White Sox have big plans for Montgomery in '25

CHICAGO -- Colson Montgomery, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 4 White Sox prospect and No. 37 overall, could break camp as the team’s starting shortstop.

The 22-year-old left-handed hitter clearly will be a key figure at the Major League level for the 2025 White Sox, regardless of that Opening Day outcome.

“He's going to get a lot of opportunity come Spring Training,” said general manager Chris Getz of Montgomery, during Thursday’s pre-SoxFest Live press conference with manager Will Venable at Rate Field. “We expect to see Colson Montgomery playing shortstop for the White Sox this year at some point.

“He's a guy that has continued to improve defensively. What he did in August and September and the Fall League, he made some real material changes to cover certain pitches and getting back to the player that we had seen throughout the Minor Leagues. He's going to get a shot to make the club. Now, we've got other players on the roster that are going to compete for shortstop opportunities.”

Getz listed off Chase Meidroth, who was part of the four-player trade return from Boston for Garrett Crochet, as well as Brooks Baldwin and veteran Josh Rojas, who is an offseason free-agent addition as a few shortstop possibilities. Rojas has played 44 career games at shortstop against 282 at third base and 150 at second.

“We've got a fair amount of versatility for good reason,” Getz said. “We're all looking forward to watching Colson get to work here in a couple weeks.”

Sasaki passed on in-person meeting*
The White Sox made a presentation to Roki Sasaki, the highly coveted international free-agent hurler from Japan, who eventually signed with the Dodgers. But they never moved to the meeting portion of the pursuit.

“It did not, it did not,” Getz said. “We put together a presentation. We were certainly hoping to get an in-person meeting. They decided to go a different direction to handle the interview process without the White Sox."

Words of wisdom
Venable was asked for the best piece of advice he’s received concerning his upcoming first year as manager.

“Wow, that’s a really good question,” Venable said. “I had an opportunity to talk to a lot of different managers across the league, certainly at the Winter Meetings. But these guys have done a great job just reaching out and touching base and offered support.

“Through those conversations, really it’s just been about the added effort you need to have to touch base with certain people, that as things will naturally speed up and as we get into the flow of things my energy and my time will be spread out in a lot of different places. The overarching message I got from a lot of these guys is make sure you’re prioritizing your time in the right way, which is something that I’ve appreciated.”

Is the roster complete?
Most of the heavy lifting already has been done in terms of adding to the 2025 White Sox roster or making adjustments.

“With that being said, the offseason’s still here,” Getz said. “You look out there with the amount of free agents that are still available, there’s a possibility for an addition here and there.

“For the most part, we feel like we’ve got our roster. Yeah, it’s just a matter of getting to Spring Training and prepping for Opening Day. We’ll continue to monitor things because that’s our job to do so.”