April 9: Houston is covering $7.7MM of Montero’s remaining salary, Charles Odum of the Associated Press reports. That’s on top of the $804K they’ve already paid him this year. In total, the Astros are paying about $8.5MM of Montero’s $11.5MM salary, leaving Atlanta on the hook for just a hair under $3MM. Montero joined the team today, per a club announcement, with Thompson optioned to open an active roster spot.
April 8: The Astros announced a trade sending reliever Rafael Montero and an undisclosed amount of cash to the Braves for a player to be named later. Houston recalled lefty reliever Bennett Sousa to take the vacated bullpen spot. Atlanta has not announced any corresponding moves. They had an opening on their 40-man roster after waiving Chadwick Tromp and do not need to make an active roster transaction until Montero reports to the team.
Montero, 34, is in the final season of a three-year free agent deal. He’s playing on an $11.5MM salary. The Astros are surely paying down the majority of that contract, though specifics on the cash have not been reported. Owner Jim Crane struck early in the 2022-23 offseason to re-sign Montero on a $34.5MM investment. That was in between the dismissal of former general manager James Click and the hiring of current GM Dana Brown. It did not work out.
The veteran right-hander was rocked for a 5.08 earned run average over 67 1/3 innings in the first season. He posted a 4.70 ERA while walking nearly as many hitters as he struck out last year. The Astros designated him for assignment around the trade deadline. That seemed like it would officially end his tenure in the organization. Montero had more than enough service time to elect free agency while collecting the rest of his contract.
Montero instead accepted an assignment to Triple-A after clearing waivers. He tossed 16 1/3 frames of four-run ball there to finish the season. Houston didn’t call him up last season but brought him back to Spring Training as a non-roster invitee. Montero allowed six runs (five earned) with 10 strikeouts and seven walks across 8 2/3 innings to earn his way back onto the MLB roster. He has made three regular season appearances, working four frames of two-run ball with five punchouts.
The 11-year big league veteran sits in the 95-96 MPH range with his four-seam fastball. He tweaked his pitch mix this year, according to Statcast. Montero added a mid-80s splitter while scrapping his low-90s changeup. That’s now his top offspeed pitch against lefty hitters. It’s too early to glean much from the results, but opponents have whiffed on five of 12 swings against it.
Atlanta evaluators were intrigued enough by Montero’s form to plug him into the middle innings. Daysbel Hernández and long man Zach Thompson each have options remaining. Lefty José Suarez is out of options but has a pedestrian 5:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio through his first four appearances. Montero figures to displace someone from that group — most likely Thompson — once he joins the team.
It’s purely a salary dump for Houston. They were never going to be able to shed the majority of Montero’s contract. Getting out from under even a small portion of the deal should give them more flexibility for deadline acquisitions. They’re within a few million dollars of the $241MM luxury tax threshold, which they seem disinclined to surpass. Whatever portion of Montero’s salary that the Braves assume will come off the Astros’ tax bill.
Image courtesy of Erik Williams, Imagn Images.
Interesting move for the Braves…
David Robertson is home laughing knowing they could’ve paid him instead of making this trade
Except Robertson is still asking for $10m.
is this david robertson?
They may make Montero a SP again.
question is .. how much cash
Probably $5 or less of his total salary owed
Mmm probably most of his salary
Yeah Astros will just be happy to save a few mill
It’s got to be at least $10MM.
about tree fiddy
Wonder who the Astros get.
Some of his salary off the books lol. Probably a low level prospect, he doesn’t have much value.
Braves next week we plan to use him as a starter.
More dumpster diving by aa. Bullpen is 🗑️
Braves gotta be desperate. This dude has never been good.
Sure he was. Still might be.
You really should check the facts before making such silly comments.
Never is too strong. He was good in 2019 and 2022, but the rest of his career has been more promise than good.
He’s a former Met, of course.
This contract is a reminder that you shouldn’t give relievers big contracts based on one good year. Before 2022: 5.18 ERA. In 2022: 2.37 ERA. After 2022: 4.92 ERA.
Also a reminder why owners should pay someone to do the job and not think they it’s that easy. Is Jerry Jones listening? I’m sure Dana Brown did his darndest to keep Montero around as a reminder to his boss why he’s there.
This latest, and steepest, slide by the Astros is courtesy of Jim Crane’s ego. Crane basically threw GM Click away. He then signed Jose Abreu and Montero without the input of a GM. $30 million a year for 3 years dead legged by the owner. No one can tell him no.
Firing Click was costly based on the Montero contract alone.
Not to mention the durability issues and the impressive luck keeping the ball in the yard in 2022.
His FIP was a solid high 3’s from 2019-2021, but that’s what you want from a guy at the butt end of the pen who misses time and makes 1/1.75m. His blatantly lucky 2022 hints at an underlying, MODEST improvement, so maybe 1/4m with a vest if he can stay on the mound for 55 innings.
3/30 for that guy? That’s Christmas.
Must be extra rough for Tromp, losing his job to an immigrant.
He’s an immigrant too sooooo…..
TDS?
