November 17: Montero’s contract will see him earn $11.5MM in all three years, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle.
November 12: Rafael Montero and the Astros are in agreement on a three-year, $34.5MM deal, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Montero is the third elite reliever to fall off the board early, after the Padres re-signed Robert Suarez and the Mets held on to Edwin Diaz.
It’s a remarkable deal considering Montero has amassed just 0.1 bWAR over his career and had a 6.39 ERA just in 2021, but speaks to how good he’s looked since landing in Houston, and the early value teams are placing on high-end relief pitching.
Montero, 32, tossed 68 1/3 innings out of Houston’s pen this year in addition to six innings thrown late last year after coming over from Seattle, posting a 2.18 ERA in that time with a 26.8% strikeout rate and an 8.6% walk rate. He’d posted an ugly 7.27 ERA (albeit with decent peripherals) in Seattle last year, before the Astros acquired him as part of the Kendall Graveman deal. In Houston, he’s leaned more heavily on his fastball, and cut back on his sinker and slider usage. Hitters have found it incredibly difficult to square up his pitches, and he gave up just three home runs all year (and one more in the playoffs) and ranked in the 91st percentile for average exit velocity.
It’s certainly worth nothing that this isn’t the first time Montero has had a bit of success, only to crash not long after. The Rangers inked him to a minor league deal in 2019 after four unsuccessful years with the Mets that concluded with Tommy John surgery prior to the ’18 campaign. He turned into a valuable member of the Rangers bullpen that year, throwing 29 innings of 2.28 ERA ball. He regressed a bit in 2020, but the Rangers were still able to flip him to the Mariners for a couple of prospects – Andres Mesa and Jose Corniell – prior to the 2021 campaign, but things would unravel for him in Seattle.
While it’s easy to look at that 2019 season with the Rangers and draw similarities to his past season with the Astros in that it’s an isolated strong season amongst a wider portfolio of poor output, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest he’s turned a corner for good. For instance, in 2019 his peripherals were far less impressive than his actual output, and it was over a much smaller sample size (29 innings against 74 1/3 in Houston). Ultimately though, dishing out any sort of multi-year free agency deal to relievers comes with a large degree of risk, and given how tough relievers’ future performance is to predict, there’s no guarantees Montero performs like he did in 2022 over the life of this deal.
This deal locks up a key contributor from their World Series winning team, but it’s curious to see a major deal like this done one day after the team moved on from their general manager. Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle reported that assistant GM Andrew Ball and senior director of baseball strategy Bill Firkus are running the day-to-day operations for the Astros after the departure of James Click, although Rome adds that that doesn’t necessarily mean those two were responsible for the Montero deal.
Houston’s projected payroll now sits at $164MM per RosterResource, about $15MM shy of their 2022 mark. There’s every chance they bring back Justin Verlander, while they could seek additions at center field, catcher and first base, so there’s a strong possibility their payroll comfortably eclipses the $179MM mark from 2022.
Their bullpen was one of the strengths of their championship roster this past season, and with the likes of Ryan Pressly, Bryan Abreu, Ryne Stanek, Hector Neris and the now-returning Montero it’s shaping up to be one of the best in baseball again.
It also bodes well for other top relievers on the market. Montero’s $34.5MM deal follows on from Suarez’ five-year, $46MM contract with the Padres and Diaz’s record-breaking five-year, $102MM deal with the Mets. On the whole, relievers are being paid handsomely to kick off free agency this year, and the agents of pitchers like Taylor Rogers and Kenley Jansen will surely be pointing teams to these deals as price points when going into negotiations.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
This has to be the first offseason I have seen where the market is getting hot this early.
You can thank expanded playoffs, love them or hate them
Not to mention it’s the first offseason in a while not preceded by a shortened season, or faced with an impending lockout.
The expanded playoffs has nothing to do with teams spending early. In fact the expanded playoffs are reasons teams can spend less if more playoff spots are available lol. That’s why the playoffs bargained against expanded playoffs unless they got something big in return. Do you people not read how the sides negotiate during the cba good lord.
The players wanting something in return for a playoff format change is not an indication that the change would poorly affect them. It’s a no brainer negotiation tactic to get something in return always, no matter what, even if it is a positive for your side.
More teams are playoff bound and looking to refine around the edges, which is why we are seeing non closers get such big contracts so early.
I got 1 right!
