GLENDALE, Ariz. — Contentment isn’t something that is part of White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery’s repertoire.

‘‘I’m still trying to prove myself,’’ Montgomery said Sunday, despite producing 21 home runs and 53 RBI after making his major-league debut on July 4 last season. ‘‘Trying to prove myself to the league and trying to prove myself of coming in every single day and being the best person and player I can be.’’

As much relief as Montgomery’s production brought to Sox executives who had waited patiently for him to develop after being selected in the first round of the 2021 draft, there are greater expectations as the team tries to advance from the rebuilding phase to the contending phase.

‘‘I feel really good he’s comfortable with that process of handling expectations,’’ Sox manager Will Venable said of Montgomery. ‘‘In our support of that, we are helping him focus — like all our players — on creating really good habits on a daily basis to sustain his performance throughout the year. Colson is no different in that regard. He’s built for that.’’

From a hitting standpoint, Montgomery’s offseason simulated his preparation during the regular season.

The 6-3 Montgomery, who appears lighter than his listed 230 pounds, reviewed videos of his swing and swing decisions with director of hitting Ryan Fuller and new hitting coach Derek Shomon. They didn’t overlook his 29.2% strikeout rate, his 69.6% contact rate or his 28.2% rate of chasing pitches outside the strike zone (courtesy of Statcast).

But that was only part of his offseason work. Montgomery batted .286 on breaking pitches but only .238 on fastballs last season.

‘‘They told me to just do more competitive machine work [with] high velocity,’’ Montgomery said. ‘‘I felt like I hit high velocity pretty good, but you can always improve in this game and keep getting better. That was one of the biggest things.

‘‘From my overall background, I’m a competitor, so they wanted me to do a lot more competition stuff. It just makes my intent a lot higher in the cage, other than if you are just doing normal flips in [batting practice].’’

The scrutiny on Montgomery’s offensive breakout (after a two-week reset with Fuller in Arizona) overshadowed his dependability at short. That quieted questions about whether his long-range future was at third base.

Venable relishes defensive versatility, but he expects Montgomery to play short at least 90% of the time.

Montgomery’s more direct path to fielding grounders was a pleasant improvement, especially to scouts who saw him take a slightly circular route to them in the Arizona Fall League in 2023-24, rather than fielding them directly in line with his right (throwing) shoulder and requiring less time to throw.

He was credited with seven defensive runs saved last season and attributed that to infield coach Justin Jirschele helping him with pregame preparation and with his internal clock on grounders.

‘‘Reading how hard the ball is hit to you and doing your scouting on the runner is one of the first things that ‘Jirsch’ tells us,’’ Montgomery said. ‘‘[If] there’s a guy that really gets out of the box well, you only have one or two shuffles, [then] you’ve got to get rid of the ball. That’s [why] I prioritize the inner clock. I feel like if I catch the ball and I get rid of it as soon as I can, it doesn’t matter how hard I throw the ball.’’