The White Sox have called up top outfield prospect braden montgomery, the club announced June 9, 2026, a move first reported by Matt Snyder of CBS Sports and later logged by MLB Trade Rumors at 11:18 a.m. CDT, a promotion that requires Chicago to open space on both its 26-man and 40-man rosters.
Montgomery arrives after a breakout stretch in the minors this season. Across 56 games and 258 plate appearances split between Double-A and Triple-A, he hit.314/.422/.548 with a 152 wRC+, 10 home runs, 13 doubles and three triples. He also stole five bases in 11 attempts, drew walks at a 15.1 percent clip and struck out 24.8 percent of the time.
Those numbers have followed a fast track. Baseball America ranked Montgomery 33rd on its top-100 prospect list, and he opened the 2026 season in Double-A before earning a promotion to Triple-A prior to this call-up.
Montgomery was the No. 12 overall pick in the 2024 draft, selected out of Texas A&M by the Red Sox. He later came to Chicago as the co-headliner — alongside catcher Kyle Teel — in the blockbuster trade that sent Garrett Crochet to Boston, making Montgomery one of the more closely watched pieces of that deal as he moved through the White Sox system.
The immediate consequence of the promotion is procedural and unavoidable: the White Sox must create room on both their active 26-man roster and the 40-man roster to formally add Montgomery. The club has not yet announced which corresponding moves it will make to open those slots, leaving the roster ramifications the single outstanding, actionable detail of this transaction.
The timing matters today because a call-up requires the team to complete roster work before Montgomery can be activated for a game. His jump from Double-A to Triple-A earlier in the season and the quality of his numbers — a.314 batting average with a.422 on-base rate and power — explain why the White Sox moved quickly, but the administrative side of roster construction still must be resolved.
For context, Montgomery’s ascension completes a clear promise from the Garrett Crochet trade: one of the trade’s top prospects is now in the big-league clubhouse. That fact frames his arrival as more than a routine promotion; it is a visible return from the deal that reshaped parts of Chicago’s roster and prospect map.
The most consequential unanswered question now is straightforward and immediate: which roster move will the White Sox make to create the two required spots? The club’s next announcement will determine not only Montgomery’s official activation day but also the short-term shape of Chicago’s bench and 40-man composition.