Same
Ooh, good idea.
my 1st edit.
Where did you have him going? I had the Yankees.
Braves
Not too bad of a deal, hopefully he can keep up his progress.
Marinararivera — “Not too bad of a deal”???? Ya think. Holly cow, $34.5 for Montero !
A large multi-year deal to a reliever coming off his best season at the age of 31? Who, realistically, only has one other good season in the majors, which occurred three years ago? Not to mention a pretty significant injury history?
It’s tough to argue with the moves the Astros make, considering their successes over the last decade, but this seems like a pretty bad deal to me.
The year before he came to the Astros he had an ERA of over 7 that year. Plus a career ERA over 5. See what one great year gets a RP.
rct,
I’m not sure I like it either but Montero proved himself to be a second closer when Pressly was out. 14/16 in saves.
So now the best bullpen in ‘22 is locked and loaded for another crack at it in ‘23.
Is there a good reason to believe that he is still prone to injury or that he will regress under the tutelage of the Astros pitching coaches?
“Is there a good reason to believe that he is still prone to injury” – I mean…he is a pitcher.
Keep in mind the Astros know his ‘bad’ years came with a series of ridiculously run Mets teams.
“Keep in mind the Astros know his ‘bad’ years came with a series of ridiculously run Mets teams.”
They literally went to the World Series in one of the four years he spent with the Mets and made the playoffs in another season. If you’re going to troll, maybe don’t be an ignorant buffoon about it.
@rct Hey, crapsack, what are you—did I whiz in your cheerios at some point?
Wait, didn’t the Astros just fire the GM? Who signed Montero? Surprised they didn’t let him go for being a “Click” guy…. oh wait that must just be with front office personnel right? They better be rehiring Jeff Luhnow
Owner/GM Crane?
Montero signed himself, duh 😉
Just shows how overrated the GM position really is.
Not a bad point, hiflew. It is def more important to have a top notch scouting and developing dept. Look at Houston’s rotation other than JV, all homegrown players and they are the best in the league. But, if you are a good GM, and you put those people in place.
Assistant GM is the interim GM right now.
I thought the assistant GM was fired a day after Click. Powers? He just came over from the Dodgers.
There are more than one assistant GM in the Astros organization. Not sure how other teams do it.
Could ba the Astros and Montero had already agreed to the deal before the drama started and are just now announcing it.
Montero represents the only real acquisition of Click’s to contribute to the championship. The rest either didn’t pan out (Vazquez, Mancini, Smith, Odorizzi (whos was traded for Smith) or weren’t available (Michael Brantley). The rest of the roster was seemingly the culmination of Jeff Luhnow’s tenure with the team
Isn’t it more likely that the deal was negotiated when the GM was still around but it took a few days for medical tests and paperwork to be signed?
So now set up men get $10 million a year and closers $20 million a year? Exactly why baseball is outpricing the fans. Paying $50 plus for a second deck ticket and $100 for first deck. SMH no wonder losing clubs attendance is way down.
There’s not really a correlation between player salaries and ticket prices, and ticket prices are often controlled by an outside vendor.
@VonPurpleHayes There’s a close correlation if we compare salaries and ticket prices year to year. It’s the causation that takes something of a circuitous route.
Strong demand allowed higher ticket, parking, concession, and broadcast prices charged to fans. Players fought for a larger slice of a bigger and bigger pie. Player salaries rose as ticket prices (and other costs associated with watching games) rose, in an approximate but detectable relationship.
Fwiw, ticket prices are only controlled by an outside vendor because team owners let that happen. Vendors’ prices aren’t unmoored from prices at the stadium.
Attendance is never good for losing teams. It doesn’t matter what the cost is.
Back in the day Twins tickets were $5 for cheap seats. Next closest team was $12. They still drew 3,000 fans to the Metrodome.
Having just looked it up again. Field box seats at Yankee Stadium in 1977 cost the equivalent of $28 today. Most Americans are priced out of enjoying games like years ago. Fortunately, technology allows for a much better home experience. Same thing with watching movies.
Halos still sell $3 tickets.
Nothing like going out for a date night with your wife and seeing a flick on the big screen in an audience. Partly because of the big screen, and partly because it’s kind of a social event. Like other date events: going to a restaurant or a bar or a concert or a play.
Even an A’s game you’re still with three thousand folks
Most every Halo game I go to is pretty packed. It’s pretty cheap entertainment minus food costs(if you know how to buy tickets). Never seen it look even remotely empty there.
