Prospect lists are supposed to spark debate.
2025 Arizona Fall League Fall Stars game between the American League Fall Stars and the National | Norm Hall/GettyImages
They’re built for disagreement.
They’re designed to be imperfect.
They’re meant to create arguments that carry into spring training.
But every once in a while, a list doesn’t just feel questionable.
It feels like someone made a point.
As the 2026 season approaches, top-100 prospect rankings are rolling out across baseball media. MLB Pipeline’s updated list includes five White Sox prospects, reinforcing the growing belief that Chicago’s farm system is quietly becoming one of the league’s most interesting.
Braden Montgomery leads that wave.
Or at least… he should.
Because ESPN’s newest Top 100 list from Kiley McDaniel included only three White Sox names—shortstop Billy Carlson barely making the cut, left-hander Noah Schultz earning his spot, and Montgomery completely absent.
Not low. Not underrated.
Gone.
And for White Sox fans watching the rebuild hinge on young talent finally arriving, it didn’t land like an oversight. It landed like a snub.
Montgomery’s first professional season in 2025 didn’t look like the profile of a player who should be ignored.
He entered pro ball with a reputation as a hit-over-power outfielder, especially after his draft season ended early due to a broken leg in the College World Series.
Instead of needing a long adjustment period, Montgomery came out producing immediately.
He hit .270.
He posted a .360 on-base percentage.
He drove the ball with authority even without selling out for home runs.
Twelve homers might not jump off the page, but 34 doubles do. That’s not empty contact—that’s impact.
It’s the sign of a hitter who finds barrels, uses the whole field, and turns routine at-bats into extra bases. For a player coming off a major injury, it was more than encouraging.
It was a statement.
Then he went to the Arizona Fall League and made the statement louder. In a 12-game sample, Montgomery posted a 1.161 OPS, holding his own against stronger competition and showing the exact kind of finishing kick teams want to see from a rising prospect.
He didn’t look like a project.
He looked like a timeline.
And that’s what makes the omission sting.
Montgomery isn’t flawless, and no one serious pretends he is. He struck out in 25% of his plate appearances in 2025, a number he’ll want to trim as he climbs.
He also has more power in the tank than he showed, with previous flashes of 25–30 home run pop that didn’t fully translate last year. Some of that may have been approach-based—choosing contact and stability over max damage.
But even those “concerns” sound like the kind of problems teams want.
Because the foundation is already there.
Montgomery is a switch-hitter with above-average hitting ability from both sides, capable of driving the ball to all fields.
He reached Double-A in his first pro season. He’ll turn 23 in April. And there’s a realistic chance he makes his MLB debut at some point in 2026.
That doesn’t sound like a player who should be erased from the conversation.
It sounds like someone who should be near the center of it.
And that’s where the emotional shift happens.
Because prospect lists aren’t just rankings—they’re perception. They influence how fans talk. How rivals scout. How expectations are framed before a player ever steps into a big-league stadium.
When a player like Montgomery is left off entirely, it creates a strange kind of tension: not because it changes who he is, but because it forces people to ask why the industry suddenly wants to act like he isn’t real.
Is it skepticism?
Is it bias toward louder tools?
Is it punishment for a profile that doesn’t scream “superstar” in a single highlight clip?
Or is it simply a miss?
Whatever the reason, Montgomery now enters spring training with something prospects rarely get handed this early:
A public target.
And sometimes, that’s the best fuel.
Because if he hits in March, the conversation changes fast. If he forces the issue again at Double-A, the omission won’t just look wrong—it will look embarrassing.
The White Sox rebuild is still filled with unknowns, but Montgomery was supposed to be one of the cleanest answers.
Now, the pressure isn’t just to develop.
It’s to prove that ignoring him was the mistake…
not believing in him.
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