Finally healthy, MLB's No. 20 prospect is exceeding even his own expectations

Colson Montgomery headed into the 2023 season feeling good. The 2021 first-round pick made it to Double-A in his first full season of pro ball at just 20 years old and earned an invite to big league Spring Training camp.

But with things trending in the right direction, earning him a preseason top-50 prospect ranking, the White Sox shortstop suffered an oblique injury that sidelined him just five plate appearances into his spring campaign. Making matters worse, a back injury later in the spring slowed his recovery further.

• MLB Pipeline | Top 100 prospects | Prospect video

Montgomery finally returned to the field in the Arizona Complex League on June 19 and came out firing, going 15-for-35 with two home runs and 16 walks. Hitting well against much younger competition in Rookie ball was a welcome development, but the real test came when he went back to High-A Winston-Salem.

And the return of the top-ranked White Sox prospect to the South Atlantic League has been an unmitigated success. Not only has Montgomery remained healthy, he's hitting .353/.511/.588 with 11 walks and only five strikeouts in 10 games.

"If you told me I was going to come out hitting like this, I probably wouldn't believe it," he said. "It's kind of all of the built-up motivation and all the drive for wanting to play. And now being set free, it's made me really focused. I'm playing 100 percent, and I'm playing hard every second of the game."

Oblique injuries are notoriously difficult because of the long recovery window. If a player rushes back from the injury, it's easy to overcompensate with other muscles and cause a new injury. Ultimately, the rehab process involves a lot of rest, paired with stretching, mobility drills and strengthening exercises.

Montgomery and the White Sox wanted to make sure he waited until he was fully recovered before returning to action, which proved trying at times, even though he knew it was the right call. Watching players he finished 2022 with at Double-A Birmingham continue to thrive while he toiled in Arizona wasn't exactly his plan.

"It's a freak thing that happens," Montgomery said. "You're just swinging one day, and then something doesn't feel good, and then it starts aching. With those things, you just have to take your time with it. … There was a lot of frustration, but you bottle up that frustration, and once you're able to play, you just release it all."

But the No. 20 prospect in baseball, per MLB Pipeline, made the most of his downtime. In his breakout 2022 season, Montgomery learned to control the controllables. At the plate, that means having competitive at-bats and staying disciplined. In this case, it meant focusing on smaller goals and working on parts of his game that didn't aggravate his oblique.

One result: Montgomery feels as good as he ever has defensively. Drills in Arizona on his footwork and hands really improved both. And his plate discipline numbers are off the chart, with 27 walks to 11 strikeouts after sporting a combined 67-to-105 ratio in his first two seasons.

Sooner or later, Montgomery should be returning to Birmingham, where he ended last season. But that's not currently on his mind. That appears to working for him too and could be helping lay the groundwork for his arrival in The Show.

"I'm not really worrying about it much because in the past I've learned that if I think about where I should be, it takes away from where I'm at, and it puts unneeded pressure on me of needing to play good," Montgomery said.