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Rafael Montero

Astros To Start Jose Urquidy In Game Three

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The latest updates from manager Dusty Baker on the Astros’ plans moving forward…

  • Jose Urquidy will get the start in game three over veteran Jake Odorizzi, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle (via Twitter). Urquidy has flashed star potential during his Houston tenure, including at times this season. He made 20 starts with a 3.62 ERA/4.14 FIP over 107 innings with a 21.3 percent strikeout rate, 4.5 percent walk rate, and 31.7 percent flyball rate. Urquidy beat the Red Sox back on May 31st, tossing six innings and yielding just one run on three hits while striking out nine.
  • Rafael Montero threw a bullpen session today. The Astros are holding out hope that Montero could be helpful in the World Series, should they survive the Red Sox, per ESPN’s Marly Rivera (via Twitter). Montero had a disastrous season with the Mariners, getting tagged with a 7.27 ERA over 43 1/3 innings, despite a 4.05 FIP. The Astros acquired him along with Kendall Graveman at the trade deadline. He made four scoreless appearances with the Astros before shoulder discomfort sent him to the injured list.

Astros Designate Robel Garcia For Assignment

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The Astros are designating infielder Robel García for assignment, relays Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. Reliever Rafael Montero was also transferred from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list. The moves create a pair of vacancies on the 40-man roster needed to reinstate Taylor Jones and Andre Scrubb from the injured list (Jones from the COVID-19 IL, Scrubb from the 60-day version). Both Jones and Scrubb were optioned to Triple-A Sugar Land.

García has had one of the crazier career arcs of any player over the past few seasons. He spent a few years at the lowest levels of the Indians system but was released having topped out in Low-A. The Cubs spotted García playing professional ball in Italy a few years later and signed him to a minor league deal going into the 2019 season.

Assigned to Double-A, García mashed over the season’s first month before being bumped up to the minors’ top level. He popped 21 home runs in just 296 Triple-A plate appearances to earn his first big league call that July. The switch-hitting infielder hit another five homers in 80 trips to the plate at the big league level, but he also struck out 35 times.

Chicago designated García for assignment last July, and he spent the campaign at the Reds’ alternate training site after Cincinnati claimed him off waivers. He briefly landed with the Mets and Angels via waiver claim over the offseason and stuck with Houston after the Astros claimed him in February. He’s taken 117 plate appearances at the major league level this season, struggling to a .151/.216/.208 line with a huge 35.9% strikeout rate. The utilityman has had similar swing-and-miss issues in Triple-A, hitting .189/.321/.422 in 109 trips to the plate.

The Astros will now place García on outright or release waivers. His combination of power and ability to cover any position on the dirt has attracted the interest of a few teams around the league, although his continued strikeout problems have kept him from producing much to date at the big league level. García still has a minor league option year remaining after this season, so it’s possible a team could claim him and keep him in the system as high minors infield depth.

Houston acquired Montero alongside Kendall Graveman as part of a deadline deal with the Mariners. Montero had underperformed in Seattle and was included in the deal largely to offset salary. He performed well over his first four appearances with the Astros, tossing six innings of one-run ball. Unfortunately, right shoulder discomfort landed him on the IL just a couple weeks after the trade.

Today’s transfer rules Montero out for sixty days from August 10, the date of his initial IL placement. It’s theoretically possible he could make it back for a postseason run, but it seems more likely he won’t return this season. He’ll be eligible for arbitration for the fourth and final time of his career this offseason. If tendered a contract, he’d be in line for a slight raise on this season’s $2.25MM salary.

Scrubb returns for the first time since mid-July, when he landed on the IL with a shoulder strain. The 26-year-old has worked 19 2/3 frames of 5.03 ERA ball, striking out a decent 24.4% of batters faced but issuing walks at an alarming 16.3% clip. Jones, meanwhile, is back after missing a couple weeks upon testing positive for the coronavirus. He’s hitting .245/.269/.402 across 108 plate appearances.

Astros Reinstate Pedro Baez From Injured List

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The Astros announced they’re activating reliever Pedro Báez from the 60-day injured list in advance of tonight’s game against the Rockies. Bullpen colleague Rafael Montero is landing on the 10-day injured list with right shoulder discomfort in a corresponding move. To open space for Báez on the 40-man roster, the club transferred righty Andre Scrubb from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list.