He’s one of my favorite live series cards in mlb the show. Hopefully he will perform like he did for me. 1.17 ERA. 69 games. 32 saves. He’s a baller
Umm playing conquest on rookie lol j/k
It’s in franchise and a 2.01 Era in diamond dynasty ranked
@tradeacuna Braves have the 6th highest payroll in Baseball, they are certainly spending over $220 Million on this team in 2025.
Maybe criticize whether the $220M is being spent on the right players if they continue to underwhelm on the field, but the total spend is not cheap at all.
“The owner is cheap” is just crap you say when you want to complain. like you said, @Lasagna, you might have a beef with how a team allocates their spending but saying the Braves are cheap is just simply incorrect. Add to it that they have locked up their team on extensions to mitigate the incredible salary inflation we’ve been seeing — Atlanta fans should just relax a bit. The season is far from lost.
@MacGromit
But TradeAcuna isn’t an Atlanta fan, on the contrary he’s just a troll that comes on all Atlanta news from this site and posts inanities.
The fact that the Braves made the post season last year with all the injuries that they had was a magnificent achievement, and this ‘TradeAcuna’ talks about the Braves going out in the first round.
4/5: Strider season-ending injury
5/26: Acuña season-ending injury
8/18: Riley season-ending injury
No other MLB team has ever made the playoffs in a year where 3 of their Opening Day starters missed the final 35+ regular-season games (plus the playoffs) on the IL.)
Why don’t you block @tradeacuna?
Lonnie B
No need to block anyone on this site, that’s weakness.
AA is fishing in a wishing well,
with bubble gum on the end of a stick!
Wonder who the player to be named may be?
Is the cash coming with Montero deferred?
Still remember when he came up with the Mets and was supposedly a major prospect. Some guy named deGrom came up at the same time without nearly as much hype.
you mean around the same time as wheeler was about to make his debut after being traded for, or thor was acquired, or harvey that was already tearing it up with being in the top 5 in the cy young? Those are the ones that were hyped then it was degrom coming up then it was montero and then morris that got his confidence destroyed in his one game. .
You might have heard of wheeler though, he has almost as many starts last season as degrom has had this decade so far. and been in the cy running pretty much every year since he left the mets.
You should become Dodgers fan if you want a team with more spending.
Their record is currently the worst in baseball because they went on a west coast road trip to open the year and played two very talented ball clubs. They’ll be fine.
Agreed. Too much talent on that team. It’s early April. Let the season breath a bit.
If Houston is lucky, they’re getting Atlanta to take on $2 – $2.5M of Montero’s salary, leaving them on the hook for $9M+. They DFA’d him last year so they were willing to eat the $11.5M+ due at that time so any savings is considered a win by Houston at this point. AA is hoping for yet another veteran resurgence just by putting on the Braves uniform. We’ll see what happens.
I thought maybe perhaps Atlanta was thinking about turning him into a starter. The old Reynoldo Lopez trick.
@Ignorant Son-of-a-b
Nothing wrong with 1-inning starters. Keep the arm fresh and keep the other team guessing. Problem solved!
How is it the Braves are up against a tax level if they don’t spend? Its called a budget. Atlanta’s is much higher than most teams. Go root for the Dodgers.
Jeff Bagwell lit so much of Crane’s money on fire in such a short amount of time.
Montero’s ground-ball and splitter combo could quietly neutralize the Phillies’ power in Atlanta’s next series. The NL East is now on notice—his fit targets their pull-heavy bats precisely.
I heard 7MM+ coming from Houston on MLB Network radio
Cash sent from HOU to ATL doesn’t lower the Braves’ responsibility for most of Montero’s salary toward the $241 million tax ceiling. At over $10 million due for 2025, couldn’t the Montero acquisition put them over the threshold or close to it? Or is there some kind of credit or tax cap exemption for Injured List time, e.g. for Reynaldo Lopez, or for a suspended player’s contract, e.g. Profar? Otherwise it seems assuming Montero’s salary on paper could really tie the Braves’ hands at the deadline if they’re looking for a starting pitcher in late July. This is the Braves third consecutive season if they wind up paying the tax, so they really need that reset.
Braves responsibility for Montero’s salary comes to $3m…still leaving the Braves roughly $13m under the first threshold. Plenty of room for a starting pitcher addition at the deadline.
@jimk Only what the Braves are actually paying Montero (think it’s around 3 mil) is added to their LT number.
As for Profar, the Braves don’t pay him salary during his suspension, ergo he only adds about $7m instead of $14m to their 2025 LT number.
Injured List time is tough luck for the team. Salary’s being paid, therefore it counts towards LT.
King of the Metaphor
He’s throwing down metaphors that nobody’s picking up but he keeps throwing them down on the floor in hopes that somebody picks them up and nobody’s picking them up
How is paying $3mm for a shot at some potential upside “not spending”, when they could’ve acquired a reliever for practically free? That is hardly “going cheap”.
Wow apparently the Braves are dumb enough to waste another $3M
could of gave bauer league minimum and used one of the rookies in the pen…
@ATLbravos
Give the Bauer talk a rest. That thread is long closed. Whichever side of the discussion you fall on, move it on. Would you like to bring up Pete Rose too?
Boy was that a bad contract for the Astros
Of course that once again proves the players are immature babies
Always crying when they are underpaid
But not a peep when they really suck under a high paying contract
And in my world, 34 million dollars is nothing to dismiss as trivial