The Reds announced today that right-hander Frankie Montas has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a right forearm contusion, with fellow righty Casey Legumina recalled to take his place on the active roster.
Montas was struck by a comebacker off the bat of Taylor Ward in yesterday’s game, departing after recording just two outs. Amazingly, the bullpen covered 8 1/3 shutout innings and the Reds pulled off a 3-0 victory over the Angels. X-rays on Montas’s arm came back negative but he said yesterday that he would probably have to miss at least one start due to the soreness and swelling.
It seems the concern is still on the mild side, though the club will give him a couple of weeks to rest his arm. Per Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer, manager David Bell says the expectation is that Montas will just miss two starts, with Nick Martinez taking the ball on Thursday to fill the rotation spot.
The Reds signed Montas to a one-year, $16MM deal in the offseason, hoping for a bounceback campaign. He had struggled with shoulder problems in the second half of 2022 and then missed almost the entire 2023 season after undergoing surgery to address that shoulder.
But prior to those shoulder issues, he was quite good. In 2021, he tossed 187 innings for the A’s with a 3.37 earned run average. He struck out 26.6% of batters faced while walking just 7.3%, and he also got grounders on 42.8% of balls in play. The following year, he had a 3.18 ERA with similar peripherals before getting flipped to the Yankees. The shoulder problems had already popped up before that deal but got worse after it, leading to the surgery and lengthy absence.
The Reds have not yet seen the bounceback they were hoping for. Montas has a 4.19 ERA through his five starts but might be lucky to even be at that level. He has punched out just 16.7% of opponents thus far while giving out free passes at an 11.9% clip. Were it not for a .263 batting average on balls in play, he might have allowed even more runs, which is why his 5.33 FIP and 5.12 SIERA are about a run higher than his ERA.
We’re still talking about a small sample size of 19 1/3 innings but it’s also perhaps worth nothing that his stuff hasn’t come all the way back to pre-surgery levels. He averaged 96.4 miles per hour on his fastball in 2021 but is only at 94 mph so far this year, with his other pitches all down a few ticks as well. Perhaps Montas will find that missing velocity later in the year but he’ll now have to sit on the shelf for a few weeks.
In the meantime, the rotation will consist of Martinez, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Graham Ashcraft and Andrew Abbott. Martinez opened the season in the rotation and made two starts but got bumped to a long relief role when Lodolo came off the injured list. He spent his time with the Padres moving between starting and relieving, so this is something he has experience with and likely why the Reds signed him in the first place.
Martinez and Suter will have a long season covering innings they shouldn’t have had to.
Should have signed someone like Michael Wacha with that Candelario money but what do we know…
Their biggest issue right now is offense, not pitching. They should have signed Michael A Taylor or Adam Duvall instead of standing pat. Now they have no depth and instead have easy outs with Bubba Thompson and Santiago Espinal.
Outfield is mostly competitive. Getting next to nothing from 3rd, 1st, and 2nd base.
Brandon Belt would have been a good addition if Votto was simply not an option maybe? Duvall and Taylor would have been great additions, cheap additions too.
Or maybe just Marte not being stupid. I see the Reds as still being very competitive this season. Particularly if they get Friedl, Moll, Gibaut back sooner than later. Williamson, Marte, maybe Young back in June.
I was advocating for a Wacha signing before he landed in KC. Perhaps he didn’t want to pitch in GABP and preferred a more spacious ballpark. He signed for the same $16MM for
… 2024 that Montas signed for. Candelario signed for 3 years for $45MM and you can’t judge a 3 year signing after 1 month. The Reds would really be hurting infielder wise this year if they didn’t have Candelario.
… 2024 that Montas did. Candelario signed for three years $45MM. You can’t judge that signing after one month. And imagine the problems that the Reds would have this year in the infield if they hadn’t signed Candelario.
@earmbrister – completely agree about Candelario. And Santiago Espinal was a key late spring pickup. When McLain went down they needed at least one healthy player to cover SS behind De La Cruz.
$60 Million dollars wasted on Montas and Candelario.
+26 million for N. Martinez
I think you guys are being a little too quick on the trigger. Montas hasn’t looked that bad. Martinez had been great in long relief. Candelario has been pretty good defensively and has started to hit a little better. We’ll see how he pans out, but I think it’s too early to crap on the signings. I like the signings still. Candelario is easily the one to scrutinize though since it’s the most money and longest.
alot of baseball fans pull the trigger quickly haha.
Ranger Suarez is just amazing this year!
Did you plop in from a different post? I am straining to figure out how A relates to B in this circumstance. All the more superlative if it’s totally random.
Ranger pitched against Reds tonight. This post was about a Reds’ player son I figured several readers would have watched tonight’s game.
Sorry slow on the uptake with today’s games. Should have realized.
Maybe AJP knows what he’s doing 9 times out of 10. Pobody’s nerfect.
Talkung about money, they need to lock up Spencer Steer NOW. But they will try to give Elly a Votto like contract to put butts in seats and people will complain in his 30s it is too much for the franchise to handle and he isn’t the same player..
And so it goes.
better safe then sorry i guess, especially in the year of the pitching injury