Headed into spring training, Colson Montgomery was widely considered a frontrunner to be the starting shortstop for the White Sox on Opening Day. But lingering back spasms limited him to just nine Cactus League at-bats, and Montgomery started the season at Triple-A Charlotte instead. There, he struggled at the plate so badly that by April 30 he was sent to the team’s Arizona facilities to work on his swing.
Since returning to Charlotte, Montgomery has performed so well that he might still make an appearance in Chicago at some point this season, and he is one of a group of hitters in the organization working on offensive improvements. In some cases, they’re doing it at the major league level, in others while on a demotion to Triple-A, and in Montgomery’s case, after the aforementioned assignment to the Arizona Complex League.
“What a great opportunity to go down there and have as much time and space as we needed in Arizona. You have the hitting labs, you have force plates, high speed cameras,” White Sox director of hitting Ryan Fuller said. “Rather than guess what we are doing, we went in with a plan and we were able to track it every day. We talked about not reinventing who Colson was in two weeks. But reaffirming who he is and what he does best.”
Fuller said that Montgomery at his best is when he’s playing with the most athleticism. He likened it to moving like a basketball player, a sport that Montgomery excelled at in high school in Indiana. That’s obviously a big part of him playing good defense up the middle, but Fuller said it helps him succeed at the plate as well.
As to why Montgomery had struggled so much with his bat, Fuller said it had a lot to do with movement in his swing that wasn’t there in the past. Addressing that in Arizona meant honing down his plate approach so that, as Fuller said, “Rather than feel like he has 12 different swings, it’s one swing that covers different parts of the zone really well.” In other words, keep the swing the same and go with what he’s getting from pitchers.
The results are showing up on his stats sheet: Montgomery has raised his batting average from .162 to .208 since rejoining the Triple-A squad, and he hit a pair of home runs and a pair of doubles in Saturday’s game against Round Rock.
Montgomery is one of a group of promising young hitters in the White Sox organization who are taking steps forward at the plate. Fuller is also working closely with Miguel Vargas, who is bouncing back from batting .104 in a White Sox uniform in 2024. Through just under 50 games this season, Vargas has a respectable .706 OPS and is showing signs of power; in 180 at-bats this season, Vargas has seven home runs, his most recent in Sunday’s 5-4 loss against the Rangers. His improvement has come from getting better at handling the top part of the strike zone, Fuller said.
Acquired from the Red Sox in the Garrett Crochet deal over the winter, Chase Meidroth has also been a significant positive at the plate for Chicago. Leading off much of the time since he was called up on April 11, Meidroth has a .304/.388./.373 slash line to go with 8 stolen bases this season. Fuller said the key to Meidroth’s success is sticking with his innate sense of the strike zone and focusing on getting a high contact rate rather than generating power.
Though he has been in the majors since 2021, the White Sox still hope to get something out of Andrew Vaughn, their 2019 first-round draft pick. In his career, Vaughn had generally been able to provide some pop in the lineup while being able to get hits somewhat consistently. But in 2025, Vaughn has struggled mightily; he had just a .531 OPS when the White Sox sent him down to Charlotte on Friday. In Vaughn’s case, Fuller believes they can right the ship quickly.
“Over the course of a season, there are little things you do one day that add up, and you kind of get to a point where [it is] ‘How do I get back to what I do at my best,'” Fuller said. “That’s what we see this as, a quick reset to go down there like any player, get your body in good position, have your bat path work through the zone so you have coverage and then being able to execute your gameplan when you go in and swing where you want to swing.”
In each of these cases, these are young players who are doing their jobs under the weight of high expectations. Either because they were first-round draft picks (Vaughn and Montgomery) or because they were pieces brought over in big trades (Vargas and Meidroth), their performances are held under greater scrutiny than most players. Scrutiny that only increases when they reach the majors.
“Everything’s amplified,” Fuller said. “You have a four-strikeout game, instead of going back to your apartment and playing video games with your friends, you turn on the TV, it’s MLB Network, you striking out four times. You open up Instagram, it’s you striking out four times. It’s a different beast.”
Montgomery has yet to experience that. Each of the other three players has been held under that kind of microscope, but Montgomery — for all of the attention his career has already garnered — has not faced the test of Major League Baseball. If his time in Arizona really did fix his swing and the kinds of results Montgomery has been having since getting back to Charlotte continue, then he will likely get the chance to test his mettle at baseball’s highest level soon.
“That’s part of the maturation process, too,” Fuller said. “So for all these guys when there is struggle, it’s OK, this is normal. You’re not supposed to come up here and hit .400 and be a game changer right off the bat. We certainly would love that, but that’s not how it works. So just giving them the tools to be successful, not for one day [or] a week, but for your career.”
