CHICAGO (WGN) — The Chicago White Sox have selected the contracts of shortstop Colson Montgomery and right-handed pitcher Juan Carela.
Montgomery is rated as the No. 3 prospect in the White Sox organization and No. 37 overall in baseball by mlb.com, a slight decline from his position as the South Siders’ top prospect and a borderline Top 10 prospect in all of baseball this time last year.
Montgomery spent the 2024 season in Triple-A with the Charlotte Knights, where he hit .214/.329/.381 in 485 at-bats with 21 doubles, 18 home runs, 63 RBI and 66 runs scored across 130 games.
After early struggles adjusting to Triple-A pitching, Montgomery found his groove late in the season, hitting .264/.357/.458 with four home runs and 13 RBI over 19 games in September.
Montgomery 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, a 6-foot-4, 235-pound shortstop 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 combined to go 7-7 with a 3.71 ERA with 114 strikeouts over 106.2 innings pitched, and a .225 opponents batting average over 23 starts last season with the High-A Winston-Salem Dash and the Double-A Birmingham Barons.
He began the season at Winston-Salem, going 4-4 with a 3.77 ERA and 76 strikeouts in 16 starts across 74.0 IP before being promoted to Birmingham on Aug. 6, where he went 3-3 with a 3.58 ERA and 36 strikeouts in seven starts across 32.2 IP.
Carela, who stands 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds, started Game 2 of the Southern League Championship series-clinching victory vs. the Montgomery Biscuits, 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 and 460 strikeouts in 93 games (85 starts) and 403.2 IP over five minor-league seasons.
He originally was signed by the New York Yankees as an international free agent on July 2, 2018 and was traded to the White Sox on Aug. 1, 2023 in exchange for right-hander Keynan Middleton.
When a team in Major League Baseball selects a contract, they have officially agreed to sign a player to a big league contract and commit to paying them a stipulated salary.
With the moves, the White Sox have two remaining spots available on their 40-man roster.