The Rockies announced that infielder Elehuris Montero has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Albuquerque. He’ll stay in the organization as depth but without taking up a spot on the 40-man roster.
Montero, now 25, came over to the Rockies in the ill-fated 2021 trade that sent Nolan Arenado to the Cardinals. Montero had always hit well in the Cards’ system and the Rockies were surely hoping he would continue to do so after bringing him to their organization.
Since the deal, he has continued hitting minor league pitching but struggled badly in the majors. From 2021 to 2023, he slashed .302/.379/.565 in 960 plate appearances down on the farm. But in his 492 big league plate appearances in that same time frame, he produced a line of .239/.283/.428, leading to a wRC+ of just 77. He struck out in 34.8% of his plate appearances while walking just 4.7% of the time.
He exhausted his three option years in that stretch, leaving him out of options here in 2024. He cut his strikeout rate to 22.7% but didn’t do much damage when putting the ball in play, leading to a line of .205/.267/.304 and a 48 wRC+. Montero isn’t considered a strong defender at either corner infield spot, so the lack of offense became untenable and the Rockies designated him for assignment a few days ago. Any of the 29 other clubs could have taken a shot on him by grabbing him off waivers but they all passed.
Since this is his first outright and he has less than three years of service time, Montero doesn’t have the right to reject this assignment. He’ll report to Albuquerque and look to get back in good form. If he doesn’t get added back to the roster by season’s end, he’ll qualify for minor league free agency.
I said this before in a previous post about him, but:
Great bat speed, bad approach to the plate.
Hope he can at least work on cutting down on those strikeouts, get more contact with his fast bat down in the minors.
Decent backup to stash in AAA in the event of an injury or two. Especially during the 50-75% of every season when Kris Bryant is hurt.
The Arenado trade was really not all that bad for the Rockies. The extension they gave him was dumb but the trade was probably for the best.
Montero can’t play defense even if he could hit. I doubt he gets another shot.
The Arenado trade was an unmistakable disaster. Austin Gomber and a 5.12 ERA, a AAAA hitter with no position and three players who never made it to AAA for your club. For a future Hall of Famer. Because your GM couldn’t get along with him. Embarrassing.
Since the trade Arenado has had 1 great season, 2 ok seasons and is currently in the middle of his worst full season in the bigs. And there are 2 years left on the deal although 1 was added after the trade.
I am a Cardinals fan. Arenado looks washed up he really does.
The trade was horrible for COL. They paid quite a bit of his salary. And he had a great season and two pretty good seasons. Because he’s had a down 4th season does not take away from how good he was the first 3 seasons, 2 of which he won Gold Gloves.
Two more at his current salary plus the one added at something like 25 mil for a grand total of three more seasons.
The Rockies felt the short term pain. The Cardinals are going to feel it for a while. I’m at a loss as to what happened. He got old overnight.
The Cardinals should be actively shopping him no matter where they are in the standings. And they should get creative about it. I would give Helsley to any team willing to take Arenado.
It’s a tricky situation as it stands right now. I don’t think we will trade him perhaps if we were playing worse but playoffs are looking realistic. And who the heck is gonna want him anyways? If we were playing worse I would be OK with a deal involving Helsley and Arenado but we are gonna be buyers at this point. Keep thinking Luis Robert would be nice. Chisholm maybe but he’s not the right personality for St Louis.
Ok. I know I am the notoriously negative guy, but…….
1) We have a -37 run differential.
2) We have gotten great results from our 3 free agent starting pitchers, but they are still OLD. Can we realistically expect them to continue for the whole season?
3) The back of the bullpen has been way better than anyone expected. Even if you believe they have the talent to keep it up (and I think they might), workload is going to become an issue. Ollie has rode these guys hard to get us over .500.
Basically what I’m saying is, even though we are all thrilled to be above .500 and in contention for a wildcard spot. We need to be realistic about our chances of success this year. And we need to keep an eye on the long term.
It would be worth losing Helsley and potentially missing out on a playoff spot this season to get out from underneath the $100 or so million left on Arenado’s contract.
On a separate note, I wouldn’t be interested in Jazz or Robert. They both have serious injury histories. Jazz isn’t really a CFer and Robert has too much swing and miss in his game. If he stops hitting HR’s, he’s a pretty limited player. I think Carlson should be playing CF everyday with Siani giving him a break against a tough RH starter.
The team has a shot. It’s not a great team but it has a shot. Robert would be a game changer I can live with some swing and miss. I dont think anyone is going to take Arenados contract not to mention he’s got a NTC so he would have to agree on it. Dodgers I imagine but I don’t think they want to pay him. The team isn’t built for the long term it’s built to win now even if it isn’t all that good. We gotta go for it.
As far as who would want him? I’m thinking maybe the Mets? We could take Jeff McNeill back in the deal to help even out the money. They might even want Brandon Crawford as a throw in. The deal could also include Jose Quintana.
It might involve several players, but I think there is a deal that could leave both teams stronger.