In a concrete bunker.
Baseball is doing this? Go to your neighborhood grocery store. A carton of eggs is $6 in texas bro.
First $6 for eggs in Texas when in California its $3. Its not about food prices but wages. Relief pitchers wages doubled in the last 2 years. Did your wages double in the last year? No. That is the problem in America everyone is OK with the rich getting extremely more rich but not themselves. Shouldn’t you be wanting the same for yourself double your wages?
Nobody turns on their television to watch me do my job. They do turn on their tv to watch baseball players do theirs. Life is not fair but is fun
Food prices are crazy for other reasons. Earlier this year I still found on sale a dozen eggs for 99 cents. If this is the new norm, sports including football will eventually feel the pinch.
Why wouldn’t they? People turn on their TVs to watch crab fishermen, storage auction buyers, police officers, truck drivers, bakers, bounty hunters, lumberjacks, and many other professions. Athletes are not alone in that venture anymore.
Maybe I’d watch. What kinda job do you do?
Lenida41 apparently makes 12,000 a month just from working at home. Maybe we should all try that? LOL
International jewel thief…but keep it quiet.
It’s not a matter of whether they deserve more. It’s a matter of whether their raises should be proportional to yours. Should your raise be 5% while theirs is 100%? I don’t know you, but I don’t think so.
We are catching up fast I promise. I’ve been paying $5 a dozen for weeks here in LA.
If you think inflation is bad now you haven’t seen anything remotely like what it would be if everyone’s wages doubled.
hiflew — So here’s my proposition: I’ll keep my mouth shut, but I’ll come with a cameraman and a soundman (I spent 18 years in national TV), and you’ll keep your mask on (safer these days anyway). We’ll shoot three or four of your “capers,” I’ll edit it and you and I can make a bundle on the documentary.
What’d you say?
Funny how when supermarkets brought in self checkouts they didn’t lower prices of stores without self checkouts. Why is that?
Because now instead of paying someone to ring you out, they have to pay for the expensive machine, the maintenance contracts, and the repair guys for when the electronics go haywire….lol.
Hiflew: you forgot the ever-popular amateur dating shows! Ormarriage shows, or whatever they are.
I would NEVER do that. That’s precisely why I ordered my bride right off the internet….right to specifications, good return policy…
called capitalism. It’s a good but flawed system. open a business you try and make money, if you are public, ya try and make it for shareholders. We still live better than communisst.
$2 a dozen in Flagstaff, AZ.
Skeptical, back to Bullhead City for me soon in that case. Used to get em for a buck at Dollar Tree.
Yeah 5 bucks for me in East LA at the moment.
Blaming the lettuce shortages on you folks in Cali
I only buy packaged shredded lettuce. I’m innocent.
try safeway they have free range eggs for $3.99 a dozen.
Trumbo — That “shredded lettuce” also comes from the ground. Save money: buy shredded ice. A much cooler deal.
I’ve seen some pretty nice Lettuce tree’s in my time.
Montreal they are complaining that a head of lettuce is 14 bucks in the grocery store. That’s like 11 usd
Edp007;
Gee…..
This must be the first time in history that Socialism (and printing fiat money) brings inflation. Just write your political reps – they’ll pass laws, prices will come down, suppliers will not sell at a loss so they’ll go out of business, and black markets flourish.
“Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.”
@samuel so explain if big corporations are hurting so much how come this year they will have all record profits and CEO bonuses will be the highest ever? Socialism has 0 effect on prices but politicians that get paid more by big corporations look the other way. Example city I live in gas prices are 50 cents higher a gallon than 10 miles down the road in one of the most expensive cities in America. So how come all 10 plus gas stations is charging so much more than rest of the areas? They pay less on property and get their gas from the same supplier. Sounds like a monopoly of price gauging.
Rule#4. Make the enemy live up to it’s own book of rules.
-Saul Alinksy (Rules for Radicals)
“Socialism has 0 effect on prices”…how do you figure?
Gee, must be the first time in history that capitalism has inflation. Learn economics along with history.
Go to minor league games or watch on tv
Of course. Why would I pay $100 plus to watch a baseball game. That is why baseball attendance is way down because they are out pricing the middle class that attend the games. Its no longer bring your family to a game.
Attendance is actually not down at all, and MLB had its best financial season ever.