Báez, signed to a two-year deal over the winter, is finally in line to make his Astros debut. The 33-year-old missed a few weeks in Spring Training after testing positive for COVID-19, then felt soreness in his right shoulder during his attempt to ramp up a throwing program. The latter issue has kept him out of action for the past few months as the soreness has persisted. Fortunately, he’s now apparently healthy and able to contribute for the stretch run.

During his time with the Dodgers, Báez was quietly one of the league’s more consistent and productive relievers. He posted an ERA between 2.63 and 3.35 during each of his seven seasons in L.A. While Báez’s run prevention numbers never wavered, his peripherals have tailed off in recent seasons. The righty struck out a career-worst 18.6% of opponents last year with accompanying dips in swinging strike rate and velocity.

That came in a 17-inning sample during an anomalous year, though, and the Astros felt comfortable enough to add Báez on a $12.5MM guarantee. If he pitches at or near the level he showed throughout his Dodgers’ tenure, Báez would be a significant upgrade to a Houston relief unit that’s middle of the pack in terms of ERA (3.97) and strikeout/walk rate differential (15.2 percentage points).

Houston added Montero alongside Kendall Graveman from the Mariners at the trade deadline as part of an effort to shore up the bullpen. Montero had a nightmarish time in Seattle, but he’d begun his Astros tenure with six innings of one-run ball. He left Sunday’s game against the Twins with a shoulder issue, though, and his recovery timeline remains uncertain.

Scrubb is also down with a shoulder issue. The 26-year-old landed on the IL on July 19 with a strain. Today’s transfer rules him out for sixty days from that date, so he’s looking at a mid-September return in a best case scenario. There’s no word on whether or not the team expects he’ll be able to pitch again this season.

Manager Dusty Baker provided reporters (including Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle and Mark Berman of FOX 26) with updates on a pair of different injured players. Star third baseman Alex Bregman still isn’t ready to return, and his allotted twenty-day rehab window has passed. League rules stipulate that position players not prepared to return after the conclusion of their rehab period must remain inactive for at least five days before reembarking on a minor league assignment, so Bregman can’t return to game action until Friday.

Starter José Urquidy, meanwhile, is scheduled to begin his own rehab assignment tomorrow. Baker said the club is hopeful he’ll be back on a big league mound by September 1. Urquidy has been out since June 30 with right shoulder discomfort.

Astros Notes: Bregman, Brantley, Montero

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TODAY: Bregman is “not ready yet,” Baker said during a radio interview on SportsTalk 790 (hat tip to Chandler Rome of The Houston Chronicle).  The third baseman is “taking a couple days off to get some treatment” and will then presumably return to his minor league rehab assignment, with Baker hopeful Bregman can return to the Astros within 7-10 days.

AUGUST 8: Alex Bregman was in Houston today watching the Astros in action, and an official return to the field might not be far away.  Manager Dusty Baker told reporters (including MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart) that Bregman was meeting with the team after playing nine innings in each of his last two rehab games with Triple-A Sugar Land.

A left quad strain sent Bregman to the 10-day injured list back on June 17, so it will be just shy of a two-month absence for the third baseman if he is indeed activated this week.  The Astros have a two-game series with the Rockies sandwiched between off-days on Monday and Thursday this week, and if Bregman is already in Houston, it would hint that he could be reinstated from the IL as early as Tuesday.

Between his quad issue and a week-long absence in April due to COVID-19 protocols, Bregman has played in only 59 games this season, but he has still been productive in hitting .275/.359/.428 over 262 plate appearances.  This roughly matches his slash line over 180 PA in 2020, as Bregman was hampered by a hamstring injury last year and limited to 44 games of the 60-game regular season.  While a big step down from his MVP-caliber numbers in 2018 and 2019, Bregman is certainly still a dangerous bat when healthy, and his return will help bolster a Houston team that has its eyes on more postseason success.

While Bregman’s probable return is good news for the Astros, the club also had some more injury scares in today’s 7-5 loss to the Twins.  The Astros announced that Michael Brantley was removed for precautionary reasons after a blow to the head during a collision with Twins shortstop Andrelton Simmons while running the bases early in the game.  Brantley, in the lineup as the DH, was replaced by a pinch-hitter in the third inning.

In the eighth, Rafael Montero had to depart one pitch into a Rob Refsnyder plate appearance.  Entering the game in the previous inning, Montero retired his first five batters before walking Miguel Sano, and then picking up some type of injury against Refsnyder.  Post-game, Baker said Montero was suffering from some shoulder soreness, and will receive further examination by the team’s medical staff.

