November 19th: Montas has now been released, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.
November 18th: The Mets announced that they have designated Frankie Montas for assignment, and the team has requested unconditional release waivers on the right-hander. The transaction removes Montas from the 40-man roster, allowing the team to select the contract of outfield prospect Nick Morabito in advance of today’s Rule 5 deadline. The Athletic’s Will Sammon reported on Morabito’s selection earlier today. Reporter Michael Marino was the first to pass on the news that Montas would be designated for assignment, with SNY’s Andy Martino providing the later update that Montas was being released.
The DFA period is essentially irrelevant since no team will claim or make a trade offer for Montas, who is owed $17MM in 2026 and will miss all or most of the season while recovering from a torn UCL. As such, today’s move closes the book on Montas’ Queens tenure after less than a year, as he signed his two-year, $34MM free agent deal with the Mets last December.
Montas ended up tossing just 38 2/3 innings over nine appearances in a Mets uniform. Montas suffered a lat strain in Spring Training and didn’t make his Mets debut until June, and he then struggled to a 6.28 ERA and lost his rotation job. Even worse injury news emerged in late August, as Montas underwent UCL surgery. It wasn’t known if Montas had a Tommy John surgery or a brace procedure, but either way, 2026 is going to be another lost year for the veteran righty.
Unsurprisingly, Montas didn’t trigger the opt-out clause after the first year of his contract, and thus he remains on the Mets’ books for a $17MM salary in 2026. Montas probably won’t land his next contract until next winter, and a minor league deal seems like the next step for a pitcher with such a shaky recent track record. Beyond his disastrous 2025 season, Montas also appeared in just one game in 2023 due to shoulder surgery, stemming from shoulder issues that led to a rough end to his 2022 campaign.
He recovered to toss 150 2/3 innings of 4.84 ERA ball with the Reds and Brewers in 2024, which was enough to convince the Mets that Montas might be close to regaining his early-career form as a staple of the Athletics rotation. Instead, the signing will go down as a total bust for David Stearns’ front office, and one of several ill-advised pitching moves that contributed to New York’s disappointing 83-win season.
Morabito was a second-round pick for the Mets in the 2022 draft, and his selection to the 40-man roster means that rival teams won’t be able to select the 22-year-old in December’s Rule 5 Draft. Known for his excellent speed, Morabito has stolen 130 bases in 160 attempts during his pro career, including 49 swipes for Double-A Binghamton in 2025. This was Morabito’s first time playing Double-A ball and he hit .273/.348/.385 with six homers and 27 doubles to go along with his impressive stolen-base total.
MLB Pipeline ranks Morabito 16th amongst all Mets prospects, and the scouting report notes that Morabito’s offensive potential is held back by his tendency to hit too many grounders. His speed can turn some of those grounders into singles, of course, but “elevating on contact will be a big goal…if he is going to have a chance to be more than a speedy, high-contact fourth outfielder.” Defensively, Morabito is seen as a decent outfielder who can handle all three positions, though his modest throwing arm probably makes right field his least-effective spot on the grass.
Bold move cotton, let’s see if it pays off.
How is it a bold move?
The money is completely sunk due to his injury so there’s no reason whatsoever to waste a roster spot on him.
It’s called humor buddy. It’s obviously a wise move.
I am well aware of the “bold move, Cotton” meme, I just don’t see how it applies here since it usually is used when someone does something dumb or at least seemingly dumb, and this move obviously isn’t dumb.
Let it go, King Karen. It was a joke.
It was a joke that made no sense, though. We need to hold our reference-based humor to a higher standard. Come on, people, don’t excuse this!
rct: But what do you suggest doing about it?
In this context it was more sarcasm than humor, which I assume is what the OP was going for.
Pads- I am not entirely sure that it was a joke, actually. Yeah, he says that it was ex post facto, but that doesn’t mean it really was when it was posted.
rct- You get it. If we can’t be annoyingly pedantic about utterly trivial things like the proper usage of 20 year old memes here on MLBTR, then where can we be?
