{"id":90924,"date":"2024-12-01T23:54:57","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T04:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=90924"},"modified":"2024-12-01T23:54:57","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T04:54:57","slug":"mets-sign-frankie-montas-amid-rotation-voids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/12\/01\/mets-sign-frankie-montas-amid-rotation-voids\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Mets Sign High Upside Starter Amid Rotation Voids"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, the New York Mets will sign free agent pitcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/montafr02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-12-01_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Frankie Montas<\/a> to a two-year, $34 million contract. <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JonHeyman\/status\/1863431763021664650\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jon Heyman of the New York Post<\/a> reports that the deal, which is pending a physical, pays $17 million each year and contains an opt-out after year one.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Right-hander Frankie Montas and the New York Mets are in agreement on a two-year, $34 million contract, pending physical, sources tell ESPN. Montas, 31, threw 150.2 innings with a 4.84 ERA with Cincinnati and Milwaukee last year. He\u2019s the first piece in the Mets\u2019 new rotation.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JeffPassan\/status\/1863431691886338073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Montas is now the third pitcher represented by Scott Boras to sign a significant free-agent contract this offseason after a disastrously slow winter last year.<\/p>\n<h2>Report: Mets Sign Frankie Montas to Two-Year Deal<\/h2>\n<p>Montas, who will be 32 on Opening Day, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/12\/30\/frankie-montas-goes-to-reds\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">signed a similarly structured contract<\/a> last offseason with the Cincinnati Reds. Unfortunately, he struggled with the Reds and posted a 5.01 ERA (89 ERA+) in 93 1\/3 innings across 19 starts.<\/p>\n<p>That said, his performance improved following a trade deadline deal to the Milwaukee Brewers. In 11 starts, Montas posted a 4.55 ERA (92 ERA+) in 57 1\/3 innings. Though the numbers don&#8217;t immediately look that different, Montas was much more effective in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n<p>The Brewers helped alter Montas&#8217; pitch mix, which partly resulted in an increase in his strikeout rate following the trade (28.7% from 19%). Montas likely also benefitted from leaving Cincinnati&#8217;s hitter-friendly ballpark and from playing in front of an elite Brewers defense.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Frankie Montas in 2024:<\/p>\n<p>7-11<br \/>\n150.2 IP<br \/>\n148 K<br \/>\n4.84 ERA<\/p>\n<p>What you are looking at right here is a prototypical David Stearns move, taking a chance on a guy with high upside coming off of a down year. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mJNPntIYSc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/mJNPntIYSc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MetsMuse (@MetsMuse) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MetsMuse\/status\/1863433111901552860?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Perhaps more importantly than his production, Montas stayed healthy last season. The right-hander <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/02\/16\/frankie-montas-sidelined\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">missed most of 2023<\/a> due to labrum surgery, an injury that began bothering him in 2022. The injury limited him to only 41 total innings in his one-and-a-half years with the Yankees before becoming a free agent.<\/p>\n<p>So, following a solid season that featured full health, Montas declined a $20 million mutual option for 2025 and chose a $2 million buyout. That now looks like the right choice, as Montas will sign with the Mets and secure a $34 million guarantee. Plus, if he pitches well, he can opt out again and look for an even bigger deal next winter.<\/p>\n<p>For now, the Mets will look for Montas to fill a rotation void left by free agents <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/severlu01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-12-01_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luis Severino<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/manaese01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-12-01_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sean Manaea<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/q\/quintjo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-12-01_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jose Quintana<\/a>. If all goes well, Montas will experience a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/13\/sean-manaea-free-agent-profile\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Manaea-like renaissance<\/a> in Queens next year and lead them to a deep postseason run.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Benny Sieu-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, the New York Mets will sign free agent pitcher Frankie Montas to a two-year, $34 million contract. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that the deal, which is pending a physical, pays $17 million each year and contains an opt-out after year one. Right-hander Frankie Montas and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4683,"featured_media":90928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,1071,35],"tags":[124,4494,379,988,507,3075],"class_list":["post-90924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mets","category-mlb","category-news","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-frankie-montas","tag-jose-quintana","tag-luis-severino","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-sean-manaea"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4683"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}