Mariners, Astros Swap Kendall Graveman For Abraham Toro In Four-Player Trade

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In a rare and rather stunning swap between a pair of division rivals who are both in contention, the Mariners have traded closer Kendall Graveman and recently designated-for-assignment righty Rafael Montero to the Astros in exchange for young infielder Abraham Toro and veteran righty Joe Smith, according to both clubs. The trade is even more eye-opening when considering that the two clubs are gearing up to play each other in the second game of a three-game set tonight.

Trading Graveman at all registers as a moderate surprise, given the Mariners’ recent climb in the standings and stated desire to improve the 2021 roster. To see him traded to the division-leading Astros while the two squads are playing one another is downright jarring. That said, Graveman is a free agent at season’s end, and in Toro, the Mariners are acquiring five seasons of control over an infielder who has been considered one of Houston’s more promising young prospects for the past few years.

In speaking to the media about the trade, Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto plainly acknowledged that as a standalone transaction, it’s a head-scratching move. But Dipoto also emphasized some patience, suggesting this move is but one of a sequence of trades designed to improve the Mariners’ chances both in 2021 and over the long-term down the road (Twitter thread via MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer). Dipoto suggested a subsequent trade or trades could come together as soon as tonight or in the coming days, but it seems as though this is but one of a series of moves for which the Mariners are angling; time will tell just how the moves look when judged in their totality.

Toro, 24, hasn’t yet pieced things together in limited big league action, but he’s decimated Triple-A pitching (.392/.497/.600 in 33 games) and posted strong numbers in pitcher-friendly Double-A settings (.282/.369/.468 in 148 games). The switch-hitting Toro provides the Mariners with a possible long-term option at third base, but he’s also logged considerable time at second base — another area where the Mariners have been known to be seeking help. That long-term fit isn’t likely to matter much to the clubhouse, however, and Divish rather unsurprisingly tweets that the decision to trade Graveman to their top division rival was not well-received among Seattle players.

That’s understandable on Seattle’s end, given just how dominant Graveman has become since transitioning to the bullpen late in the 2020 season. The former Athletics starter has bounced back from an injury-lost 2019 season to emerge as one of the American League’s more effective relievers. In 33 innings this season, Graveman has pitched to a 0.82 ERA with a 28.1 percent strikeout rate, a 6.6 walk rate and a 53.9 percent ground-ball rate. Dating back to his shift to the bullpen in 2020, he’s compiled 43 innings of 1.47 ERA ball.

Graveman is likely all the more appealing to the luxury-conscious Astros because of his affordable salary. He’s playing on a one-year, $1.25MM contract. Incentives have already boosted that base salary by $400K, and the contract overall contains a total of $3MM in reachable incentives. That said, $1.5MM of those are tied up in games finished, and manager Dusty Baker has already indicated that Ryan Pressly is likely to continue as his closer. Graveman could still collect six more stray games finished to reach his first of three would-be $500K bonuses tied to games finished, but it’s unlikely he reaches the 30 and 40 games finished needed to unlock the next pair of $500K bonuses. In all, the contract will likely top out paying him somewhere in the range of $2.65MM based on incentives tied to days on the roster, games finished and total innings pitched.

Montero’s inclusion in the trade is likely a pure accounting measure. The combined salaries of Montero and Graveman ought to clock in somewhere in the same ballpark as Smith’s $4MM salary and luxury-tax hit, though depending on the status of Graveman’s incentives, the Astros could come out either a bit ahead or a bit behind where they were previously projected.

Montero opened the season as the closer in Seattle but struggled early and has been mired in a catastrophic slump of late, yielding 16 runs in his past 11 innings. The ’Stros may have their own ideas on how to help a reliever who was quite good with the Rangers in 2019-20 right the ship, but Montero’s inclusion doesn’t appear to be a key part of the swap. At best he’s a roll of the dice, and at worst he’s a financial counterweight who could be cut loose quickly if his struggles persist.

The same is largely true of Smith, who opted out of the 2020 season after signing a two-year deal in Houston and has been clobbered for a 7.48 ERA in 21 2/3 innings this year. Some of that has been attributable to a sky-high .413 batting average on balls in play, but Smith is sporting a career-low strikeout rate, a grounder rate that’s well off his peak levels and has also been quite homer-prone. As with Houston and Montero, perhaps the Mariners have an idea or two about how to get the veteran righty back on track, but the trade is much more about Graveman and Toro than about the struggling relievers accompanying those two players.

Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times first tweeted that Toro and a reliever were going to the Mariners in exchange for two players. MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart provided the full context on the trade.

Mariners Designate Rafael Montero For Assignment

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The Mariners announced Friday that they’ve designated right-hander Rafael Montero for assignment. His spot on the active and 40-man rosters will go to righty Casey Sadler, who has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list.

Acquired from the Rangers in an offseason trade that sent a pair of 18-year-old prospects — righty Jose Corniell and infielder Andres Mesa — to the Rangers, Montero opened the season as the closer in Seattle. He struggled early in the year and eventually relinquished that ninth-inning job to breakout righty Kendall Graveman.

Montero never found much consistency, even in a setup capacity, but his results dating back to the end of June have just become too much for the club to overlook. Montero has not only been scored upon in seven of his past eight appearances — he’s given up multiple runs in each of those seven outings. Since June 25, he’s pitched to a whopping 13.09 ERA in 11 innings — surrendering 16 runs on 25 hits and four walks with 11 punchouts in that time. That brutal stretch has ballooned his season ERA all the way to 7.27.

As rough as the 2021 season has been for Montero, the former Mets farmhand was quite good in his two seasons with Texas. He signed with the Rangers while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and eventually made his debut partway through the 2019 season, slowly earning the team’s trust in higher-leverage spots. By the 2020 season he was the primary closer in Arlington, leading the club with eight saves. Montero’s two years in Texas produced a 3.09 ERA with a strong 28.6 percent strikeout rate against just a 5.9 percent walk rate.

Things clearly didn’t work out in Seattle, and the Mariners will now have a week to trade Montero, place him on outright waivers or simply release him. He’s on a $2.25MM salary, making it highly unlikely that a team would either trade for him or claim him on waivers if placed there. And, even if Montero goes unclaimed, he reached five years of Major League service time in 2021, giving him the right to reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency — without forfeiting the remaining guarantee on his deal.

As such, it seems quite likely that today will spell the end of Montero’s time with the organization. If he does either receive his release or reject an outright assignment, he’ll hit the open market in search of a change of scenery and fresh opportunity. Given how well Montero pitched in 2019-20, other clubs would surely have interest on what would essentially be a free look.

As for the 31-year-old Sadler, he’ll return to the Mariners and look to build on what was a strong start to his time with the club. Seattle plucked him off waivers out of the Cubs organization in 2020, and he’s proceeded to give them 21 innings of 3.00 ERA relief work dating back to the time of that claim. Sadler has fanned exactly a quarter of the 88 batters he’s faced as a Mariner and kept the ball on the ground at a roughly 44 percent clip as well.

Rangers, Mariners Complete Rafael Montero Deal

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The Rangers have acquired minor league shortstop Andres Mesa from the Mariners as the player to be named later from last December’s Rafael Montero trade. The two parties had until tomorrow to agree on the player involved, as PTBNLs must be determined within six months of a trade’s completion. Mesa has been assigned to the Rangers’ affiliate in the Dominican Summer League.

Mesa, 18, was signed as an international prospect in the summer of 2019, landing a $500K bonus from the Mariners. He’s yet to play in an official game with the Mariners yet thanks to lack of any minor league competition in 2020. At the time of his signing, Baseball America’s Ben Badler called Mesa a plus runner with a “huge” arm and the athleticism to handle an up-the-middle position, be it shortstop, second base or center field.

Mesa becomes the second member of the Mariners 2019-20 international class to join the Rangers as part of the deal. Seventeen-year-old righty Jose Corniell was announced to be part of the trade at the time of the swap, and he currently ranks as the Rangers’ No. 29 prospect at MLB.com. That both players acquired are so young and so far from MLB readiness is a reflection of the younger direction the Rangers have taken over the course of the past year.

The acquisition of Montero hasn’t gone as well as the Mariners would’ve hoped. The former Mets top prospect was quite good in a resurgent showing with Texas from 2019-20, pitching to a combined 3.09 ERA with a hefty 28.9 percent strikeout rate and a tiny 5.9 percent walk rate. He’s sitting on a 5.21 ERA through 28 2/3 frames as a Mariner, and while a pair of rough outings in particular skew that ERA, the overall results have taken a dive from Montero’s 2019-20 levels. He’s striking out far fewer batters and issuing more walks, which have combined to offset an overwhelming uptick in ground-ball rate.

