If we go back eight years to January 2012, we’ll find a huge trade centering on two players who looked to be among the premier young building blocks in Major League Baseball at the time. The Mariners sent right-hander Michael Pineda and fellow righty Vicente Campos to the Yankees for catcher Jesus Montero and RHP Hector Noesi. As it turned out, though, the swap didn’t go according to plan for either side.
Pineda was the most proven major leaguer in the trade when it happened, and that hasn’t changed. Then 22 years old, he debuted in the majors in 2011 and fired 171 innings of 3.74 ERA/3.42 FIP ball with 9.11 K/9 and 2.89 BB/9 to serve as one of the majors’ top rookies. But that All-Star season wasn’t enough for the Mariners to keep Pineda. Instead, desperate for a big hitter to build around, they shipped Pineda to New York in an attempt to bolster their offense.
It was easy to dream on Montero when the trade occurred. He was a 22-year-old who was once grouped with the likes of Mike Trout and Bryce Harper and considered among the top-notch prospects in baseball. And Montero terrorized opposing pitchers during his first major league stint late in the 2011 season, hitting .328/.406/.590 with four home runs in 69 plate appearances (perhaps you remember the first two homers of his career). Expectations then mounted that Montero would hold his own in the majors, whether with the Yankees or someone else, but that didn’t happen.
Instead, as a member of the Mariners from 2012-15, Montero stumbled to an overall .247/.285/.383 line with 24 homers in 796 plate appearances. The big-bodied Montero was never an ideal fit for the catcher position, where he logged just 735 innings as a Mariner and accounted for minus-20 Defensive Runs Saved. Clearly not the savior they thought he’d be, the Mariners cut ties with Montero heading into the 2016 season. Montero has since spent time in the Blue Jays’ and Orioles’ system, not to mention stints in Mexico and Venezuela, but he has not appeared in the majors since his Seattle tenure concluded.
It’s still hard to believe Montero flamed out so quickly. After all, at the time of the trade, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman compared Montero to two of the greatest players of the past few decades, saying: “To me, Montero is Mike Piazza. He’s Miguel Cabrera.”
Not so much. New York didn’t lose out on another Piazza or Cabrera, and it did come out on the better side of the trade, but that’s not really saying a lot. Pineda missed what would have been his first season with the Yankees as a result of the April 2012 right labrum surgery he underwent. He also sat out the next season, but he did pitch to a solid 4.16 ERA/3.65 FIP with 9.09 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9 across 509 innings and 89 starts in pinstripes from 2014-17. Not bad at all, but Pineda underwent yet another surgery – Tommy John – in the last of those seasons and never took the hill for the Yankees again. His career’s still going, though, as he performed well enough for the Twins in 2019 to convince them to re-sign him to a two-year, $20MM guarantee last offeason.
Almost a decade after the fact, Pineda’s the lone quality big leaguer left from this trade. Noesi hasn’t amounted to much in the majors so far – he even spent time in Korea – and settled for a minors deal with the Pirates last December. But at least Noesi has actually pitched in MLB on a fairly consistent basis. The same can’t be said for Campos, a once-impressive prospect whom injuries have helped ruin. Now 27, Campos is a free agent who most recently pitched in the Mexican League last season. He totaled 5 2/3 frames as a Diamondback in 2016, but that’s the extent of his big league work.
On one hand, credit goes to the Yankees for getting more out of this trade than the Mariners. On the other, it’s fair to call it a disappointment for the two clubs, both of which thought they were getting at least one long-term cornerstone apiece. The Montero and Noesi tenures in Seattle didn’t work out at all. Pineda had his moments as a Yankee, but they were too few in number, and Campos didn’t come close to realizing his potential. In light of Pineda’s decent contributions as a Yankee, you can’t call this trade a complete disaster, but it certainly didn’t live up to the hype.
All that I can think of, when referring to Pineda, is when he got ejected for having pine tar on his neck. In the baseball world, once a cheater, always a cheater. Ahem Bonds Sosa etc
Meh, a lot of pitchers in the league use pine tar. Pineda was just stupid enough to get caught.
