draft class the last time around, then perhaps it stands to reason why the Sox have no problem doing it for 2025 first-round pick Billy Carlson this spring.
Billy Carlson, the No. 73 prospect overall per @MLBPipeline, has been in Arizona off and on for the past 5 to 6 months. He's excited to break camp and join @Kcannonballers
— Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) March 15, 2026
Carlson only appeared in one Cactus League game, swinging through three Andrew Hoffman sliders over the course of five pitches for a K in his lone plate appearance on March 6. Even then, that game wasn't televised, so aside from the upcoming Spring Breakout game on Saturday, MiLB.TV streams will be the first chance anybody who didn't make the trip to bridge league action last year will get to watch Carlson operate in a standard professional environment. Even if his bat takes time coming around, it'll be nice to get a sense of whether the raves about otherworldly shortstop defense as an amateur follow him into affiliate action.
Hagen Smith had it
Hagen Smith could be among the next White Sox prospects reassigned to minor league camp. It’s mostly because he's beginning to stretch out after a delayed start to his spring, and the White Sox only have so many Cactus League innings to go around, and the bulk are needed for pitchers who are a bigger part of their immediate plans.
Should Smith face the same fate as Tanner McDougal and Noah Schultz before him, at least he can say he went out on a high note. In Sunday's game that wasn't broadcast by either team, Smith struck out five of the seven Royals he faced over two hitless, scoreless innings. Despite all the strikeouts and one walk included, he needed just 30 pitches.
Granted, he was facing a Royals lineup that donated Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino, Jac Caglianone and Maikel García to the World Baseball Classic, but this is still an encouraging sequence for a guy who didn't have the easiest time retiring Double-A hitters last season:
- Four-pitch walk
- Four-pitch strikeout
- Four-pitch strikeout
- Three-pitch strikeout
- Seven-pitch strikeout
- Five-pitch strikeout
- Three-pitch groundout
Kansas City hitters whiffed on six of their nine swings, which is always nice.