Montero isn’t giving up much in the way of hard contact, and fielding-independent numbers are more bullish on him than that bottom-line ERA, so there’s still some hope of a turnaround. He’s also controlled into the 2022 season via arbitration, so if he is ultimately able to right the ship, he has some value to the Mariners beyond the current campaign.

Mariners Notes: Payroll, Flexen, Bullpen, Haniger

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The Mariners have just $51.5MM committed to 11 players for the upcoming season and are just shy of $14MM in guaranteed contracts on the books come 2022. (They also owe the D-backs $5MM this year as part of the Mike Leake trade.) Despite their wide-open payroll outlook, however, they haven’t been major players in free agency. That, reports Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times, is due in part to ownership placing unexpected limitations on the team’s spending this winter. Divish cites multiple sources in indicating that the current limitations are being put into place with an eye toward spending next winter, when the free-agent class is deeper and when the club has even fewer commitments on the books.

There’s still an argument to be made that the Mariners should still jump the market, given the remaining slate of appealing free agents and the seemingly limited market for some of the leading names. General manager Jerry Dipoto reiterated to reporters this week, after all, that competing for a playoff berth is something the club hopes to be possible. Adding even some mid-tier free agents could go a long way toward making that a reality, given the context of the AL West, but it doesn’t sound as though any major expenditures are in the offing at this time.

A few notes from Divish, 710 ESPN’s Shannon Drayer, and The Athletic’s Corey Brock after Dipoto’s media availability this week…

  • Newly signed right-hander Chris Flexen will be penciled into the Mariners’ rotation to begin the season, Dipoto revealed this week. Far from a household name, the 26-year-old Flexen was an up-and-down member of the Mets from 2017-19 before posting a dominant season with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Doosan Bears in 2020. The righty tossed 116 2/3 innings of 3.01 ERA ball, striking out 28 percent of his opponents against just a 6.4 percent walk rate. Flexen’s 21-start workload figures to be extra vital to the Mariners, given that most MLB pitchers were limited to around half that many starts. Seattle again plans to use a six-man rotation in 2021, per Dipoto. Drayer notes that the GM is “open” to adding another starter, with only four spots locked in right now (Flexen, Marco Gonzales, Justus Sheffield and Yusei Kikuchi).
  • Brock notes that right-hander Rafael Montero, acquired earlier this month in a trade with the Rangers, is the current favorite to open the season as the Mariners’ closer. Like Flexen, Montero is a former Mets prospect — a far more well-regarded one, having ranked among the game’s top 100 at one point — who didn’t find his footing in New York but has found success elsewhere. After missing a season due to Tommy John surgery, Montero landed in Texas on a minor league pact and returned to the big leagues to toss 46 2/3 innings of 3.09 ERA (3.34 SIERA) ball from 2019-20. Averaging a career-best 95.6 mph on his heater as a Ranger, Montero posted a 28.6 percent strikeout rate and a 5.9 percent walk rate. He’s controlled another two years and will give the Mariners a power option to lock things down.
  • “We continue to be connected to free agents we think can make us better, and specifically we would like to add a little bit more depth to that bullpen, if that’s possible,” Dipoto said (via Divish). There’s no clear indication of the number at which ownership has capped payroll, so the extent of the Mariners’ free-agent targets is a bit tough to gauge. MLB.com’s Jon Morosi reported earlier this week that the M’s are interested in veteran Joakim Soria, although he’s presumably just one of many potential targets.
  • In some good news on the injury front, the Mariners expect right fielder Mitch Haniger to be ready to take the field when camp opens. Dipoto noted that a healthy Haniger is the team’s “best player,” adding that he looks “terrific physically.” It’s been a brutal road of freak injuries for Haniger, whose health woes began in 2019 when he sustained a ruptured testicle due to a terribly placed foul ball. Haniger required surgery to address that injury, and while he began a rehab assignment two months later, he was quickly shut down due to back discomfort. As it turned out, Haniger tore an adductor muscle off the bone during that rehab stint, leading to subsequent core muscle and microdiscectomy surgeries. If he is indeed able to suit up to begin the year, it’ll mark a nearly two-year road back to the Mariners’ big league roster. The now-30-year-old Haniger appeared on the cusp of stardom for the Mariners as recently as 2018, when he made the All-Star team and slashed .285/.366/.493 with 26 home runs, 38 doubles, four triples, eight steals (in ten tries) and 10 Defensive Runs Saved in right field.