King Floch: LOL and quite true. Otherwise, why even get out of bed? 🤣
I truly cannot think of one good reason, Al.
It’s the foundational bedrock of internet culture and I refuse to let anyone take it away from us.
Some people are diluted of humor or don’t get everything because it could be a regional saying or they just don’t now. Another big contract released is Rafael Montero.
Montas, Montero, big bloated contracts
Montero came up to the Mets in May 2014 simultaneously with Jacob deGrom, and he was the more highly regarded prospect.
Jokes don’t need to make sense. Silliness is OK. Joke police are no fun.
If the joke doesn’t make sense, its not funny. Its not silly either.
It’s called sarcasm
Sarcasm works when its at least related to the subject matter. How does that relate?
Give it up everyone else got it
Some of the posters here undoubtably have not yet gotten out of bed. 🤣🤣🤣
The Gambler: The appropriate term is irony.
While often humorous, the essence of sarcasm is an expression of meanness through bitter words.
If Kenny Williams was running things on south side Chicago he would scoop Frankie up one more time….He and many other front office people were very very high on Frankie thinking he was going to be special….. Hopefully he puts it all together or laughs all the way to the bank time will tell
Outrageous of the Mets to give that guy a 2 year deal..it’s something so dumb I only expected from Cashman.
If Uncle Stevie is throwing away money, how about throwing some in my direction?
@Angt222 Awesome Dodgeball reference. LMAO. Bateman and Cole were the best part of that movie!!!
biggest waste of $34million in baseball history
Rendon has played like 250 games in the past 6 seasons combined…and is owed like $34M a season
Rendon is the biggest waste of $245 million.
Montas the biggest waste of $34 million.
Rendon made $38.571 million last year to play 0 games.
He’d wasted $34 million by September and kept on collecting checks.
“chandlerbing” just NEVER thinks before he comments.
He is truly awful. No wonder why he muted me.
Rendon was actually good before he signed. Montas being a complete waste was very predictable
Yeah, it’s definitely a very strong contender for that title.
I see your challenge, and raise you Jeimer Candelario
Whom the Yankees kept in Scranton rather than have him take up room in the Stadium clubhouse.
Can a Marlins fan play? We’ve got Avi Garcia!
Phil Hughes extension with twins
Almost a million per inning for someone who was never going to be more than a back of the rotation pitcher.
Every time someone says something like this, Stephen Strasburg comes to mind.
Oh yeah that was expensive!
The Red Sox Panda deal is up there.
What about a player getting injured the whole contract, throwing only 1 pitch
Pretty bad but probably not 245 mil for 31 1/3 innings bad.
Starsburg ranks up there.
lol and this is part of spending money recklessly…
Stearns is critiqued here for spending recklessly. Later he’ll be critiqued for being Dollar Tree David.
This was a “value” signing like every other starter they signed last year. I don’t know what their total cost was vs their production from all the starters they inked last year but it would be interesting. Still probably better than if they signed Burnes!
13Morgs13: lol Phillies
White Sox on a 1-year league minimum deal
Can’t hurt especially since White Sox are on the hook for league minimum,
Knowing he’s out for next season, then yes, this sounds like a very Pale Hose thing to do…
lol didn’t really read it. Just saw that. Whoops. But yeah, would be very White Sox
Oh lord, I just saw it too lol
Pointless. Major league teams gotta realize he has 3 good years a decade ago
baseball-reference.com/players/m/montafr02.shtml
His pitching line for the Mets was nearly identical to his Yankee line from 2022 & 2023. Deja Vu all over again. It’s like the Mets FO doesn’t learn anything from the Yankee mistakes. LOL
Wow, who could of seen Montas not working out….
I guess that Harvard isn’t sending their best, Joe Schmo who does plumbing for a living in Brooklyn could of predicted that this was a bad signing from day 1
You’ve made 13,232 negative comments about Montas not working out. You’ve said nothing about Holmes working out.
