Chris Getz has spent seven years as an incompetent head of player personnel and is pretty much meh in his trades and acquisitions as White Sox GM. But on the plus side, he has so far proven adept at convincing some talented personnel to join a team that had just set a losses record and an organization that surveys show most in the business really, really don’t want to be part of, largely because of the presence of a player- and fan-hating 89-year-old control freak at the top of the food chain. And if the now-longer front office personnel list is a proper indication, he has also somehow managed to drag the aforementioned player- and fan-hating 89-year-old control freak kicking and screaming (at least as much as age allows for kicking and screaming) into the 21st Century with the addition of actual modern research and analytics folks.

Among the many new folks is director of hitting Ryan Fuller — who, at 35, is even young by the usual early 40s makeup of the new guys: Getz himself is 41, Will Venable is 42, Ethan Katz (though not a new guy) is 42, offensive coordinator Grady Sizemore is 43, assistant GM Josh Barfield is 42, pitching advisor Brian Bannister earns the extras title of senior because he’s a graybeard of 44.

And, like many a successful coach, Fuller was never much of a player, only making it to Rookie League ball.

WHY PRAISE FOR RYAN FULLER?

Well, praise is earned for the sudden surge of Sox offense since the All-Star break, and it might as well go to Fuller as anyone. The surge has come from much of the lineup, including Luis Robert Jr. deciding to keep hitting even though his audition for actual competing teams came to nought. But the one new face and new torpedo of a bat is Colson Montgomery. who has an .869 OPS with eight homers since coming from Charlotte on Independence Day, all of the dingers coming in the last two weeks.

This is the same Colson Montgomery who was a first-round draft pick in 2021 but was so increasingly terrible toward the end of his 4 1/2 years in the White Sox organization there was legitimate question whether 2025 was his last chance before heading off to become a high school coach.

Then came a miracle recovery.

That recovery came after he could barely threaten the Mendoza Line in Charlotte and was sent to Arizona to work with — wait for it — Ryan Fuller. Out of that time came Babe Ruth, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, something not explainable by the fancy new bat, as Montgomery also has decided not to strike out as much.

Now, you always have to be patient in evaluating a rookie, especially on the hitting side, whether he’s batting extremely well or extremely poorly. If he’s smashing the ball, it may be the other teams just haven’t found his big weakness yet. If he’s struggling, it just may be he needs time to adjust to big league pitching. That said, what’s happening so far with Montgomery is terrific, and truly beyond our wildest dreams for him.

What did Fuller change? Well, the only thing the team has released is that he got Colson to shorten his swing — something no one else in the entire White Sox organization apparently managed to think of before, even though it’s something Little League coaches tell their players all the time.

Montgomery’s not the only Sox player to make useful adjustments recently, though what coach, if any, deserves credit hasn’t been identified. Miguel Vargas famously was taught to raise his hands in his stance so he’s not a constant victim of high heat. Robert looks like someone has convinced him that if he must swing at outside sliders from righties it would be a good idea to poke them through the hole to right instead of just flailing and taking a seat. Others in the lineup have also improved.

And then there’s Andrew Vaughn. Not that it does the Sox any good, or that whatever instruction got through to him came before he was traded to the Brewers, but Vaughn also looked a very likely 2026 high school coach until he was sent down to Charlotte. Not that he did well there (.679 OPS, which is pitiful for that league and park), but he was only there 15 games before being traded to Milwaukee and becoming a veritable superstar with a 1.107 OPS. Did input from Fuller brush off on him (sorry, had to get a Fuller Brush line in somewhere)? Who knows, but what the heck, let’s give him credit.

Verily, let’s give Ryan Fuller fulsome (Fullersome?) praise now. And maybe, with a lot of luck, we’ll still be doing that later.