The Diamondbacks have received recent trade interest from a couple teams in Jordan Montgomery, reports John Gambadoro of 98.7 FM in Phoenix. There’s no indication that a pre-Opening Day deal is likely, but it’s notable those conversations have continued with the regular season eight days away.
As has been the case all offseason, the contract is the big impediment. Montgomery will play this year on a $22.5MM salary. That’s a sum no team was going to take in full. It’s especially difficult to offload a significant portion of the money at this point. Most teams have neared or reached the payroll at which they’re willing to spend before the season.
That’s reflected in the comparatively low costs of free agent starting pitching. Jose Quintana and Andrew Heaney — both of whom are coming off better seasons than Montgomery just had — signed one-year deals worth less than $6MM after camp opened. Kyle Gibson, Spencer Turnbull and Lance Lynn remain unsigned and are presumably looking at even lesser guarantees. It makes a Spring Training deal difficult to pull off. Other teams would presumably want Arizona to pay Montgomery’s contract down to a few million dollars while accepting a middling return.
The Diamondbacks haven’t shown that level of desperation to deal the veteran lefty, though they’d clearly welcome an opportunity to make a move. Montgomery pitched his way out of last year’s rotation. He finished the year with a 6.23 earned run average over 117 innings. His strikeout rate fell from roughly league average to a career-worst 15.6% clip.
Things weren’t quite so bleak on a per-pitch basis. Montgomery got whiffs on 12.3% of his offerings, which is in line with his career average. He’d posted three consecutive sub-4.00 ERA showings with solid peripherals between 2021-23. Montgomery didn’t sign until Opening Day last year after a frustrating free agent sequence, presumably leading to some level of rust. The context provides hope he can at least recapture back-of-the-rotation form, but he won’t have a path to the Opening Day rotation in the desert.
Arizona added Corbin Burnes to a staff that already included Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez and Brandon Pfaadt. Righty Ryne Nelson might be pushed to Triple-A to begin the season. Nelson had a 3.23 ERA in the second half last season. The Snakes stuck with him in the rotation down the stretch while pushing Montgomery to the bullpen. Even if he begins the season in…
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