Braden Montgomery is done for the season, breaking his ankle during a play at the plate against Oregon in Saturday’s College Station Super Regional matchup. A tough break for Texas A&M for on-the-field purposes, losing one of their best players. But thankfully for Jim Schlossnagle, one of the team’s best guys will still be around.
Texas A&M has not been Montgomery’s home for too long. He transferred into the program this offseason after playing at Stanford for two seasons. The goal was always to play well enough against SEC competition before moving on to the MLB.
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“I’ve had a lot of questions about Braden since we’ve been here,” Schlossnagle began. “‘What’s the like?’ And the thing about Braden — In this era of college athletics, he’s probably not even going to be here for nine months. He showed up in August and our season, hopefully, is going to be over at the end of June, and he’s got the draft. So, he won’t even spend 12 months in College Station, I don’t think.”
But there was so much more to Montgomery’s time in College Station than playing baseball while upping his draft stock. Schlossnagle spoke about the player’s character and the impact he has had on teammates.
Sure, Montgomery could have had a nice platform while Texas A&M reaped the benefit of his excellent bat. Montgomery made sure to make the most of his few months inside the program, with Schlossnagle calling it “transformational.”
“The greatest thing about Braden is he’s doven into his teammates,” Schlossnagle said. “This hasn’t been a transactional relationship for him in terms of him, coming here, being a great player. Us, providing him an opportunity to showcase himself in the SEC and then moving on. It’s been transformational for everyone involved.”
Now sidelined with the injury, there is nothing else Montgomery can do on the field. Schlossnagle ruled him out earlier in the same press conference before knowing what the exact injury was. A tough way to end his playing days for the Aggies.
Where Montgomery can help, though, is in the dugout as Texas A&M needs just one more win to make the College World Series. Continuing to be a great teammate for at least one more game at Blue Bell Park and hopefully in Omaha is Schlossnagle’s challenge.
“I told the team after the game that Braden’s challenge is to be the greatest teammate to everybody else that everybody has been to him,” Schlossnagle said. “Braden has been that. Now, he’s got to turn it up to another level and our job is to get back to Omaha.”
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