KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Having seen benefits of melding top prospects, instructors and coordinators together at their alternate training site in 2020, the White Sox are building off the experience with “Project Birmingham,” an innovative endeavor that will see most of their top prospects from Class A play at Double-A Birmingham for the remaining four weeks of the season.
“Having a pool of our top players with our top staff, with each other on a daily basis, bringing that to life during a minor league season,” Sox player development boss Chris Getz said. “The idea is to get a pool of our top minor league players to our Double A affiliate in Birmingham starting Tuesday to take that to the end of the year [Sept. 18].”
That means top Sox prospects such as Colson Montgomery, Bryan Ramos, Wes Kath, Luis Miesses, Jared Kelly, Norge Vera, Andrew Dalquist, DJ Gladney, Cristian Mena, Wilfred Veras, Kohl Sims and Adam Hackenberg will be promoted for the final month of the season.
Getz views this as something of an advanced instructional league. The team at Triple-A Charlotte will stay intact.
The Sox farm system entered the season near or at the bottom of most rankings with no top 100 players. But having Montgomery, a shortstop and the Sox’ first-round pick a year ago, elevated to 38th by Baseball America, is a needed shot in the arm. Cuban outfielder Oscar Colas, who is already at Birmingham and having a big season, is 99th on Baseball America’s list.
“We’re really proud of some of some of the accomplishments we’ve made on the player development side,” Getz said.
Montgomery has been “excellent.” Getz said.
“Whether it be spring training, to the beginning of the year in Kannapolis, the way he’s controlled his at-bats, both against lefties and righties, making good decisions at the plate, using the whole field, he’s been hitting for power, and he’s been solid defensively,” Getz said.
“For a kid that split a lot of his time with basketball, you don’t quite know how it’s going to take when he’s fully committed to baseball. But he’s proven when he puts his energy toward one thing that he’s a player that’s going to benefit from that. And he’s been as consistent as anyone in the minor leagues. We’re excited to have him, and he obviously has a bright future.”
Between Low-A Kannapolis and High-A Winston-Salem this season, Montgomery is batting .295/.408/.450 with nine home runs and an .858 OPS. He made headlines with an on-base streak of 50 games earlier in the season but of late but was batting .200/.327/.375 over his last 50 plate appearances.