It’s fine to use it, but you don’t glob it on your neck for all to see after being warned not to use it.
All pitchers put it on their ballcaps…..what’s the difference???
He got caught
Kirby Puckett
Ahem you’re a dork
That’s a bad take. Considering it is widely known that a large percentage of pitchers use pine tar for a better grip and control. Especially in cold. Heck, hitters even encourage it so that pitchers aren’t wild.
i can hardly hate anyone for pine tar after Kikuchi got off scott free despite having a metric ton undet his hat. pine tar and a shortened suspension does not a real cheater make. there are much worse offenders out there.
I felt like that moment was the last time we really saw a successful Pineda. It seemed like that suspension derailed what was a very successful season and derailed his remaining career with the Yankees
All Seattle fans knew Michael had a bad shoulder. Seemed a good trade at the time, but nothing ever came from it.
I don’t remember him having shoulder issues, but I recall issues about his preparation and work ethic.. some of that I think was because he’s a big dude. Montero’s work ethic in the other hand was horrible and his attitude even worse, and then he was suspended for PEDs and it was over, he “tried” to play first, but really it was over the day he was traded to Seattle, he obviously didn’t want to be here.
In regards to “work ethic” for Pineda, he’s been overweight since returning with the Twins and got suspended yet again, really good performance, just not a very smart person.
Pineda faded down the stretch in his rookie season. Arm fatigue I believe was the rumor.
I honestly wonder what would’ve happened if Montero stayed a Yankee, or was at least traded to a different team. The Mariners during those years were a death sentence for hitting prospects. Highly touted offensive players like Montero, Smoak, Ackley, Zunino, Franklin, Taylor, Clement, Jackson all became noodle bats in that organization. Not to say Montero doesn’t deserve blame, he had a terrible work ethic going back to his Yankee AAA days.
Not saying Montero would’ve become Piazza or Miggy, but I think him being traded from the Yankees (where he would’ve had guys like A-Rod and Jeter to mentor him), his terrible work ethic and attitude, and being traded to the worst possible team for his skill killed his career before it could start. Dude could really hit, could’ve been a good DH.
You may several good points on how Montero had a better chance to succeed if he’d remained on a star studded Yankee team. But his career would also be sabotaged by a failed PED test while in the Seattle organization.
one has to wonder though if he would have ever used if he stayed in New York though for the aforementioned reason.
So, you say he didnt use as a yankee? Hmmm, interesting.
Melky Cabrera and Robinson Cano both used… so did A-Rod… The thing I wonder as if the trade never happened would Gary Sanchez still be a Yankee? They might have traded him in a package to get a pitcher if they thought Montero was going to be their everyday catcher
im not assuming anything as much as suggesting a possibility.
+28
If Montero stayed, I think Gary wouldve stayed a Yankee at least until the time where he is knocking on the door of the majors, and by that time Montero was already not the future. Wouldnt make sense to trade Gary even if they thought Montero was their catcher. You dont see the Yankees trading Anthony Seigler just because Gary is their everyday catcher
Always risky doing these deals. This one, fortunately or unfortunately, busted both ways.
Around the same time as this one, the Cubs flipped a young Andrew Cashner for Anthony Rizzo, who wet the bed when the Padres called him up.
As a Braves fan, I always felt Atlanta’s pitching-focused rebuild would eventually line up with a similar type deal with the Cubs’ hitter-heavy rebuild. Never happened.
The Braves really messed up not selling high on their pitching prospects. I get they were probably trying to catch fire again like they did with Smoltz/Glavine/Avery in the 90’s (Maddux was already established).
Luckily Soroka ended up becoming a stud, Max Fried could be a solid back end guy, and maybe you get lucky with Wright and Anderson. But they really dropped the ball not trading Allard, Gohara, Newcomb, and Toussaint when their values were at their highest.