Attendance was down about 1m people from 19 to 22. If tickets cost about $3 more in 22 then 19 the league still received more money.
Avg price to go to an mlb game in 22 was 36. Times that by 1m and you get a loss of 36m. Take $3 and times it by 67m and you get a net gain of about 170m. Baseball is doing just fine raising prices. Plus everything cost way more now then it did in 19.
Other sports are even worse. A college football ticket is more than a baseball ticket by far. Hockey tickets are the same as a baseball ticket or more. Basketball tickets are more than baseball tickets. And lastly, NFL tickets are easily triple the cost of a baseball ticket. Don’t act like baseball is over pricing their tickets when other sports are doing it way more. Are they too expensive, yes, but every single sport is doing it even more than baseball.
Middle class is watching games of tv instead of at the stadium – many might prefer at hhome. . Broadcasting is better and better. TVs are better and better. Audio is better. Middle class spends maybe $2 to $10 to watch a game on TV depending on how many games they watch and a MLBtv subscription. Middle class goes to 9-4 games a year. Overall the fan experience is still affordable.
81 home games compared to 8 home games is more because of supply and demand for football. Baseball was more of a family sport than the other sports but now its becoming older attendance crowd that can afford it. 23 of the 30 teams were down last year. A decrease of 6% and its not just baseball other sports are down also.
But is that fans or is it corporate guests who don’t really care about the game?
Response isn’t intended for anyone in particular, but all of you are arguing prices to go to a game and inflation yet here I am, in middle of Saskatchewan with no team within a couple hours and unable to attend the amount of games I’d like to. The closest thing we have is a summer collegiate league but that just does not cut it. Ah, to be near a team and have something to gripe about.
the guys who thought talking to a pitcher in between pitches, or letting commercials bleed in to the game after a pitch has been thrown, starting an inning with a man on 2nd, or letting replays go on for “hours” are the ones who don’t care. DH too, for the youngins
I’m glad the Astros are keeping him, but I had hoped for a 2 year deal.
I guess the 2/30M extension for Pressley now can be viewed as a discount.
Yes, the billionaire owners’ hands are tied. They want to sell you tickets as cheaply as possible with no margin like the secret socialists they are. That’s how they became rich in the first place.
That is a funny sarcastic comment Astro mule.
I still have openings in my community college economics classes in the spring.
MLB owners are welfare capitalists not socialists.
Much of the policy structure in sports that folks point to as Socialism is actually designed
to constrain labor costs and maximize profits.
Each team operates independently from the league (MLB does not own the means of production).
Teams are privately owned. Close competition is good for business. MLB is more of a blended economic system.
If you just account for cost of living increase Edwin Diaz should be making more than he signed for. When. Aroldis Chapman had his platform year back in 2017 the highest contract at the time, made 86M for 5 years. If you adjust for cost of living Diaz should be making about 104.5 for 5 years. and this is with Diaz coming off a better year than chapman.
Take it for what you will. Either way i still think its ridiculous money regardless. If you want to blame anyone for getting the market so high hit up the yankees back then.
supply and demand. Us fans keep demanding.
I don’t know how many times it needs to be said, but player salaries have almost nothing to do with ticket prices. Ticket prices are high because people will pay it. Period. If people weren’t willing to pay high prices, they’d be lower. Your beef is with fans who don’t see a problem spending that much on ticket prices.
Player salaries rise *in response to* high ticket prices (ie, increased revenue; TV deals and merch also increase revenue). Players see owners making money and ask for more.
Not sure if that is directed to me or not RCT, but i am not arguing with the reasoning of prices and overall salaries as Im more saying the contract is in line with the top of market closer and is probably light for what it is,
What is ridiculous to me just in general is someone making 20+ million and in reality plays a week and half worth of games (9 games – 81 innings) at the most. Yes spread out but still thats a ton of money. I dont fault him for getting his money because thats what the market made of it but damn.
To what degree are ticket prices being driven up not by fans but by corporate sales for casual guests who have no real interest in the game?
Do they buy normal-people seats? It’s not like every seat in every stadium is priced the same. If this was the case they could raise the prices in the areas those corporations tend to buy them.
I’ve never been to a game paid for by a company where I sat in some of the cheaper areas, they seem to get pretty good seats (or boxes) most of the time.
plays and concerts are not for the average Joe much anymore either lol
Wow. Relievers getting so much.
