CHICAGO –– White Sox rookie Colson Montgomery is on an unbelievable 15-game run, even to his most strident supporters.

“I can’t say that I anticipated Colson doing what he’s doing right now,” general manager Chris Getz said Thursday. “I believed it in the future, I did.”

Since returning from the All-Star break on July 18, Montgomery is first in MLB with 21 RBI and tied for second with seven home runs in just 58 plate appearances.

The potential for Montgomery, 23, to break out in the major leagues was anticipated to a certain degree, as MLB Pipeline ranked him No. 1 among White Sox prospects for three straight seasons from 2022-24. But the immediate, high-level success the 2021 first-round pick is having comes as a bit of a surprise, given what occurred earlier this season.

Montgomery got off to a woeful start with Triple-A Charlotte, slashing .149/.223/.255/.479 with 43 strikeouts across 103 plate appearances. His season quickly trended in the wrong direction, considering he set his sights on breaking camp with the White Sox and making the Opening Day roster.

Those struggles taught him a few valuable lessons.

“When it didn’t happen, yeah, you kind of get bummed and everything,” Montgomery said. “You want to go play good right after that to kind of say you proved them wrong and everything. And I didn’t do that, and I take full accountability for that. But really all you can do is just keep showing up, you know? And I feel like that’s one thing that I have been doing is just coming to the park, just trying to win each game, and that’s really all you can do. Sometimes things are going to go your way and sometimes they’re not.”

The first step in getting Montgomery back on track to the big leagues was sending him to the lowest possible level of the minor leagues. In late April, Montgomery left Triple-A and headed to the team’s facility in Arizona, where went through individualized work with White Sox director of hitting Ryan Fuller and played in five Arizona Complex League games.

After taking somewhat drastic measures in an attempt to fix a player who would be key to his organization’s rebuild, Getz made sure Montgomery knew he still believed in him.

“Just assured him that we’re gonna figure this out,” Getz said. “We’re gonna do it together. We’re gonna figure this out. Just don’t give up. And giving up was not an option. It wasn’t. And that’s when I knew we were gonna be okay.”

“I’ve been very consistent in my belief in Colson Montgomery, just because I’ve been around the kid. As a former farm director, I saw him early in his career, and obviously he’s had some hiccups here recently in the last couple years. But when you witness what you witness in the early stage of someone’s career, you know that it’s in there, you do. His temperament and how he goes about his business and his skill set and how under control he is.”

Montgomery explained that he and Fuller spent time in the hitting lab, working with cameras, force plates in the ground and trying out everything they could think of. He tested different batting stances, standing taller and standing shorter, until something clicked.

A break from concern over in-game results helped, too.

“Ultimately, it just came down to just really finding this routine that we’ve kind of, I guess you could say, fine-tuned,” Montgomery said. “And I mean, I’m just trying to perfect that routine and then go out there and execute it.”

“I would say definitely just the time off too, and being around Fuller, he definitely helped me with just kind of giving me a breath of fresh air. He’s a great guy, too, and we did a lot of stuff more mentally preparing than physically. Because this game, everybody talks about it physically, but we know how much it can really damage somebody mentally. So I just credit a lot of it to the White Sox.”

The trip to Arizona seemed to rejuvenate Montgomery, who rejoined the Triple-A club just over two weeks later. In his first 32 games back with the Charlotte Knights, he went 33-for-122 (.270) with nine doubles, eight home runs, 24 RBIs, 12 walks and 39 strikeouts.

That was enough for the White Sox to promote Montgomery for his MLB debut on July 4 against the Colorado Rockies. He made an incredible diving catch in his first game and notched three hits in his second.

But it wasn’t until Montgomery’s 15th game that he launch his first home run, a 359-foot solo shot off Tampa Bay Rays’ reliever Bryan Baker at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla. The power surge was sparked, in part, by switching to a torpedo bat. The barrel is thicker toward the handle and thins out at the end, allowing the long-armed Montgomery to more quickly and effectively get around to inside pitches.

And since that change, he has seven home runs in an 11-game span. Through his first 93 plate appearances and 25 games, Montgomery is slashing .256/.304/.547 with six walks and 25 strikeouts.

Even more so than physical adjustments he made in Arizona, Montgomery said he has learned a lot more mentally than physically this season. Throughout his up-and-down 2025 campaign, things haven’t always been easy, but he’s grateful for the White Sox consistent support.

“There’s a lot that goes into last year, you don’t really play the best, and then you start this year not really playing the best. And there was just never a doubt in their mind with the White Sox,” Montgomery said. “So I credit a lot of it to the White Sox, just believing in me and always just being there for me, not just on the baseball side, but also just in personal life.”

“This game is tough and this game is hard. So you’ve just got to keep coming. The game is going to throw a lot of punches at you, so you’ve got to just keep fighting back. I’ve had a great support staff with my family and with the coaches. Every single day they tell me I belong there, I’m going to be a big leaguer, they just kept reiterating it and keep telling me and I think that’s what helped me keep going.”