The Mets have signed free agent right-hander Frankie Montas to a two-year, $34MM deal that comprises an opt-out clause for Montas following the 2025 season. Montas will earn $17MM in each the 2025 and 2026 seasons. The contract will change into official when the Boras Corporation consumer passes a bodily.
Montas returns to the Big Apple after an injury-plagued stint with the Yankees in the course of the 2022-23 seasons. The Yankees acquired Montas from the A’s on the 2022 commerce deadline when Montas was nonetheless making an attempt to work via some shoulder discomfort, and his ill-fated try and pitch via the ache led to a 6.35 ERA over 39 2/3 innings in the course of the the rest of the 2022 marketing campaign. Montas then required labrum surgical procedure the next February that price him virtually the entire 2023 season, as he returned to pitch 1 1/3 innings in a single recreation on the very finish of September.
The Reds guess that Montas would be capable of bounce again when wholesome, and final January signed the righty to a one-year deal that ended up being value $16MM — $14MM in assured wage, after which a $2MM buyout as soon as Montas declined his finish of a mutual possibility for the 2025 season. Perhaps exhibiting the after-effects of his lengthy layoff, Montas had a 4.84 ERA over 150 2/3 mixed innings with Cincinnati and Milwaukee final season, because the Reds despatched Montas to the Brewers final July in one other deadline commerce.
Apart from a minimal 15-day IL stint attributable to a forearm contusion, Montas was fairly wholesome in his comeback 12 months, and the 150 2/3 innings represents the second-highest workload of his 9 Major League seasons. As the 4.84 ERA would possibly indicate, nevertheless, Montas (who turns 32 in March) bumped into some struggles. His 22.6% strikeout price was barely beneath the league common, and he surrendered loads of walks and loads of onerous contact.
Montas’ 14.8% dwelling run price was the very best of his profession, and he truly allowed extra homers after leaving the hitter-friendly Great American Ballpark for the extra impartial American Family Field. His fastball velocity dropped from 96.1mph to 95.6mph, which isn’t dangerous for a pitcher getting back from a yearlong absence, however the bigger concern was Montas’ sinker was the one efficient pitch in his arsenal. It is value noting that Montas’ velocity and strikeout price did enhance after the commerce to the Brewers, so one other change of surroundings would possibly now extra absolutely get him again to his pre-surgery kind.
MLBTR ranked Montas twenty seventh on our listing of the offseason’s high 50 free brokers, and his $34MM assure considerably tops our prediction of a two-year, $22MM contract. The increased value may replicate the ever-rising value of pitching, and the Mets and different groups might need put a better premium on Montas’ capability to eat innings.
The Mets specifically had a obtrusive want for rotation assist, as Luis Severino, Sean Manaea, and Jose Quintana are all free brokers. Montas now fills a type of holes within the pitching workers, and he’ll be part of Kodai Senga, David Peterson, Tylor Megill, and (if wholesome) Paul Blackburn as the present beginning 5, although extra additions are absolutely nonetheless to return this winter.
Much of the excitement surrounding the Mets this offseason has naturally targeted on their courtship of Juan Soto, however New York has additionally been linked to such pitchers as Roki Sasaki and commerce candidate Garrett Crochet. There has been hypothesis that the Amazins may additionally pursue a number of the high names on the pitching market, although there hasn’t been any public information on that entrance so far.
It may very well be that the Mets are holding off on different big-ticket pursuits till Soto’s scenario is resolved, and Montas’ contract represents a reasonably less-expensive foray into the free agent market that helps tackle the membership’s chief want for pitching. For now, the Montas contract resembles the two-year, $28MM deal (additionally with an opt-out) that Manaea signed final winter, as president of baseball operations David Stearns has to this point caught to his technique of inking starters to shorter-term contracts. Montas is definitely hoping that he can comply with Manaea’s path of delivering a stronger full season, after which returning to free company subsequent 12 months to land a lengthier and pricier contract.
The $17MM common annual worth of Montas’ contract nonetheless leaves New York with loads of house earlier than it hits the $241MM luxurious tax threshold, as RosterResource initiatives the membership’s tax quantity at roughly $189.7MM. Obviously avoiding the tax hasn’t been a precedence within the Steve Cohen period and signing Soto to a report contract would alone put the Mets at or close to the brink earlier than some other strikes are made. Just in case Soto does signal elsewhere, nevertheless, a world exists the place the Mets may very well be aggressive this winter and nonetheless reset their tax scenario solely, which might permit the Mets to get pleasure from extra monetary flexibility (and a smaller total tax invoice) going ahead.
It is probably noteworthy that Boras represents each Soto and Montas, and it appears possible that Boras and Stearns have mentioned a number of of the agent’s many consumers throughout their conversations this offseason. Montas is already the third Boras-represented pitcher to signal a brand new contract this winter, after Blake Snell’s five-year, $182MM cope with the Dodgers and Yusei Kikuchi’s three-year, $63MM pact with the Angels.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan (X hyperlink) was the primary to report the signing and the contract phrases. Jon Heyman of the New York Post (by way of X) added the element concerning the opt-out clause, and the particular breakdown of Montas’ salaries over the 2 seasons.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
