The Mets will move struggling right-hander Frankie Montas from the rotation to the bullpen, manager Carlos Mendoza announced Tuesday (link via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). The team has not yet announced who will start in place of Montas on Saturday. The Mets have righty Paul Blackburn on a minor league rehab assignment, but Mendoza indicated that Blackburn will make at least one more rehab appearance and is not an option to step into Montas’ rotation spot this weekend.
Notably, Saturday is the first day that prospects can be promoted to the major leagues but still fall shy of the requisite 45 days on the active roster that exhausts a player’s rookie status. In other words, beginning Saturday, the Mets will be able to turn to a top prospect like Nolan McLean or Brandon Sproat without burning either pitcher’s rookie eligibility. That’s key for teams with top-100 prospects, as promoting those prospects early in the 2026 season can then net the teams a compensatory draft pick, based on Rookie of the Year voting.
It’s been a miserable season for the veteran Montas, who inked a surprisingly strong two-year, $34MM contract with an opt-out provision over the winter. That opt-out is a moot point by now, with the 32-year-old righty being relegated to bullpen work after logging a 6.38 ERA in his first eight appearances of the year (36 2/3 innings).
Montas began the season on the injured list due to a lat strain and didn’t pitch in the majors until late June. He’s allowed four or more earned runs in four of seven starts and has yet to complete six innings in an outing. Setting aside a solid season debut in which he tossed five shutout frames, Montas has been clobbered for a 7.39 ERA and yielded an average of 2.27 homers per nine innings pitched in six starts and one three-inning relief appearance (his most recent outing).
It appears that Montas won’t get the opportunity to improve on that rotation performance anytime soon. It’s difficult to fathom a scenario where he’d turn down the $17MM player option he’s facing at season’s end, so it’s in the Mets’ best interest to get him back on track, but their recent play doesn’t afford them the luxury of keeping a struggling veteran in the rotation while he tries to sort things out.
The freefalling Mets, who’ve lost seven in a row, currently have Kodai Senga, Sean Manaea, Clay Holmes and David Peterson in the rotation. Sproat and McLean stand as the two most logical replacements. (Fellow top prospect Jonah Tong was only just promoted to Triple-A and has yet to throw a pitch there.) Sproat last pitched Aug. 7 and would be on eight days’ rest, whereas McLean pitched on the 10th. Based on their current schedules, McLean seems like the more straightforward option, and he’s pitched more effectively this season anyhow.
never shoulda signed him to begin with
“The team has not yet announced who will start in place of Montas on Saturday.”
Perhaps McLean or Sproat. Hopefully not Blackburn but that’s probably the most likely.
Yeah almost certainly Blackburn since his rehab is nearly up anyway.
Well, looks like not Blackburn according to Mendoza. So I don’t know. Maybe a bullpen game. I don’t think they want to use a prospect.
The Mets had days off on Thursday and again yesterday. As such, they can just skip over Montas without bringing anyone new in, and the other starters will still be properly rested, or even on an extra day’s rest.
True. But also for anyone’s reference, McLean pitched on Sunday the 10th and I believe Sproat is scheduled for tomorrow night. They could give McLean an extra day of rest and use him Saturday. Sproat would be a little more difficult to work out but it could be done. Don’t think either will happen but we’ll see.
Where are the fans crying Service Time Manipulation because they refuse to call up top prospects until they cant lose their rookie status? They are holding them in the minors even though they need them now!
It’s not service time , it’s keeping rookie status. Two different things.
You should probably distinguish between service time and rookie status. Two different things.
“No surprise”..GMs don’t have the same benefit of hindsight that you do. They have to decide beforehand and wear it publicly if they’re wrong. It’s easy to say anything or make any statement after the fact.
Hindsight? Most people on here said it was a stupid signing when it happened. And they’re going to be stuck with him next year too.
“Hindsight..Most people on here”..Yes, hindsight. If you need a calendar I’ve got an extra one to spare, but it’s definitely hindsight and well after the fact.
People come here and bash GMs in hindsight and well after the fact. Those same people would be bashing the same GM for not signing the same player, if he was doing well on some other team.
You assume too much that people who post such things have critical thinking skills.
mlb fan, I agree with you generally but the majority of fans, commenters, and journalists expressed surprise at how much the Mets paid for Montas – at the time of the signing. He has struggled for a few years and was not a bargain.
Hopefully it is either McLean or Sproat. Please, no Blackburn.
Moved to the bullpen with the Braves and Mariners coming to Citi Field — and the Sunday game is in Williamsport.
More proof that you can’t spell mets without LOL.
lmao your Yankees haven’t been any better.
Montas still has time to turn it around and hit free agency instead of opting-in for $17M next season.
Now that’s funny.
Do the Mets have enough starters to move one to the bullpen?