@PiazzaParty I admitted on a different article that the Holmes signing wasn’t a bad signing. However, they don’t need Holmes, they need an ace, thats the issue. Holmes also taxes the bullpen, 4 or 5 innings isn’t enough. The signing was not great but it wasn’t bad. It was average
@LFGMets
Don’t be too hard on Holmes. He’s a pretty good Opener. The problem is that the Mets thought they were signing a SP.
Stearns is good at finding Openers ever since his days in Milwaukee.
I can see why you were banned. Are all the people posting on this site as uninformed as you are?
Holmes averaged 5.2 IP/start and went into the 6th inning in 87% of his starts. He threw 165 innings.
There should be a penalty on this site for being such a bad troll. Something like if there are enough downvotes your comments are deleted.
Yep, just how I like my SPs – 5.2 innings per game. I wish I had a penny for every single time Sid Fernandez says, “I wish I pitched in this era! I’d be an Ace and in the Hall of Fame!”
I’d have so much money to buy the Marlins and have them on a Top 5 payroll.
Holmes was top 30 in IP/S. You really need to find another hobby because your trolling is really bad.
@Skip’s Fungo
It’s a really low standard for a team paying truckloads of money.
And I’m pretty sure Holmes is not a SP on at least half the teams.
But continue because I understand your view is impaired because you have a little Homer in your eye.
Having even a modicum of knowledge of baseball is apparently not a prerequisite for Marlin’s fans. Holmes was 33rd in IP per start in his first season as a starter. His ERA was in the top 20 in MLB for SP. Holmes is a #2 starter on every team in MLB and a #1 on many including your Marlins.
At a $13 million salary, Holmes is the 83rd highest paid pitcher in MLB. That is not a truckload. Well it may be for you, but not for a major league pitcher.
Y’all two are the same person. fess up.
@Skip’s Fungo
Not the same person.
I guess that’s what you need to tell yourself when two people who are from different fanbases, and most likely in two different parts of the country (South Florida and Denver area I guess), have the same opinion that differe from yours. And based on the many other people, including your own Mets fan that started this thread, I guess all of us on this board must be the same person.
Hmmm…I guess it’s easier to come up with that conclusion than consider the possibility that you may need to rethink your stance. But I’ve seen your type of personality. It’s easier to cling to something like that instead of covering your ears and start screaming “Na, na, na…I don’t hearrrrr you!” everytime you hear something that opposes your view of things.
Whatever helps you sleep at night.
I do notice that you can’t counter stats. You come back with something personal. That is the definition of a troll. If you are different people, and that is yet to be determined, you are both trolls.
@Skip’s Fungo
I addressed your facts. Sid Fernandez wishes he was in this era. He’d be an Ace and in the Hall of Fame. If 5.2 innings is something to brag about, then Sid Fernandez has a Hall of Fame career.
Piazza Party,
The Mets need an ace not a roster of 5 IP mediocre SPs.
Stearns failed and Mets S(t)unk down the stretch when it mattered.
@Robrock30
I think 5 innings may be the standard of certain Mets fans. Look at the response above that I got to my comment.
I wonder where Frankie Montas ranks in the baseball or all sports pantheon of “guys who got paid a ton of money for their potential without any real consistency or valuable results”
I feel like he’d rank relatively high on that list…
Per FanGraphs, Montas has produced $88 million in on field value
Per Baseball Reference, he will have been paid $66 million at the end of the season
“The Athletic’s Will Sammon reported on Morabito’s selection earlier today. Reporter Michael Marino was the first to pass on the news that Montas would be designated for assignment, with SNY’s Andy Martino providing the later update that Montas was being released.”
Why is it important to tell us who said what and when other than tooting the horn of one reporter or another?
Correctly citing sources is important. MLBTR is a content aggregator and is doing the right thing.
This also allows them the opportunity to change their reporting as stories evolve.
