Chicago White Sox Prospect Braden Montgomery Selected To 2025 All-Star Futures Game

(story originally published June 30)

CHICAGO –– Braden Montgomery smiled in anticipation of playing in the 2025 All-Star Futures Game. But the honor of being just one of 50 minor leaguers selected in no way diminishes the humble 22-year-old's drive to be great.

If anything, it seems to motivate him even more.

"I’d say so far my season has been OK," Montomgery said. "I’m really, really excited to get the chance to go to the Futures Game. Outside of that I would say it’s been just alright. ... Just because I’ve got high expectations for myself and I know what I’m capable of. Pro ball is a completely new experience for me. It’s different from college. So just wanting to go in there, and you’ll see a whole lot of failure because it’s baseball. But I want to iron out that and iron out my process to where I’m eliminating some of those failures."

When simply looking at Montgomery's numbers, there aren't obvious signs of the failures he mentioned. He began his first professional season with Single-A Kannapolis before being promoted to High-A Winston-Salem. Through 301 plate appearances at both levels, he's slashing .274/.352/.468 with 10 home runs, 49 RBIs, nine stolen bases, 30 walks and 67 strikeouts.

That was enough for Montgomery to become one of 14 minor league outfielders selected to the Futures Game, scheduled for July 12 at Truist Park in Atlanta. At this time last year, he was selected No. 12 overall in the MLB Draft, one of several events during All-Star week. He plans to attend as many events as he can and soak it all, with the hope that one day he'll be in the All-Star Game.

"Oh yeah, very soon," Montgomery said. "That’s the goal.

"It’s super exciting. I love being around baseball, and the more talent I can be around, the better I feel it makes me. So I’m excited to meet those guys and to see what they are like, see what kind of process they go through. It’s super exciting."

The 6-foot-2 switch-hitting outfielder has also climbed up the prospect rankings, coming in at No. 4 among White Sox and No. 32 in the MLB Pipeline.

Paul Janish noticed Montgomery's talent early. Rice University's associate head coach at the time and now the White Sox director of player development, Janish was in the opposite dugout when Montgomery played at Stanford University during the 2023 season. He went 3-for-10 with a home run, four walks, two runs and no strikeouts in a three-game sweep that Janish won't soon forget.

"It was one of those “Holy crap this guy is different” kind of things," Janish said. "He’s going to play on TV one day. Tracking that all the way back to seeing him now, watching him come to major league spring training and for lack of a better way to say it, just fit in. That’s what I would point to. That’s what it looks like. That’s what the guys that play for a long time and have successful major league careers, that’s what they look like. We are talking about physical attributes, but we would be remiss if we don’t highlight how bad Braden wants to be good as well. He works his butt off."

Montgomery was part of a four-prospect package that the White Sox received in a trade that sent ace pitcher Garrett Crochet to the Boston Red Sox in December. Crochet is contending for the AL Cy Young award and still just 26 years old. But with Kyle Teel, Chase Meidroth and Wikelman Gonzalez already having made their major league debuts this season, plus Montgomery's promising first season as a professional, the trade is looking promising from the White Sox perspective.

An intriguing aspect of Montgomery's season has been his balanced numbers as a switch hitter. In 238 plate appearances from the left side, he's slashing .274/.357/.423 with five home runs, 33 RBIs, 27 walks and 51 strikeouts. The sample size is much smaller from the right side, just 63 plate appearances, but the numbers are similar: .273/.333/.636 with five home runs, 16 RBIs, three walks and 16 strikeouts.

Janish said the White Sox and Montgomery himself didn't have any apprehension about his right-handed swing, but they were aware of talk that his left-handed swing was further developed. Switch-hitters naturally get more left-handed at-bats due to a higher volume of right-handed pitchers, but Janish said they've tried to help Montgomery balance out the amount of pregame work from the right side.

"I personally have seen him a couple of times hit impressive home runs right-handed and shoot the ball the other way down the right field line as a right-handed hitter," Janish said. "He's still got some development to do in understanding what he is against certain types of pitches from left-handed pitchers. But we like where he’s at from that standpoint. He’s shown a lot up to this point of the season. Work on consistency is what we will continue to push.”

Since his promotion to Winstson-Salem on April 29, Montgomery has played 20 games in right field, 19 as the designated hitter and 12 in center field. Whether he pans out as a right fielder or center fielder by the time he reaches the major leagues is to be determined, but Janish thinks playing in center field will be good for Montgomery's long-term development.

"He’s a super impressive athlete. There’s not anything on the field he can’t do," Janish said. "We talk about him offensively. But he can steal a base, play defense, he can really throw. I’ve said this about him before, the thing that has impressed me is the way he deals with staff, his teammates. The way he treats the clubhouse guy with respect. Just a really really impressive kid.”

So where is Montgomery looking to improve? He wants to stay conscious of his swing decisions. He approached his first professional season as somewhat of a testing ground to see what pitches he can or can't hit. But so far, poor swing decisions haven't been much of an issue with a 22.2% strikeout rate, though it can also affect his batted-ball results and walk rates.

Janish doesn't think talent is an issue with Montgomery, but perhaps the bigger adjustment is getting used to playing every day and maintaining his health. Montgomery could feasibly play 100 more games this season than his final year of college, so building a routine in the training room and finding recovery tactics that will help him avoid nagging injuries has been a main focus.

There's also a mental adjustment required in his first season as a professional, where he has to be comfortable with the ups and downs as he fine-tunes his skill set. One coach told him that it takes a long time to have a good season and a long time to have a bad season, so he can't give up on himself when times get tough.

"I’m kind of just taking it as a crash course seeing how many different ways I can fail before I find the formula I want, the process I want, to get that consistent look that I eventually want to have," Montgomery said. "I think that each day I come closer in different facets. Some days are better than others, but it’s been good."

"I have great teammates and they help through the hard times. Baseball is a lot of failure. But it’s been good and I’m too drawn to it to ever stop getting back up after failing. So I’m going to keep going at it.

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