They do. They had two of the past five days off. So he other starters will still be on regular, or even extra rest this week. Blackburn’s rehab has to end by 8/16. If he doesn’t work out, Megill is starting his rehab assignment this week, and the prospects may also be on the menu.
They should move him out the door
Should they let it hit him on the way out?
Good thing Megill is nearing a rehab assignment.
He’s starting it today. But after two months off, he’s gotta need at least three rehab starts . So he’s probably not back to the Mets until 8/27, if then.
Maybe the Mets will banish him so far in the bullpen that he doesn’t see a game unless it’s a laugher one way or the other. If he doesn’t pitch again maybe (we can hope) he doesn’t pick up the option for next season, otherwise if he does pick up the option, which prospect is going to be attached to his contract to get it off the books?
There’s no way he opts out. The Mets are stuck with him. They’re not going to waste good or useful prospect capital just to get him off the books. This need to get rid of him is knee-jerk fan overreaction. Its not tactical thinking. They will hope that in a full off season of working with him, they can salvage something out of him next year. If he still stinks then, and they have enough starters (which they should), they can release him then. Uncle Steve has made no bones about dumping what he calls “sunken costs”.
Thats not an original phrase from Uncle Steve. Many others have used it.
McLean is ready anyway so this is lining up nicely.
Steve Adams wrote that “promoting those prospects early in the 2026 season can then net the teams a compensatory draft pick, based on Rookie of the Year voting.”
Can anyone clarify that for me?
@Sonny Steele: “Eligible prospects have to appear on at least two of the three Top 100 Prospect Rankings released by ESPN, Baseball America, and MLB Pipeline. Those players must be rookie eligible and have fewer than 60 days of prior MLB service.” The Rookie of the Year winner earns his team a compensatory draft pick at the end of the first round if he meets the qualifications. The lists are compiled before the start of the season.
It’s called the Prospect Promotion Incentive (PPI). You can read about it at the link below (straight from MLB itself), but the main couple of sentences are these:
“Before the PPI, teams keep their top prospects in the Minors for a few weeks to begin the season, rather than promote them on Opening Day, to benefit from the service time implications that triggered additional years of team control.
The PPI is intended to incentivize teams to bring those players north with them on Opening Day by hinging team benefits — an extra Draft pick — on individual player performance and awards.”
It’s relevant here because players called up at the end of this season, ie after August 15th, are eligible for the program next year.
mlb.com/news/prospect-promotion-incentive-faq
McClean deserves the callup. He is lights out. I predicted before the season that the Holmes and Montas signings would be awful. I gave credit to Stearns before the allstar break that the Holmes signing was looking good and that I was wrong. He has been getting lit up recently but I don’t think he is as nearly as bad as people have been saying as of late. Montas on the other hand was a wasteful signing. Going into the season, Sproat was just about MLB ready according to most scouts and we have Christian Scott coming back next year. Montas was a complete waste of money and made no sense at the time of the signing
When Cincy signed Montas 2 yrs ago I thought it was a good signing. Watching him play he had adequate velocity and good breaking pitches but his command was off missing over the plate too much. He was coming off TJ surgery and was deemed healthy so I could see taking a chance. Maybe Mets thought they could fix his command. Probably two year contract was not the wisest move.
Montas is definitely picking up that 2026 player option. Hopefully he can be productive next season.
The Mets might have 6 Rookie of the year candidates on their opening day roster next year. I much prefer to watch young players then old has beens. Don’t expect them to be much of players on the free agency market this year besides bullpen arms.
Who are the 6?
6 is a r e a l s t r e t c h, but I guess he means McLean, Sproat, Williams, Benge, Clifford. Not sure who his 6th is. Tong is their most exciting prospect but he’s more likely to arrive late season or 2027
Tong
He’s in triple A now. He will be giving a shot in the spring. Don’t know why everyone always thinks players need years in triple A.
HE NEED TO BE RELEASE HE STINKS
Bring up McLean, Sproat or Tong to replace Montas, I would actually bring up 2 of them and put Holmes in the BP too, he can’t last more than 3-4 innings anymore. Maybe bring up Benge too and give Mullins, Nimmo and Soto a day off each with Benge playing in their spots, send Mauricio or Vientos down until the rosters expand to 40.
Rosters only expand to 28 now
Another huge miss by Stearns. They should move him to the free agent market.
And to think Stearns threw away money on Montas and Holmes when he could’ve resigned Quintana for $5m, who wanted to stay in NY and was coming off a good year. Every decision he’s made has been dumb. All his bullpen signings were bad, Winker was a dud of a signing. Milwaukee hasn’t missed a beat.
We needed to move him to another club before the deadline. This was a terrible signing from the start.
I’m guessing nobody wanted him.
I think the Mets didn’t spend enough on this roter. This offseason, they should actually open up their wallets and spend a whole lot more. Any payroll less than a billion dollars isn’t going to cut it.