Helped the Astros win a second World Series. Also, don’t forget because of his shutout inning at the top of ninth, he helped make way for this: I’ll remember him fondly for the 2022 season. Wish him well going forward.
You and Nook definitely led the charge for supporting this deal. Nook to this day will not admit the contract was a profound mistake. Hell I kept arguing with him about 2023 when Montero's WHIP was out of control early in the season but his ERA hadn't reflected it yet. I predicted a collapse and then came the downfall of the next 2 months and his ERA ballooning well over 6. And now we see Stanek's 2022 season and Neris' 2023 were one offs just the same. That was my point about Montero, and his prior track record was definitely worse than Stanek or Neris. Let him walk. And the now the ramifications have been felt at this trade deadline of 2024. Erase 8 or 9 million of that Montero deal replacing him with someone else that could do a better job and you're likely making different moves than what you saw in Kikuchi and Ferguson. Hell we might have a legitimate first baseman right now.
At the time, I was just looking at the market increasing and wanted to keep the 2022 bullpen together. I admit it was terrible. But was hopeful at the time. Same with Abreu. I was thrilled !
I think ANY extension for ANY reliever should be limited to: 1) a guy who has ++ stuff, is still young, and has multiple years of dominant performance without any bad seasons. 2) no injury history/risk other than just being a pitcher 3) should never be more than a 3 year commitment. 4) should never have an AAV of over $8-10M Ideally that means if a guy is great for the first 5 or 6 years of control then consider it. Never consider it before arbitration, as you still have 3 years of control anyway. That could potentially make a guy an Astro for up to 9 seasons. It's very rare for a RP to be good for 9 seasons. But based on requirements 1-4, I feel only about 5%, maybe less of pitchers would even be considered
Can someone explain to me how this works with Montero in the minor leagues. I assume he's not on the 40 man roster anymore since he got DFA'ed. If we bring him back up, would we have to ask his permission to send him down again? All so confusing. He hasn't given up a run since he's been down there and has struck out 8 of his last 9 batters.
He is not on the 40. You can add him to the 40-man and then call him up ("purchase his contract", technically) and if you eventually do want to send him down you would just DFA him again. No permission involved, no options, nada.
This, except just like the prior DFA, Montero could reject the assignment and become a FA if he wanted.
I don’t care how well he’s doing in aaa. There’s no way I want to see montero pitching in any high leverage situations at the mlb level.
