{"id":694290,"date":"2026-06-09T21:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T21:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/694290\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T21:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T21:40:09","slug":"white-sox-call-up-top-prospect-braden-montgomery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/694290\/","title":{"rendered":"White Sox Call Up Top Prospect Braden Montgomery"},"content":{"rendered":"

12:15pm: The White Sox have formally announced the selection of Montgomery\u2019s contract. Veteran outfielder Austin Hays<\/a> moves from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot. Chicago also recalled lefty Joe Rock<\/a> from Triple-A Charlotte and optioned Nishida and righty David Sandlin<\/a> to Charlotte in a sequence of additional moves.<\/p>\n

11:17am: The White Sox are calling up top outfield prospect Braden Montgomery<\/a>, as first reported by Matt Snyder of CBS Sports<\/a>. Chicago will have to open space on the 26-man and 40-man roster to accommodate Montgomery, who currently ranks 33rd on Baseball America\u2019s top-100 prospect rankings.<\/p>\n

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Selected No. 12 overall out of Texas A&M by the Red Sox in 2024, Montgomery landed with the White Sox as the co-headliner (alongside catcher Kyle Teel<\/a>) of the blockbuster trade sending Garrett Crochet<\/a> to Boston. The 23-year-old Montgomery opened the 2026 season in Double-A and has since been promoted to Triple-A, tormenting opposing pitchers at both levels. He\u2019s appeared in 56 games this season, taken 258 plate appearances between those two levels, and turned in a stout .314\/.422\/.548 batting line (152 wRC+) with 10 homers, 13 doubles, three triples, five steals (albeit in 11 attempts), a huge 15.1% walk rate and a 24.8% strikeout rate.<\/p>\n

Montgomery has been particularly productive at the dish as of late. After falling into a mini-slump that saw him go hitless for 16 plate appearances, he\u2019s turned things around with a .474\/.580\/.711 batting line over his past 10 games. In that time, the switch-hitter has popped a pair of homers and three doubles while drawing 10 walks against seven strikeouts. The dip in strikeouts is notable, as the main knock on Montgomery for many scouts is a penchant for swinging and missing that leads to bearish grades on his hit tool; Baseball America pegged his hit tool at a 40 (on the 20-80 scale) heading into the season, while FanGraphs gave him a present-day 30 with a chance to get to a 40.<\/p>\n

Even if Montgomery strikes out more than the Sox would prefer, he garners praise for elite bad speed, plus-plus raw power and a prodigious arm in right field. That latter element is to be expected for a former two-way star who ran his heater up to 96 mph as an amateur. Montgomery has focused solely on hitting and playing the outfield in pro ball, but the fact that he was a touted amateur pitcher as well only underscores his natural athleticism.<\/p>\n

Montgomery is the latest promising young hitter to join an increasingly exciting White Sox core. The Sox have already called up Sam Antonacci<\/a> and former first-rounder Jacob Gonzalez<\/a> this season. They\u2019re getting a full-fledged breakout from former top prospect Miguel Vargas<\/a>. Former first-rounder Colson Montgomery<\/a> has cemented himself as a potent source of power and claimed the long-term shortstop role. Chase Meidroth<\/a> (also acquired alongside Montgomery and Teel) is light on power but has hit for average and gotten on base while staking a claim as the organization\u2019s long-term second baseman. And, of course, the White Sox struck gold when they signed NPB slugger Munetaka Murakami<\/a> to a two-year contract after the market failed to produce the type of long-term pact most envisioned for the 26-year-old. The aforementioned Teel has been out all season due to a knee injury but hit .273\/.375\/.411 in 78 games as a rookie last year.<\/p>\n

For all that young potential, Chicago\u2019s outfield is still pretty open. Antonacci has been a nice tablesetter in left field. Tristan Peters<\/a> has hit well in center, but he\u2019s a 26-year-old rookie whose production is buoyed by a .385 average on balls in play that he won\u2019t sustain over a larger period. None of Derek Hill<\/a>, Luisangel Acuna<\/a>, Everson Pereira<\/a>, Tanner Murray<\/a>, Rikuu Nishida<\/a> or veteran Andrew Benintendi<\/a> has been a standout thus far; Pereira has hit reasonably well in 71 plate appearances but has a 30% strikeout rate and is out with a pectoral injury. Montgomery should have a path to regular at-bats in either center field or right field moving forward.<\/p>\n

Based on the timing of Montgomery\u2019s promotion, he\u2019s not going to receive a full season of big league service unless he hits the ground running and finishes top-two in AL Rookie of the Year voting with a massive four-month finish to the season. Barring that unlikely event, the Sox will have six years of club control over him beyond the current season. He\u2019s probably going to fall just a few days shy of Super Two eligibility, meaning he\u2019ll be eligible for arbitration the standard three times rather than four, though that assumes he\u2019s in the majors to stay. Whether that proves to be the case will hinge on how well he adjusts to big league opponents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"12:15pm: The White Sox have formally announced the selection of Montgomery\u2019s contract. Veteran outfielder Austin Hays moves from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[73984,138520,99],"class_list":["post-694290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-austin-hays","tag-braden-montgomery","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}