The White Sox are calling up lauded outfield prospect Braden Montgomery, a source confirmed to Sox Machine. He and left-handed reliever Joe Rock will be joining the 40-man and 26-man rosters, with Rikuu Nishida and David Sandlin optioned to Charlotte. Austin Hays was transferred to the 60-day IL to open the necessary spot on the 40-man for Montgomery.
The switch-hitting 23-year-old has spent barely over a month at Triple-A Charlotte after starting the year in Birmingham, but has accumulated the sort of batting line that portrays comfort, slashing .315/.417/.495 with four home runs in 29 games. While the friendly confines of Truist Field heap rewards upon fly balls, Montgomery struggled with an elevated ground-ball rate upon arrival to the International League. It's an issue that he’s made mechanical tweaks to address, including with an adjusted and more open batting stance.
"Braden has been very open to trying to get better this year and he's tried a few different things in terms of his setup," said hitting director Ryan Fuller. "Being a little bit more open rather than being too closed, leg kick versus getting his foot down a little bit earlier. All of it works together and the biggest thing for Braden is making sure he has the ability the ball very hard, that when he's hitting his best bolts, we're hitting them on a line versus hitting them into the ground and being a quick out.
"It's how do we get the movements to match up to a spot where he's making contact and a spot where his bat is working up through the zone, versus letting it get too deep and the barrel is still working down. The movements and the timing are for sure working together, and he's on top of it right now."
Sure enough, Montgomery will arrive in Chicago on a massive 10-game heater that has seen him hit .474/.580/.711 with more walks than strikeouts in that span, which is the sort of flourish in response to direct work that usually prompts a promotion for a team looking to sustain a hot start to the season.
Since Munetaka Murakami went down with a hamstring strain on May 29, the Sox offense is averaging 5.5 runs per game. Montgomery's two-way days are long over, and a corner outfield bat doesn't address the team's most pressing needs on the pitching staff after a 2-4 road trip, ahead of a nine-game stretch against the Braves, Dodgers and Yankees' offenses.
But it does fill a need. White Sox right fielders are hitting .211/.259/.323 as a whole, and recent dalliances with Jarred Kelenic and Rikuu Nishida as the primary option against right-handed pitching have failed to stanch the bleeding. Montgomery has more the feel of a long-term solution in an outfield corner, and Chris Getz reiterated that expectation last week in Minneapolis.
"He has been playing right field and center field, and there will be times that we ask him to play center field," Getz said. "But we see him getting most of his reps in the corner, right field. I think there will be a time that he comes up here and helps this club."
Montgomery's defensive work in spring training, and his willingness to dive in on the team emphasis on his pre-pitch movement was earning plaudits from Will Venable at Camelback Ranch. While the man himself tends to downplay the significance of any one adjustment, his open and visible adaptation of Sox coaching suggestions has marked Montgomery's second full season in the organization, which now has seen him crack the majors in the first half of the year.
With the Sox willing to talk more about having playoff ambitions of recent, but still unlikely to put significant prospect resources on the trade block in a search for upgrades, prospect arrivals like Montgomery, Noah Schultz, David Sandlin, Hagen Smith and Tanner McDougal still register as the biggest opportunities to boost the team as the summer stretches on. Montgomery may yet to be the highest ceiling talent that the Sox pulled in during all of their rebuilding trades, and his opportunity to prove it starts now.
