Colson Montgomery's struggles with runners in scoring position are a legitimate concern, but recent criticism ignores the bigger picture of what the young White Sox shortstop has already accomplished.
Because of the rare talent that he is and because of what he's done since joining the Chicago White Sox in July of 2025, it's difficult to be too critical of shortstop Colson Montgomery, even when he goes through stretches where he's unproductive at the plate.
Criticism of Montgomery's game had a spotlight shined on it during Wednesday's win over the Minnesota Twins and, frankly, throughout the entire series. While Chicago ran away with an 8-0 victory, Montgomery went 0-for-6 with four strikeouts in the series finale. He was 0-for-12 with seven strikeouts in the series overall, lowering his OPS for the year to .787.
This happened, of course, and it would be foolish to judge a player based on three games. But the real concern for Colson stretches over the entire season and what he's done in situational hitting. Montgomery now has 81 plate appearances with runners in scoring position this year. That leads baseball, and in those 81 plate appearances, he's batting .197 with 30 strikeouts.
On Wednesday, Colson Montgomery left 13 runners on base, which ties Dustin Pedroia for the all-time American League record.
This has long been a point of concern when it comes to Montgomery, for me. He often seems to be doing too much at the plate in the moments where he should be doing less.
When the White Sox need a clutch single, or even just a fly ball or ball in play to drive in a big run, it seems like Montgomery is swinging for the fences and trying to put the entire offense on his shoulders. Perhaps that's even more the case now that Munetaka Murakami is on the injured list and the other middle-of-the-order bats feel the pressure to step up. But when he's pressing, chasing, and trying to force the power swing that comes naturally to him, he's never at his best.
Now, all of this being said, Montgomery is like most power hitters in the sense that his best baseball comes in waves. And just as you get down on the at-bats that he's put together recently, he'll find a way to rip off three home runs in a series and raise his OPS by 50 points. Hence why I'm not concerned about him long-term.
It's for the same reason that I'm pretty unhappy with the dialogue that has surrounded Montgomery recently. Even former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen was on the postgame show ripping into Chicago's shortstop with labels like "one-year wonder" and "he shows up once a week."
At that point, we've officially lost the plot and gone a step too far.
Montgomery is not a finished product right now. I don't think anyone is claiming that he is. But I also think it's somewhat unrealistic to expect him to be. He made his MLB debut less than 12 months ago, and any labels you place on Colson right now seem to lack the context of who he is when the bigger picture is kept in mind.
He's a 24-year-old elite defensive shortstop with 5.1 fWAR and the second-most home runs in baseball since being called up last July.
That's not a one-year wonder. That's a budding superstar who still has clear holes in his game that should improve with maturity and experience.
Sure, if you're expecting him to be a well-oiled machine and one of the best players in baseball who anchors the lineup of a playoff team, he's probably going to fall short of your expectations regularly. That's not a fair thing to place on him, in my eyes.
Yes, at some point, Colson will need to improve in this area if he wants to be a superstar, and there will be a time and place for growth to be demanded. But why does that have to be right now when he still has fewer than 140 career games played?
Perhaps it's the fact that the White Sox are currently in the playoff picture and outperforming preseason predictions that has turned the conversation toward putting more pressure on Montgomery's shoulders.
But if we can zoom out and look at the bigger picture, there's no need to panic about Colson Montgomery's future. And the best thing White Sox fans can do is give him time to develop and rediscover his best swing.
