Yankees: 3 first-rounders NYY should’ve chosen over Trey Sweeney

1. Colson Montgomery, SS, Southridge HS

If it’s a shortstop you’re after who’s rising through the ranks, why not select the player who’s risen the most at a younger age? And who has largely the same positional concerns as Sweeney (should move to third) but with a better body and power projection?

Colson Montgomery ranked 25th on MLB’s big board and was slotted to go 10th to the Mets in FanGraphs’ morning-of final mock draft, which was presumably contingent on, I don’t know, literally Kumar Rocker not falling into their laps.

Regardless, any time you can get a riser like that at 20, you typically abandon your books and make some new phone calls. Instead, the Yankees stuck with their analytics and selected Sweeney, letting Montgomery drop to 22, where the Chicago White Sox took him.

You know, those very same White Sox that’d theoretically be competing with the Yankees in future ALCS battles if the New Yorkers ever got their sh-t together.

Like Marcelo Mayer, who went fourth overall to the Red Sox, Montgomery is said to have a Corey Seager-type body, and might not be a defensive wizard but can rake after switching spots. Whether he’s a true late-first-round talent or not, he was the one teams planned to reach for, not Sweeney.

Same pick, different body, younger age. We don’t get it.

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