HalosHeavenJJ: OK. But why is the order important?
A lot of it is professional courtesy – guys that live on the bleeding edge of sports reporting are proud of being both first and correct with the news.
I also think citing a source can help offer MLBTR cover, in a sense – if Joe Schmo reported a deal first but then the Heymans and Passans of the world report differently, it’s not a hit to MLBTR’s reputation.
Danzig pretty much nailed it.
We live in an age where being first is important, probably too important.
Always always always cite your sources.
Getting the story out first has always been important in competitive newspaper cities. You had to get it out first in either the morning edition or the evening edition. When you’re going to the train after work are you going to buy “Mayor buys new tie” or “Hitler dead”? The publishing time is in smaller intervals now, but the competition has always been there.
depletion: And more importantly, the newspaper industry collapsed with the demise of print media. There no longer are physical papers with bold screaming headlines competing for buyers.
Today it’s all about clicks, and the only way news outlets make money is by advertising and subscriptions. And with social media, exclusive stories are basically obsolete.
What color tie?
There is a silver lining in this DFA. Dicky Lovelady is still hanging on.
Who’s hanging onto what now?
Getting and recovering from surgery can not be fun. Nor is the physical therapy required for rehab.
But for $17 million bucks I’d gladly spend next year doing it.
If Montas wasn’t broken broken, I’d have liked it if the Mariners would at minimum kick the tires just because you can never have too many pitchers, especially since Bryce Miller has a wacky elbow of his own now. Oh well, hopefully Montas can catch on somewhere and bounce back someday.
Someone may sign him to a 2-year minor league deal the way the Mets did with Adbert Alzolay last season.
Jarred Kelenic’s Beer Can: If Montas isn’t already broken, kicking his tires a couple of times should finish the job. 🤣
Mets will have to pay the rest of his contract. He might get a 1MM deal midseason.
Much more selection is coming in the following hours.
A fool and their money are soon parted
Frankie Montas has more money than you. Try professional baseball, Comrade.
He has more money than me, and we pitch almost the same amount of innings each year!
You should play in MLB! Go arrange a tryout! You got this!
I could not pitch for half of what he makes. I will try out for MLB. That happens in the spring??
I meant the teams that kept signing that loser
But I know for people like you with LOW IQs you have trouble,with English
Captainmike1: “…people like you with low IQs you have trouble with English.”
Pretty rich coming from the guy whose IQ is so low that he doesn’t know the saying is “A fool and HIS money are soon parted” and that the snarky statement should be “…people like you with low IQs have trouble with English.”
People like you indeed. But props for self-awareness.
Hey bozo
“Their” refers to a Team, an organization, not a person.
I adapted the saying to this situation
Stop being an A-HOLE
Says the bozo who posted the first snarky comment about a low IQ.
You know what they say, it takes an A-HOLE to know one.
Here’s a thought: Stick to commenting on the topic being discussed instead of defaulting to the personal attack.
Think you can control yourself enough to do that?
I make a comment and other people attacked me
How about you take the issue up with them
Right, it’s always someone else’s fault.
Are you brain damaged ?
There you go again with a personal attack. Of course it’s my fault this time. It’s never yours, is it?
This is mind blowing, I made a post.
That is all I did.
You people made it an attack fest.
Yes it is NOT my fault
“You people.” Right, everyone is against you. 🤣
No,
Just a few jerks
Look dude, I went to DeWitt Clinton high school in the Bronx in the 70s
You guys will have to do a lot better at the insults
Captainmike1: And I attended Stuyvesant in the 70s. That explains it.
LOL
Pretty surprised by the Morabito move. No HR power, middling OPS in just double-A. His ceiling is reserve OF, and he’s more than a year away. Does this warrant use of a roster space? Was someone else really going to take him for their major league roster? And if they did, is it that big of a loss?
It’s to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. Said so in the next-to-last paragraph.