Players Avoiding Arbitration: 1/15/21

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The deadline to exchange arbitration figures is today at 1pm ET. As of this morning, there were 125 arbitration-eligible players who’d yet to agree to terms on their contract for the upcoming 2021 season. Arbitration is muddier than ever before thanks to the shortened 2020 schedule, which most believe will lead to record number of arb hearings this winter. Be that as it may, it’s still reasonable to expect dozens of contractual agreements to filter in over the next couple of hours.

We’ll highlight some of the more high-profile cases in separate posts with more in-depth breakdowns, but the majority of today’s dealings will be smaller-scale increases that don’t radically alter a team’s payroll or a player’s trade candidacy. As such, we’ll just run through most of today’s agreements in this post.

I’ve embedded MLBTR’s 2021 Arbitration Tracker in the post (those in the mobile app or viewing on mobile web will want to turn their phones sideways). Our tracker can be sorted by team, by service time and/or by Super Two status, allowing users to check the status on whichever groups of players they like. You can also check out Matt Swartz’s projected arbitration salaries for this year’s class, and we’ll do a quick sentence on each player’s agreement at the bottom of this post as well, with the most recent agreements sitting atop the list.

Today’s Agreements (chronologically, newest to oldest)

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Mariners To Acquire Rafael Montero

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The Mariners and Rangers have agreed to a trade that will sent right-hander Rafael Montero to Seattle, ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter link).  Texas will receive right-handed pitching prospect Jose Corniell in return, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports (Twitter links), with Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram adding that the Rangers will also get a second prospect.  That other minor leaguer is a player to be named later, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post.

Relief pitching was a major offseason target for the Mariners, and GM Jerry Dipoto will now add a talented reliever from within the AL West.  Montero posted a 4.08 ERA, 3.17 K/BB rate, and 9.7 K/9 over 17 2/3 innings last season, with ERA predictors painting a pretty solid view of his work (3.70 FIP, 4.85 xFIP, 4.00 SIERA), as his very low 49.4% strand rate was at least somewhat balanced out by a .227 BABIP.

2020 marked Montero’s first full (or as full as could be, given the shortened schedule) season back after he missed all of 2018 recovering from Tommy John surgery.  Montero returned to toss 29 innings out of the Texas bullpen in 2019, looking very impressive in posting a 2.48 ERA.

Once a highly-touted prospect during his time in the Mets farm system, Montero never really clicked while pitching in parts of four (2014-17) seasons in New York.  Shoulder injuries, frequent shuttles up and down between Triple-A and the big leagues, and moving between both starting and relieving all contributed to Montero posting a 5.38 ERA over 192 1/3 innings in a Mets uniform.

The Amazins cut him loose following the 2018 season and Montero then inked a minor league deal with Texas, where he has gotten his career back on track.  The move to full-time relief work has unlocked some extra velocity for Montero even post-TJ surgery.  He has averaged 95.7mph on his fastball in 2019-20, after never topping the 93.7mph mark in his first four seasons.

Montero completed all eight of his save chances for Texas in 2020, and now looks to be the favorite to work as the closer in a Mariners bullpen that is lacking in ninth-inning answers.  Montero turned 30 in October, though while he isn’t all that young, he is still controllable for two more seasons, projected to earn between $1.4MM and $2.5MM in his second trip through the arbitration process.

The trade marks another step in the Rangers’ plan to get younger this winter, as the team embarks on a mini-rebuild.  (Moving Montero also clears a 40-man roster spot for the newly-signed David Dahl.)  Given the low cost involved in acquiring Montero, trading him for a couple of young prospects isn’t a bad return for Texas, especially considering the relative difficulty in offering bullpen help in trade talks given the large number of other relievers available in free agency.

Corniell is only 17 years old, and was brought aboard by the M’s when the 2019-20 international signing window opened.  He has yet to begin his pro career thanks to the minor league shutdown in 2020, but MLB.com ranks Corniell as the 24th-best prospect in Seattle’s farm system, touting a solid three-pitch arsenal of a changeup, a “power curve,” and a fastball that can hit the mid-90’s.

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