Scottsdale, Arizona – The past 16 months have played like a recall of the Jordanian Montgomery. Like the 2.0 version of “Damn Yankees,” the left-hander pitches his soul to a key contributor of the first championship team in Rangers history, and in return receives shock, controversy and pitching calamity.
Shorthand: Montgomery is selling in free agency following the 2023 stretch run/postseason excellence with Texas. He wanted to go back to rangers who cut their spending due to uncertainty about local television revenue. Last season began for a year in Arizona, so I stayed in the market before signing. He condemned him and eventually fired his agent, Scott Bolas. I rushed for spring training before joining Diamondbacks three weeks later. He had a heavier pitch than before, and was injured in a point pulled out of the rotation in August, making it ineffective.
Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick tore Montgomery's signature as a “terrifying decision” after Arizona lost a tiebreaker to the Braves and Mets to miss the playoffs. Despite this, Montgomery was pitching very poorly (ERA 6.23, worst in MLB is the worst in at least 100 innings), so he chose a $22.5 million 2025 contract. This led to him being involved in many trade rumors. Nothing was completed. So he's fighting in the fifth starter spot in spring training, with two players getting much less accomplished by Linnelson and Brandon Pfaadt.
And to show how demonic the previous Yankee details are, it was raining in the match against the Angels when Montgomery was late with an injury to his left index finger, and when he was about to make his spring debut on Friday.
