On the rise: White Sox farm system developing some premium prospects

As the minor-league season begins winding down, it's a good time to take a look at what's happening on the farm for the White Sox.

At the start of the season, Baseball America's team rankings had the Sox buried at No. 30. Now that the draft is over and there is new young talent to gauge, the White Sox have moved up to No. 24.

Here's a look at their top prospects:

Colson Montgomery

With Tim Anderson and Leury Garcia on the injured list, the Sox searched for help in the minor leagues and Lenyn Sosa and Romy Gonzalez both got looks before the Elvis Andrus signing.

At this point next year, Montgomery might be ready for a call to the majors.

Only 20 years old, the White Sox's first-round draft pick in 2020 is having a terrific first full season in professional baseball.

"It's been excellent, it really has," said Chris Getz, the Sox's assistant GM/director of player development. "Whether it be spring training, the beginning of the year in Kannapolis, the way he's controlled his at-bats, both against lefties and righties, making good decisions at the plate, using the whole field, he's been hitting for power and he's been solid defensively."

Montgomery, a 6-foot-4 shortstop with a left-handed bat, opened the season with low Class A Kannapolis and was promoted to high A Winston-Salem in late June.

The Indiana native had an eye-opening run of reaching base safely in 50 straight games and he was hitting a combined .299/.412/.456 with 9 home runs and 39 RBI in 81 games.

Baseball America didn't have Montgomery in their Top 100 players rankings before the season, but he has shot up to No. 36.

Oscar Colas

Another left-handed bat with big potential, Colas has shown some serious power since being promoted from Winston-Salem to Class AA Birmingham in early July.

In his first 26 game with the Barons, the 23-year-old center fielder from Cuba hit 10 homers and was slashing .307/.391/.624.

"He's continuing to get better," Getz said. "He's putting together quality at-bats. He's hitting for power. He's playing good defense. There's still some things that we're working on with pitch recognition, but for the most part this is a player that has a chance to be a pretty productive major-league player. He's going to be an exciting piece of this organization moving forward."

Jose Rodriguez

After a slow start with Birmingham, the 21-year-old infielder has been on an offensive tear.

Since July 1, Rodriguez is hitting .304 with 9 home runs and 33 RBI over 39 games.

"He's been fantastic here recently," Getz said. "He has certainly made adjustments in his swing. He's calmed his base and he's gotten much more direct to the ball. He's got such fire in him. He loves to play. He's a fearless baseball player and we've been playing him at both shortstop and second base. But offensively he's really come alive and it's been nice to see."

Norge Vera

He's only thrown a combined 26 innings between Kannapolis and Winston-Salem, but Vera has shown why he's the White Sox's top pitching prospect.

In 9 starts, the 22-year-old righty has a 1.73 ERA and 37 strikeouts.

"Norge didn't have a lot of innings under his belt going into this season," Getz said. "He had a lat strain in spring training that slowed his progression, as well, and we wanted to be mindful of that buildup. Really, we're just trying to manage his innings, but also keep him moving forward."

Noah Schultz

The Sox's first-round draft pick this year out of Oswego East High School, Schultz is already rated as the organization's No. 9 prospect.

The 19-year-old starting pitcher is 6-foot-9 and left-handed, so there have already been obvious comparisons to Chris Sale and Randy Johnson.

The plan for Schultz is to pitch in the upcoming bridge and instructional leagues in Arizona.