Frankie Montas saw his first proper game action of the 2025 season on Saturday, when the right-hander tossed 37 pitches over 1 1/3 innings for high-A Brooklyn in the first game of a minor league rehab assignment. Montas signed a two-year, $34MM free agent deal with the Mets this past winter, but was immediately sidelined at the start of Spring Training by a significant lat strain. Saturday’s game officially started the 30-day clock on Montas’ rehab assignment, and he’ll naturally need to further build up his arm strength over multiple outings before he is ready to be activated from the 60-day injured list.
Paul Blackburn should beat Montas back to the active roster, as MLB.com’s Jeffrey Lutz writes that the plan is for Blackburn to make his seventh and final minor league rehab outing before joining the Mets at some point in June. Blackburn has missed the entire big league season due to right knee inflammation, while Sean Manaea has also yet to pitch due to an oblique strain. Manaea is throwing off a mound, and Jon Heyman of the New York Post writes that Manaea’s projected timeline is about two weeks behind Montas. Despite all of these pitching injuries, even the makeshift version of the Mets’ rotation has posted tremendous results this season, giving the club a potential arms surplus to address if and when everyone is healthy.
More from around the NL East…
- The Phillies are another club relatively deep in starting pitching options, though they may be without Aaron Nola for longer a 15-day minimum stint on the injured list. Manager Rob Thomson told Lochlahn March of the Philadelphia Inquirer and other reporters that Nola’s sprained ankle is still feeling sore, which scrapped plans for Nola to begin throwing off a mound this weekend. Nola’s IL placement began on May 15, and while Thomson didn’t this continued discomfort as any sort of big setback, he hinted that Nola might need to face some live batters (whether in the form of a live batting practice or a minor league rehab start) before being activated.
- Nationals closer Kyle Finnegan is dealing with some shoulder fatigue, though manager Davey Martinez told MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman that tests didn’t reveal any structural problems. Finnegan hasn’t pitched in either of Washington’s last two games, but figures he can avoid the IL with another day or two of rest. Finnegan has a 2.41 ERA over 18 2/3 innings this season, and figures to be a sought-after pitcher at the trade deadline if the Nationals can’t get into contention. The reliever’s secondary numbers (such as a 3.69 SIERA and slightly below-average strikeout and walk rates) are less impressive, but Finnegan has a 48.1% grounder rate and has done a solid job of inducing soft contact.
Would the Mets think of trading Griffin Canning? Imagine the return would be solid. Even with Blackburn to the bullpen there aren’t enough spots.
Soon as they traded him 3 guys would get hurt in a week. Never fails.
Blackburn is definitely going to the bullpen in place of Waddell or j Castillo. Montas will probably take place of the other player or Butto then go to six man rotation.
Health or production will dictate how they proceed later when Manea becomes available to play.
Canning is going nowhere. Blackburn should keep his suitcase handy.
Canning has literally been a top 5 pitcher this year. Im not sure how hes doing it,but he is and you would be downgrading.
Everything you said is spot-on.
I understand the Braves wanted to dump Jorge Soler’s contract, but releasing Canning, the trade return, and now watching him perform well for the Mets? AA is a solid GM, but he either didn’t think this one through or his analytics team just didn’t see what the Mets analytics team saw
“Dump Jorge Solor’s contract”…I totally agree. Also, the Mariners had previously convinced me that Luis Torrens couldn’t play catcher or hit.
Now, he’s doing both rather well for the Mets. The Mariners wouldn’t let Torrens get anywhere near a catcher’s mitt. Giving up on a guy who later performs well has gotta sting.
If it’s any consolation, other teams (like the Cubs) also had Torrens and passed.
“Also had Torrens”…What most pis*ed me off, is that I could see that Torrens was a serviceable 1b/DH option(at the time)for a light hitting Mariners team.
I just can’t see him practice at backup catcher. The Mariners obviously concluded he wasn’t an option or wasn’t worth the trouble to develop as a catcher.
Lasagna,
Canning had 0.2 WAR in a full season last year (32 games, 31 starts).
This year he has 1.4 WAR in 10 starts. No one saw that coming. AA non-tendered Canning due to trying to skirt the payroll luxury tax (and partially due to the afore mentioned 2024 results by Canning).
The Mess has 2/3 of the A’s old rotation
Mess? Yeah what a Mess they are. On pace for over 95 wins.
Look at all those former Oakland A’s that the Lets go Oakland chant in unison hand clapping geniuses wanted to sign to long-term contracts and when they didn’t they made stupid SELL tshirts and wore them made themselves the most obnoxious fan base lost their team . Now you still have to be bothered with the same dunce in Sacramento
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The Mets help guys get better. It doesn’t always work but their success rate is above average for sure.