Yeah I’m actually surprised at over $11m a year over three years for Montero who basically has had two good years. There’s such a recency bias in basebal and some of these GMs continually buy into it and get burned by it.
I think we saw this a few years ago, where teams started throwing a lot of $ and years at relivers, then many of the deals blew up in the teams’ faces and we stopped seeing as many of them. I know things in baseball tend to be cyclical, but normally the cycle takes more than a few years to come back around.
True… and I feel like we’ve seen so much evidence over the years that most RP are very up and down anyway. Even the good ones can have some awful years.
I remember when Montero was a Met. As a fan, for Y E A R S I was waiting for him to blossom into the player the team thought they signed. Ugh. Painful.
Always had good stuff. Mets understandably tried to make him a starter, but he seemed better built for the pen. Took a big step up with the Astros coaching. People focus on the Astros and analytics, but it’s their coaching and player development that separates them.
Their analytics is part of their successful coaching and player development. They seem to do a pretty good job of figuring out the optimal usage for each pitcher’s pitches.
I still remember when he first came up, everyone thought he was a major prospect. They also brought up this other guy, deGrom who wasn’t supposed to be anything special. Obviously things turned out differently.
@bill I was so high on Montero, his stuff looked good. Then he debuted vs Yankees and not one hitter was fooled and I was like uh oh. And degrom debuted vs TB I think? And looked so impressive. He was a 9th round pick who kept exceeding expectations in minors. I’m hoping Hamel is the latest version of him (of that type of late bloomer prospect)
He did not have as much fanfare as Montero but I imagine it stings for Marlins fans to see what Felix Bautista has become in Baltimore. Genuinely some of the filthiest stuff I have ever seen in my 25+ years watching baseball.
Probably similar to how us Orioles fans have felt watching Hader for the last 5 or so years lol.
Or Orioles fans felt watching Arietta? It’s good to see the O’s are being less hands on with their starters, they had a lot of pitching talent do a whole lot of nothing there.
It pays to have a good pitching coach or two.
Nick Anderson not getting love. 4th RP
Nick is probably done. Braves took a flyer on him but chances are low he’ll be anywhere near his former form.
I know it was probably an oversight, just saying he’s a RP signed as a FA this offseason – albeit not at anywhere near the money others have gotten, but still could make as much of an impact. ATL has done more with less.
It’s a good roll of the dice but Anderson looks like toast.
Unless the velo ticks back up. I would’ve taken the gamble for essentially nothing like they did but it’s a shot in the dark. He hasn’t been effective since the sticky stuff was outlawed & his stuff is way down
If that number is correct it’s an overpay based on one good season. But not a huge overpay; I could see something like 3/27 as reasonable.
But remember, that one year was under the tutelage of two Strom-trained pitching coaches.
Click acquisition to keep paying benefits after he’s gone. Crane probably handled this one himself, unless there’s a trusted Lieutenant in the Astros org who has Crane’s ear. If so, we’ll find out soon enough.
I’m probably in the minority here, but I find the Astros more interesting now after Crane had inserted himself post the Luhnow years.
Pricey backend of the pen they’re building, but also a good one.
Crane is an different type of owner to be sure. But, as an Astros fan, I’ll take the results.
One of the best interviews I heard was a reporter from Houston who covers the Astros. He talked about the reason Click clashed with Crane. He used the Contreras deal as an example and said that Click had it ready to go but Dusty wanted Urquidy, so Dusty went straight to Crane, Crane pulled the rug out from Click and nixed the whole deal.
He described it as this: Crane is an old school baseball guy who has surrounded himself with likeminded people. Click is a new school analytics guy and Crane is not comfortable letting anyone, specifically analytics guys, run his team after the Lunhow deal. I’m sure this championship reinforced that he should be directly involved in every decision.
Honestly, it’s probably not a bad thing if Hal had some oversight on Cashman, especially if he’s not going to ever get rid of him…….
Crane owns a logistics company and so knows how to run an operational outfit. He believes in analytics but doesn’t listen to just one guy. Click wanted analytics to drive everything, but Crane trusted Dusty. Dusty wanted Pena to bat 2nd, Click didn’t. Dusty finally won. Stros went 55-9 with Pena batting 2nd. And why Dusty is back. Trust me, Crane will hire the right guy, one with analytics in background, but also one who really knows baseball ops. Luhnow was that guy, so he’ll look for someone like him. Click could have grown into that, but just didn’t seem to evolve past his Rays days.
