Let's cut to the chase in regard to White Sox prospect Colson Montgomery: He feels 2025 is his time to grab hold of the starting shortstop job right from the jump and then never let it go.

"Yes," he said Wednesday, "I do envision myself doing that."

A miserable Sox season -- you haven't forgotten about those 121 losses, have you? -- might have been a tad brighter with one of the cornerstones of this rebuild at the big-league level. But Montgomery, who was the Sox' first-round pick in 2021, had a rough go of it at Triple-A Charlotte in 2024, hitting .214 and striking out 164 times in 130 games. A call-up never happened, not even in September, by which time Montgomery's bat had come around.

For the Sox, it was yet another thing that went wrong.

"It kind of drives me crazy," Montgomery said. "It's fueling the fire in my offseason work. ... I have to get back to where I was and get back to being the guy everybody knows that I am."

After the season, Montgomery had an abbreviated stint in the Arizona Fall League and crushed it at the plate, flashing his power among all the tools wrapped in a 6-3, 225-pound -- and growing -- frame that still gets the imagination going. This is a big, strong, talented dude.

And don't read much into the fact Montgomery played third base in the Fall League, he advises.

"That does not mean anything," he said. "I was playing third [because] anything to help the team win and get in the lineup. But I'm a shortstop -- and that's it."

Montgomery connected this week with new Sox manager Will Venables, perhaps the start of a long, fruitful relationship. Neither man went through the hell of a 121-loss season, but Montgomery suffered along with Sox fans. He called it "heartbreaking."

"We got punched in the mouth," he said. "What are we going to do about it next? I feel like that kind of gives us a little added motivation to turn things around."

NOTE: The Sox signed outfielder Austin Slater to a one-year, $1.75 million contract and added him to the 40-man roster. Slater, 31, played for the Giants, Reds and Orioles in 2024, batting .209 with two home runs and 18 RBI over 84 games. A right-handed hitter, he has 40 homers, 171 RBI, 210 runs scored and 48 stolen bases in 634 games in the majors.