White Sox Select Contracts of Colson Montgomery and Juan Carela

November 19th, 2024

CHICAGO – The Chicago White Sox have selected the contracts of infielder Colson Montgomery and right-handed pitcher Juan Carela.

Montgomery, 22, is rated by MLB.com as the No. 3 prospect in the White Sox organization and No. 37 overall in baseball. He spent the 2024 season at Class AAA Charlotte, batting .214/.329/.381 (104-485) with 21 doubles, 18 home runs, 63 RBI and 66 runs scored in 130 games, with all but eight of his plate appearances with the Knights coming against older pitchers. Montgomery hit .264/.357/.458 (19-72) with four homers and 13 RBI over 19 games in September.

Montgomery, 6-foot-4 and 235 pounds, also played in 11 games with Glendale in the Arizona Fall League, going 10-32 (.313) with three homers, 11 RBI, 13 runs scored and a 1.167 OPS.

Montgomery, who bats left-handed, was selected by the Sox in the first round (22nd overall) of the 2021 First-Year Player Draft out of Southridge High School in Huntingburg, Ind. He is a career .253/.376/.414 (291-1,152) hitter with 59 doubles, eight triples, 37 home runs, 154 RBI and 191 runs scored in 316 games over four seasons in the White Sox system.

Carela, 22, combined to go 7-7 with a 3.71 ERA (44 ER/106.2 IP), 114 strikeouts (9.6 per 9.0 IP) and a .225 (87-386) opponents average over 23 starts last season with Class A Winston-Salem and Class AA Birmingham. He began the season at Winston-Salem, going 4-4 with a 3.77 ERA (31 ER/74.0 IP) and 76 strikeouts in 16 starts before being promoted to Birmingham on August 6, where he went 3-3 with a 3.58 ERA (13 ER/32.2 IP) and 36 strikeouts in seven starts.

Carela, 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds, started Game 2 of the Southern League Championship series-clinching victory vs. Montgomery, throwing 4.2 scoreless IP in a 2-1 Barons victory in 10 innings.

Carela, a native of Samana, Dominican Republic, has gone 20-30 with a 4.39 ERA (197 ER/403.2 IP) and 460 strikeouts in 93 games (85 starts) over five minor-league seasons. He originally was signed by the Yankees as an international free agent on July 2, 2018 and was traded to the White Sox on August 1, 2023 in exchange for right-hander Keynan Middleton.

With the moves, the White Sox 40-man roster increases to 38.