Try reading what I actually said before explaining or talking down to me. I understand it was for Rule 5 protection. But since when do teams protect low-ceiling AA players with merely middling to above average numbers at that level, and a fatal flaw that limits his upside?
His MiLB slash through age 22 is .291/.381/.389 and he steals a TON of bases PLUS he plays excellent defense in all 3 OF spots sooooo yeah it’s obvious why they’d protect him imho
Saying its obvious is a one-sided bias. Its also a limited, in a vacuum view: good player, we must protect him.
But was there really a danger of a major league team taking a AA outfielder with close to zero HR power?
Fans always assume that any OF with great speed is a great defender. But he is still learning CF and his defense is not great there yet. He is said to run awkward routes to the ball, which his speed somewhat compensates for. But he’s not great there yet.
I’ll take a shot. It was easy enough to create a 40 man spot by releasing Montas since there as no guarantee that he even pitches in 2026.
From there, they had a prospect of AA that they the organization knows more about than fangraphs (or fans) does by compiling stats.
So, they made a business decision to give him the slot to avoid the risk of losing him.
It isn’t like it’s a permanent forever decision.
I’m just saying, the org knows more and they made a call that didn’t cost them anything to take the safe approach.
Never understand why fans have to try to justify (or crucify) every move that a team makes.
I don’t mean to be talking down so hope you don’t take it that way.
But you expose Prada to rule 5 draft and protect Lovelady?
Is that right?
The essential point if you’re the 40th man is to be a hair better than the 41st man.
Terrible signing from the git go. Mets were hoping for a Severino 2.0.
He is NY’s most wanted. Robbed two rich owners.
Bobby Bonilla and Danny Tartabull are jealous.
I guess they were going to pay him $17 million for nothing one way or another, might as well free up a roster spot in the process
Big mistake
The Montas signing is typical Stearns. Brain dead signing at the time it was done to everyone but him.
A’s were smart to move on from Montas, as they got a little something from JP Sears out of it – Medina and Waldichuk are busts so far.
The Yankees only trade future busts.
Oh, this worries me because, so far, Augustin Ramirez doesn’t look like a bust.
I wonder how that guy Mike Lowell turned out.
Michael King is doing ok.
Frankie Montas is the luckiest unlucky Pitcher I can think of.
Dude was a headline trade piece to the Yankees, got paid tens of millions due to his performance with the A’s, and since being traded to the Yankees has been injured 75-80% of the time.
But to his and his agent’s credit, he is being paid.
I doubt he gets more then a minor league deal when he recovers from his most recent injury, and the team that gets that minor league deal will cash in if he is healthy, due to him being flipped at the deadline hahah.
Thank god onto fresh pitchers instead rather Peter griffin relative pitch again lol
Exactly.
If Montas was left handed, he’d probably play ten more years out of bullpen but right handed could probably still hang around when healthy as long man or relief pitcher.
Finally, David Stearns moves on from his biggest mistake as POBO of the NY Mets…
Man, the vibe in this comment section is kinda bumming me out. I thought the “bold move cotton” was kinda funny then the whole thing just Mets-ed out.
UCL surgery sealed the deal. He was never going to be on the Mets’ roster again. This was just a formality.
Dominican Idle.
At least the Yanks are a clear #2 on getting the least value out of Montas.
What a WASTE, thanks Stearns, now makeup for your mistakes
Bummer Frankey used to be good
I can see Mr. Moreno, the marketing guy swinging for the fences on a Japanese player like Okamoto. Why pay for Bader to play CF when you have Teodosio? Keep center as a defensive priority and use the money saved to address starting pitching or a left-handed bat.
Why not trade Adell with peak value for a pitcher? Sign Bellinger to address LF and the LH bat, and let him slip in some opt-outs so he splits at the right time.
is it true we protected Lovelace on the 40 man and exposed Prada?
Gotta say it. That seemed like the dumbest signing at the time. Why so much money for a guy like that in the first place? He was injured so often.