Despite mutual interest between Miguel Montero and the Diamondbacks for a long-term extension, talks between the two sides have come to a standstill, reports Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. While neither Montero nor GM Kevin Towers suggested what sort of terms were being discussed, Piecoro says talks are at an impasse because Montero is seeking more guaranteed years than the D'Backs are comfortable offering.
Montero told Piecoro in September that he enjoys playing for the D'Backs and he'd be willing to discuss an extension with Arizona if the team was interested. Shortly before Montero expressed a desire to stay in Arizona long-term, MLBTR's Mark Polishuk examined what sort of contract the catcher might be looking at if he agreed to a three-year extension.
The 28-year-old is coming off his first All-Star season, having hit .282/.351/.469 with 18 homers in a career-high 553 plate appearances. Montero is entering his final year of arbitration eligibility, with MLBTR projecting a raise to about $5.3MM for 2012. Piecoro writes that there's no rush to work out a deal quite yet, with the arbitration process a couple months off, but that the two sides will likely want finality before the start of the season.
Easily one of the most underrated Catchers in baseball. Definitely deserves at least a three or four year deal.
Yeah he is.. He put up the best offensive numbers overall in the NL (catcher wise) and He also threw out a major-league best 40 percent of would-be basestealers.
He’s not better than McCann (basically no one is).
His overall numbers were offensively, and defensively this year. But McCann did go on the DL towards the end of the year, so his numbers would’ve been better.
But yeah, I agree McCann is better.. but not by as much as people may think.
I was actually surprised at how close their numbers are thru ’09-’11….I have always liked Montero but thought that McCann was a lot better….
That’s what happens when one player is on a winning team playoff team, and the other player was on a team that painted the basement Sedona Red the past two seasons before last.
I really hope we can lock him up, he is a highly underrated catcher in this league and is a huge part of this team. I think a 4yr./40mil. type of deal would be fair for both sides, with how thin the catching position is now a days.
He’s all ready busted his meniscus once, not to say that he’s injury prone but you never really want to put that many guaranteed years and dollars behind a catcher, see Joe Mauer. I’d go with a 2 year $13 million and tack on two year deals from there based on how well he does.
I’d have no problem seeing him locked down for at least 3/4 years at good money; he’s earned it!
Catchers can be fickle, but Montero proved himself to be one of the top 3 catchers in the league (McCann and Yadier) and should be worth the money.