Despite coming off of the worst regular season in Major League Baseball history, the Chicago White Sox actually have a brighter future than you may think.
Through the draft and rebuilding via the trade market, the White Sox have one of the top farm systems in baseball. Braden Montgomery, a newcomer to the White Sox in 2025, is one of the next big names coming through the farm and proved why with a big week at High-A Winston Salem.
Braden Montgomery continues rising in prospect rankings
Just a year ago, Montgomery was manning right field for the Texas A&M Aggies as one of the top MLB Draft prospects in college baseball. He was looking like a lock to be selected within the top ten before a season-ending ankle injury during the super regional round of last year's NCAA tournament. His stock fell a bit due to the injury and he ended up with the Red Sox as the 12th overall pick and one of the biggest steals of the draft.
Montgomery didn't remain apart of the Red Sox farm system for very long, though, as he was shipped off to Chicago as a part of the package that sent Garrett Crochet to the Red Sox. Given the pedigree he came into the system with, Montgomery was already one of the top prospects in the organization without having played a game. Now a month into the 2025 MiLB season, he's currently ranked the fourth best prospect for the White Sox by MLB Pipeline behind a strong start to his professional career.
Montgomery made his professional debut with Low-A Kannapolis where he didn't stay too long. In 84 plate appearances over 18 games, he hit three home runs with a .304/.393/.493 slash line before he was called up to High-A on April 29th. Since joining Winston Salem, he has been even better and had one of the best performances among all minor league hitters this past week.
Montgomery put up monster numbers for the Dash, hitting .476/.500/1.000, which was good for a 1.500 OPS. Only four other full-season hitters posted a higher OPS than Montgomery on the week.
He also hit three home runs and led all South Atlantic League hitters with ten runs batted in. He also managed to do all of this while striking out only once in his 24 plate appearances. Following the big week, he's up to a .405/.480/.762 slash line and a 1.242 OPS in High-A, along with a 1.020 OPS for the full season. He's up to a 178 wRC+ on the season between Low-A and High-A, which ranks third among all qualified White Sox minor league hitters.
The elite bat has certainly been on display for the White Sox early on, but there's a lot more to his game than just the hit-and-power combination from both sides of the plate. He's an excellent defender in right field, possessing one of the best arms in all of Minor League Baseball, and gets around out there pretty well. He doesn't possess elite speed by any means, but he has above-average athleticism that allows him to be a dynamic player outside of the batter's box.
Considering he's among the top switch-hitting prospects in baseball and has found success from both sides of the plate early, I would expect Montgomery to move through the White Sox system fairly quick. In only 30 career games to this point, he has already cracked the top 40 on MLB Pipeline's updated prospect rankings at 38. This is definitely a fun prospect that will rank even higher by year's end.