Stroh: I knew nothing of Crane’s personality for baseball ops prior to that interview, but it’s no wonder the Astros are built to succeed. It’s *exactly* what’s missing from baseball today. I despise the new front office mantra of “Rays set the operational bar for baseball.”
It’s why Boston is failing with Bloom. It’s why the Yankees are failing with Cashman relying fully on analytics (and his arrogance). Honestly, I love to see this type of mindset succeed in baseball because it makes the sport so much better.
Dumb.
Sure. And the Diamondbacks are smart. And why they are perennial losers.
The retort of, “your team is bad”, isn’t a defense of a move.
stroh, this was definitely an over pay, both in years and AAV.
You can thank steve cohen for resetting the reliever market. I feel bad for small market teams that can’t develop pitching. They have no chance to compete in this era of baseball. Scouting and development is more important than ever.
Smart and calculated move by Crane. Got this deal done and made public before everyone else addresses RP help/signings. He sees the future and is just trying to keep one step ahead of everyone else. Plus, he just set the market here. Oh, and agents representing RPs with a similar career journey as Montero (sp?) are salivating.
Is it smart? I’m not sure he gets much better on the market. As good as he was, he really lacks much of a track record to make this kind of commitment to him.
I think his improved stats probably says more about the Astros pitching coaches than his ability, although that’s a large part of it too.
Ability + better coaching
Click:
“you wanna give Raffy 3 years @ over 30 mil? I’m out dawg”
Thank God Mike Elias and his team in Baltimore have shown an ability to find and develop pitchers from the scrap heap- Bautista (acquired by Duquette but refined into a beast by Team Elias), Perez, Baker, Voth, etc.
These free agent RP contracts are getting stupidly stupid.
Unreal!
One year does not a system make.
Maybe, but there was also Cole Sulser last year, who promptly fell apart after being traded away, and Jorge Lopez, who looked great the first time through the order last year as a SP (not so much after that) and excelled as a short reliever in 2022, before also falling back to Earth after being traded away.
Yep. Thinking the same. The orioles will be finding more relievers on the wire and fixing them with these crazy prices.
I could see us possibly converting one of these struggling FA starters to the pen too. In Elias we trust!
Not a lot left in quality free agent relievers. Don’t think any of the remaining pen guys will see this kind of money.
If you are a playoff team though having some good high leverage pen arms wins games.
No Teri getting this type of deal sure makes me feel better about the Mets paying Diaz 100M
Good for Montero. I always liked him when I saw him as a Met. He just couldn’t seem to put it all together.
I feel like this is an overpay, but I’ll hope for the best. The Astros can afford the deal and it lines up with the team’s window of contention.
That Díaz deal is bonkers.
A notably nice thing about Montero, Neris, Abreu and Stanek is that they have each proven that they could reliably close games if necessary…
Now resign JV for $38 or SHOCK THE WORLD and sign Judge for $43
I think it is a smart move to keep their lockdown bullpen intact. Kudos Mr. Crane!
Probably overpaid a bit to ensure he kept this kid who has always had really good stuff, and really put it together in ‘22. I do wonder if the rumors citing the Yankees as a likely suitor had anything to do with a relative overpay to get him locked up now.
Seems like a good move as he’s still relatively young for a relief pitcher at 32. The Astros keep this ‘22 team together there’s really not much else they need to do – perhaps add a bit more offense at the bottom (maybe Contreras? Or someone to replace McCormick?)
Trevino is so good defensively that I would probably just stick with him. His offense is also pretty decent by catcher standards.
Crushing my MLB Free Agent Predictions!!! 1 for 1. This is gonna be my year!
It’s a good move. He was pretty much lock-down in the 8th inning all year, added 12 saves ( in addition to Pressly’s 33 saves). When Pressly was out with a balky knee, Montero stepped in without missing a beat. Glad the bullpen is locked up. Once Crane locks up JV, then they need to go get a couple of bats ( either LF or DH, and at 1B).
Caaaalll meee by yooour naaaaaame
Huh??
Referring to the song by Lil Nas X titled Montero
Interesting music video…
Brett, haha You aren’t a fan of that video are you??
Not the most Jesus thing I’ve ever laid my teenage eyes on
Montero’s deal is too big for my taste.
