Montgomery's Strikeout Problem Is the Hole the Surge Hasn't Filled
The White Sox are scoring 6.5 runs per game over their last ten games. That number is real, and I've said so. But a run-scoring average is a composite, and composites can hide things. What they're hiding right now is Colson Montgomery — and what Montgomery represents about the limits of this offense when the calendar flips to October.
Montgomery appears in the depth chart at shortstop as the team's primary option at the position, and his strikeout rate this season has reportedly drawn comparisons to one of the more infamous single-season marks in franchise history. The White Sox, of course, have a complicated relationship with strikeouts — this organization spent several years in the late 2010s and early 2020s leading the league in punchouts while cycling through rebuilds. A shortstop who ties or approaches that kind of benchmark isn't just a curiosity; he's a structural liability in a lineup that's currently being carried by a cluster of hitters operating well above their norms. Randal Grichuk is posting a 1.089 OPS in 35 games. LaMonte Wade Jr. has a 1.136 OPS across nine games. Korey Lee is at 1.018 in nine games. These are not sustainable rates. They are the offense running hot, and when a lineup runs hot, the cold spots get obscured.
Montgomery is a cold spot with October implications. Strikeouts are tolerable in a lineup with enough slug around them — Munetaka Murakami has 24 home runs and an .910 OPS in 68 games, Miguel Vargas has 19 home runs and an .853 OPS in 77 games — but playoff pitching doesn't look like the late-September schedule. Playoff pitching finds the holes. A shortstop who strikes out at a record pace is a hole that elite arms will locate on the first day of a series and exploit for three straight games.
The deeper problem is that Montgomery's struggles expose something I've been tracking all season: this team's offensive infrastructure is genuine at its peak but uneven in its floor. The surge is real — 6.5 runs per game over the last ten is not noise — but it has been driven by a handful of players operating at career-best or near-career-best rates in a compressed window. Chase Meidroth has been solid at .280 with nine home runs and 33 RBI in 73 games, providing a legitimate middle-of-the-order complement. But below that tier, the lineup thins. Montgomery's strikeout record isn't an isolated data point; it's the box score telling you where the floor is.
Four games remain in the regular season, and the White Sox hold first place in the AL Central. The magic number is 15. They will almost certainly reach the postseason. The question I keep returning to is not whether they get there — it's whether the version of this offense that shows up in October looks like the last ten games or like Montgomery's season-long strikeout line. Those are two very different teams, and right now both of them are wearing the same uniform.