When Texas A&M played at Ole Miss in mid-May, it was a homecoming of sorts for Braden Montgomery. This was his first time playing collegiately in his home state of Mississippi after two strong years at Stanford.

But the All-American outfielder wasn’t the only one looking forward to his return to the Magnolia State.

Among those in the crowd was a youth baseball team decked out in Braden Montgomery jerseys. Montgomery met up with the group -- it turns out that he had played with the coach’s son a decade ago in travel ball -- and invited them back to the team hotel to hang out with the other Aggie players after the game.

In many ways, that epitomizes Montgomery, the No. 5 Draft prospect. He’s a local legend after helping lead Madison Central High School to a state championship and No. 1 national ranking, according to Baseball America, in 2021, and slugging more than 60 homers across three college seasons. But he’s still humble and confident, happy to share his signature smile.

“I want to spread love for this sport,” said Montgomery, who volunteered as a youth baseball coach as a high schooler. “I remember how much I loved it at that age and how much I just wanted to be surrounded by it and how I looked up to those that were at the level that I'm playing out right now. It's super cool.”

Montgomery’s path to stardom has taken plenty of confidence and self-belief. He first grew up loving football -- both his father and stepfather played collegiately at Iowa -- then took up baseball after moving to Mississippi. A natural right-hander, he learned to switch-hit at age 10 and quickly took to it.

“I grew up in a family in which my parents were much more football people,” Montgomery said. “As far as baseball goes, we were learning it together. And so one day I just thought it was cool to be able to hit on both sides of the plate, so I started learning how to hit on the other side and just kept it going from there just because nobody was there to tell me, ‘No.’”

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Top prospects:
Condon | Bazzana | Caglianone | Kurtz | Montgomery
Smith | Burns | Wetherholt | Griffin | Culpepper

Long before he earned Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year honors in 2021, Montgomery showed maturity beyond his years. His high school coach Patrick Robey was struck by how goal-oriented he was. Montgomery was always happy to sing on the bus and be loose in the clubhouse, walking around with a bounce, but knew when to buckle down on the field.

Naturally, the numbers were there. As a senior, he hit seven homers and ran a 1.465 OPS at the plate while striking out 116 batters with a 0.74 ERA in 56 2/3 innings on the mound. But his process also portended a bright future as much as anything.

“There were times he'd swing and miss, have a bad at-bat, have a bad game, but his approach wouldn't change,” Robey said. “His preparation wouldn't change and his mindset wouldn't change. That led me to believe that he certainly had all the intangibles to go along with his physical skills to play at a very high level.”

Montgomery could have been a high pick coming out of high school -- he ranked as MLB Pipeline’s No. 66 Draft prospect in 2021 -- but as a high academic achiever, he prized his commitment to Stanford. In talking with his parents, he tried to put a value on the Stanford education and experience, a number no team was able to meet.

Clearly, that decision has paid off.

After hitting .294/.361/.596 with 18 homers in 2022, he took home Pac-12 Freshman of the Year honors and became a Freshman All-American. The 6-foot-2 right fielder was even better as a sophomore, with a .336/.461/.611 line and 17 homers as he earned a spot on the Team USA Collegiate National Team.

Montgomery could have finished his college career at Stanford, which made the College World Series in each of his two seasons, but wanted to challenge himself once again. His ultimate goal was to become a Major Leaguer, so he wanted to play in the SEC against the highest level of college competition. Additionally, he wanted to be closer to his Houston-area-based hitting instructor Jeremy Isenhower, who also worked with Major Leaguers including Bobby Witt Jr. and Alec Bohm.

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The perfect match: Texas A&M. Which, coincidentally, his Cardinal eliminated from the NCAA Tournament in the 2022 Regionals.

“Yeah, not fun,” Aggies baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle said of facing Montgomery. “He pitched great against us. He effectively ended our season, both with his bat and on the mound. We knew he was a great player. We also knew he had areas he could get better, but we had no idea what a great human being he is.”

Montgomery has fit in seamlessly at College Station. His humble style jelled with the locker room, and he let his hard work do the talking to earn his teammates’ respect. Plus, if anyone talked smack, he had the perfect one-liner about beating them last season.

If there were any questions about how he would handle the transition to a bigger stage, he erased them in his first at-bat. Playing in front of a sold-out crowd of 7,078 at Blue Bell Park, he worked a full count, fouled off three straight pitches and launched a massive home run to score the Aggies’ first run of the season.

“Everybody had heard about Braden, but no one had seen him in person,” Schlossnagle said. “It was like seeing Santa Claus the first time. And he hits a home run and it's like as storybook as you could possibly be.”

Montgomery’s put up huge numbers all year, becoming a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist. His two-way aspirations are all but over after making just two relief appearances -- but only because he so obviously has sky-high hitting potential, making it not worth the risk of suffering an injury on the mound.

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Montgomery continues to be driven to be the best player he can be -- and the best player ever. While he continues to hit better from the left side, he’s made great strides against southpaws as well.

Having just turned 21 in April, Montgomery still has plenty of room to improve. There’s untapped power in his lanky frame and a bit of swing-and-miss, especially from the right side. But across multiple programs and big life decisions, he’s shown that his goal-oriented nature, natural talents and love for the game can take him far.

“He's about as complete of a player as you're going to get in college baseball,” Schlossnagle said.