He’s a relief pitcher with an up and down record, so did Houston really need to do this?
I don’t think so, since relievers, aside from elite closers, are nearly always viewed as unpredictable performers.
I’d have to pass on this one, and beside, why did Houston feel compelled to pay him that price?
This is how the free agent market started last year with the relievers getting paid first. Think of them as appetizers.
Montero was the only “impactful” FA I hoped the Marlins could actually have a shot signing, but 3-34,5 is waaaay too much for him (and for the Fish, obviously).
Thanks, but no thanks.
What’s their projected roster payroll for ‘23? Not as it sits now, but where do they aim to be for ‘23?
Several reports from different sources say the FO will not pursue any big FA and improvements must come via trades, that means, probably a similar number as they had this year ~80 million.
However, if some of the long arbitration list players are non-tendered or indeed traded, that should free a couple of millions to improve the bullpen.
I’m not in the mood for gospel music nor the Houston Astros.
Would the theme from The Jeffersons work?
Don’t get me started on that show. Basically we watched a self made man emotionally abuse his wife and housekeeper week after week.
How about “Simply the Best” or “We Are the Champions”?
Two good years in his career and he gets 11 mil the market is pricey between him and Suarez so far.
GM and Assistant GM are canned… then someone in the front office gives the 30 yr old reliever who pitched the best he’s ever done by far a serious pay raise… this team, I feel, could be headed towards a circus show. Montero was horrible for lots of teams but “figured it out” when he went to Houston. Fascinating how many guys “figure it out” when they go to an organization that was caught cheating. Makes one wonder.
Such an original take.
It’s not, but certainly a lot of truth to it.
You realize the Astros had a lot of assistant GMs, right? They were like VPs at banks. An assistant GM is currently the interim GM.
“Fascinating how many guys “figure it out” when they go to an organization that has Brent Strom or his students as a pitching coach.” There. I fixed it for you.
This reminds me of the Kikuchi deal by the Jays in so much as they have not had a good career and get $11+M a year on a multi year deal. At least Montero is coming off a good season where as Kikuchi only had 1 half of 1 good season (and it was the first half)…lets hope this goes better for the Astros.
I’m like 60% sure I picked the Astros for him. Is there a way to see where I predicted the players on the list?
You don’t have a backup? I thought that ended back in the ’90s.
Logjammer D”Baggagecling — Yes. MLBTR sent you an email after you submitted your picks. You can go back to that email, click the URL they include, and there you can see (or edit) your picks.
If I’m not mistaken, all final picks must be submitted by Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 11pm central time.
I never got the email.
A reasonable contract for a player who could be the closer on a lot of teams.
I was hoping he would have signed somewhere to close as I had picked him up in my dynasty league. Ah well.
Overpay, plain and simple. I don’t think the Mets really ever gave him a chance, kept trying to force him to be either a starter or a long reliever and its clear he wasn’t able to do that. Should of gave him a chance as a one inning reliever
He’s got a lot of nerve being good after the Mets get rid of him.
Way too much money.
I was shocked after seeing the top 50. Curious with that could Bell come here. How bout Brantley. Does Houston keep him or is there someone else. Brantley was not shown to be back. I did not see for some reason Montero going elsewhere. Myself as well really do not see Contreras here for catching. Guess will see if anything drops before year end. I figure Dusty wants everyone to stay. Dubon for center, Chas for Center. Diaz as well that is Aledmys. Curious on Pedro Leon if that his name. Where does he play and could he be up.
Wth is bWAR? How many strikeouts and saves did he have? I started reading the article and stopped when they started talking about bWAR.LOL.
I am curious he got as much as he did for as long as he signed for. The rest of the pen has enough firepower, and Montero is one flaw in his delivery away from being a 5.00-6.00 ERA pitcher. Houston better hope he doesn’t get lazy now that things just got comfortable for him.
I’m glad he’s finally healthy and in the role suited for him. He was the scheduled starter ahead of deGrom coming out of the Mets minors. He was supposed to be the starter and deGrom the guy outta the pen
11 mil a year for a guy who has been dfa’ed and has has such inconsistency. Crazy.
7 for 7 – woohoo! Let’s get a few more obvious ones reported before my list goes to crap!
He is a nice arm. But paid way too much. Could have had him at 6M/yr
and had a 6.39 ERA just in 2021,
==================================
That probably would’ve been the spot to write that his FIP was 3.86.