Let's hope that those in charge have the best ability to determine when Braden is ready for the promotion. That said, if he's ready, it's fun to think about the following potential line up, after the All Star break:

LF Antonacci

!B Murakami

3B Vargas

SS C. Montgomery

C Teel

RF B. Montgomery

2B Gonzales

DH Pereira / Benintendi

CF Peters

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Lillian

12 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Smart money is on July

I wonder if the Sox will deal Pereira before the deadline for more pitching if hes still playing relatively well when he comes back since Braden will be the starter in RF.

15 minutes ago, Lillian said:

Let's hope that those in charge have the best ability to determine when Braden is ready for the promotion. That said, if he's ready, it's fun to think about the following potential line up, after the All Star break:

LF Antonacci

!B Murakami

3B Vargas

SS C. Montgomery

C Teel

RF B. Montgomery

2B Gonzales

DH Pereira / Benintendi

CF Peters

Welcome back, Lillian!

I'm sure you must be excited at all the left handed savages in our lineup!

I dont think they will take Meidroth off of 2B (he's on pace for somewhere around a 2.5fWAR season). Gonzalez might get some time there maybe 1-2 times a week but IMO he prolly should be DH instead of Beni.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by SoCalChiSox

3 minutes ago, SoCalChiSox said:

Welcome back, Lillian!

I'm sure you must be excited at all the left handed savages in our lineup!

Yes, it's gratifying to see that the front office recognizes the importance of line up balance and the value of left handed hitters. It's not rocket science. Most hitters hit pitches from the opposite side better than from the same side. As we know, that's because the breaking balls are typically of the "back door" variety, when coming from the opposite side of the plate. That allows a hitter to keep his front shoulder closed, and avoid bailing on breaking balls. Combined with the fact that there are far more RH pitchers, than southpaws, it's obvious why left handed hitters are so coveted. This current Sox roster has a nice mix of both right handed and left handed hitters.

Braden will further enhance that balance, if he can be effective when batting right handed. So far, his splits don't suggest that to be the case. That might be the most important reason to keep him in AAA.

5 minutes ago, Lillian said:

Yes, it's gratifying to see that the front office recognizes the importance of line up balance and the value of left handed hitters. It's not rocket science. Most hitters hit pitches from the opposite side better than from the same side. As we know, that's because the breaking balls are typically of the "back door" variety, when coming from the opposite side of the plate. That allows a hitter to keep his front shoulder closed, and avoid bailing on breaking balls. Combined with the fact that there are far more RH pitchers, than southpaws, it's obvious why left handed hitters are so coveted. This current Sox roster has a nice mix of both right handed and left handed hitters.

Braden will further enhance that balance, if he can be effective when batting right handed. So far, his splits don't suggest that to be the case. That might be the most important reason to keep him in AAA.

I think last year he was significantly better vs LHP than RHP and this year it is the exact opposite.

I agree with you he will be a real weapon if he can get to a point where he is consistently good against both. With his power, I would expect him to be probably batting 5th long term right behind Colson.

During his draft year, Braden was so much better from the left side that some people thought he should give up switch hitting. Last year he was very good as a righty. Sample size is so small from that side in AAA that it’s hard to really pass judgment yet, I think.

On 6/5/2026 at 4:41 AM, Chicago White Sox said:

No, he’s going to need a lengthy minor league rehab assignment unfortunately. Hopefully that starts as soon as next week and he can be back before the end of the month.

What would you call lengthy ? I'm thinking once he starts playing ( he hit an oppo HR yesterday) it could be a week before he's back . The biggest hurdle was him not being ready to start the rehab assignment but that 's been cleared. Maybe he'll be ready for the road trip starting the 16th but I wouldn't rule out sometime during the upcoming home stand.

Him and Hays both seem to get injured a lot and Pereira is out of options. The only reason to play Hays is to trade him if he can establish any ability to stay healthy and produce simultaneously. Might not be room for either of them with Grichuk and the switch hitting ability of Montgomery. The Sox could want to check out Hays and Pereira before they fully commit to Braden for the rest of the season.

Lamonte Wade, Jr. who was hitting pretty well at AAA but was either released or had a June 1 option to chose Free Agency. He's with the Astro's now and had a pretty good game with a double and HR.

AN All-Rookie OF of Antonacci, Peters and Braden Montgomery would be wild and fans would love it even if it's not as powerful as we'd like.

On 6/5/2026 at 4:37 AM, Chicago White Sox said:

The latter is very true. A 59% groundball rate is a problem that needs to be addressed before he gets the call IMO. We don’t need to call up a rookie who has to make adjustments to get the ball into the air more all while adapting to major league pitching. Don’t see how that’s going to help us anytime soon.

Yeah I think it was Law that recently said that if Braden can just learn to elevate the ball more he should be like a 25 to 30 HR guy or something to that effect (paraphrasing)