The thought with the Braves was, “There is no way to tell which of these guys will actually be great (stay healthy), so we up our chances by keeping all of them.” There is no such thing as a pitching prospect, so the only way to build a homegrown rotation is to throw as many darts at the wall as you can and hope a few hit the bullseye.
Fried as a solid back end guy? Fried has the best stuff on that staff and will be in the Cy Young conversation within 2 yrs, book it.
DTD_ATL
Not saying he won’t achieve your dreams but he’ll have to show us something we haven’t seen yet to be THAT good.
Looking at it another way, if Max IS the 5, you’re going to be pretty happy with your rotation, I think
Let’s give him a credit. Without Montero, Felix let along Mariners wouldn’t have had the perfect game that day. What a save by him it was right!!!!????
The yankees actually overvalued a prospect? How unusual. Then again, every team thinks they have the next ______________ in some random prospect who never amounts to much.
It wasnt the Yankees who overvalued Montero – it was every scout in baseball. Including the Mariners organization, obviously.
After all, at the time of the trade, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman compared Montero to two of the greatest players of the past few decades, saying: “To me, Montero is Mike Piazza. He’s Miguel Cabrera.”
Seattle sent them Pineda for the next Miggy, they didn’t send them Felix., who may be the Miggy of pitching, brilliant then not so much.
Random fun fact of the day: It turns out the fake ball can only travel 300 feet when the temperature’s over 100 degrees. So if they play day games in Arizona there won’t be any home runs.
That touch of sarcasm is directed at the geniuses who think think COVID will die out when the weather gets warmer. My statement makes the same amount of sense as their “facts”.
Your statement leads us to believe you’re not creative or clever. Leave that job for Monty.
What does this have to do with anything in this article or comment section?
what and why does this apply here?
Tangent. Sorry. My bad.
Wow Don Lemon has an MLBTR account?!?
So crazy when you go back and look at the initial trade post “ easy to see Montero batting behind Dustin Ackley for years to come” …. yikes what a fall from grace
Great piece! I forgot all about Pinedas injuries following the trade. It took him two years to finally pitch for NY. What a bummer of a trade for both sides
Jesus may have turned water into wine, but I sure as heck wouldn’t trust him with ice cream.
Winner
I am convinced that Montero would have become an above average big leaguer if he wasn’t sent to Seattle of all places. He would have ended up being a DH but look at Nelson Cruz nobody seems to mind as long as he is hitting the snot out of the ball.
Montero was considered to big for a catcher at 6’3 and 235lb. But Matt Wieters has been decent to good behind the plate, especially back with the Orioles and he’s 6’5 at 235lb
The guy made mo vaughn look athletic. Montero was never going to make it. He was simply not an athlete.
John Kruk and ‘90s Tony Gwynn say hello
Both of those guys were faster than Montero
These kind of swaps make me wonder what kind of return the Rangers could’ve got for Jurickson Profar when he was a prime prospect. That goes for any team with a failed top prospect btw. Could we have gotten a star? How far along would our rebuild have gone? Weird to think about.
I remember there being a rumor about the Rangers swapping #1 prospect Profar to the Cardinals for #2 prospect Oscar Taveras. It made sense because the Cards needed a middle infielder and had a major surplus in the outfield and vice versa for the Rangers. I don’t know exactly how serious that rumor was, but it is one that stuck in my mind.
Montero and Pineda were also both eventually caught using PED’s.
the guy who had an ice cream sandwich delivered to Montero mid game was epic, though.
“Yankees general manager Brian Cashman compared Montero to two of the greatest players of the past few decades, saying: “To me, Montero is Mike Piazza. He’s Miguel Cabrera.” And yet he traded him for Pineda, a pretty good prospect at the time but you would expect much more if Montero had any chance of being a Piazza or Cabrera.
Yankees, Mariners and bust go hand in hand. The yanks can buy their way out of it in the short term, Mariners can’t. Reality.
1 name. Jay buhner His charisma and love for Seattle alone would take the cake of any M’s/yankees trade.