Frankie Montas Trade Rumors: Ranking Potential Landing Spots for A's Pitcher
Frankie Montas' time with the Oakland Athletics sure seems to be of the "borrowed" variety.
After finishing in sixth place in the voting for the American League Cy Young Award in 2021, Montas is back at it again in 2022 with a 3.28 ERA through 10 starts. He's also struck out 66—including 28 by way of his dazzling splitter—and walked only 15, leaving little question about his status as one of the top starting pitchers in Major League Baseball.
The A's, though, are right where anyone could have expected after they strip-mined their roster in the weeks leading up to Opening Day: in last place in the AL West at 20-31.
TOP NEWS
Assessing Every MLB Team's Development System ⚾
.png?w=256)
10 Scorching MLB Takes 🌶️
Yankees Call Up 6'7" Prospect 📈
It's a small miracle that Montas was spared from the fire sale, so it's no wonder that the trade winds swirling around him have only intensified. On May 19, Jon Heyman of the New York Post tabbed Montas as MLB's top trade candidate and pointed to five potential suitors for the 29-year-old right-hander, whose club control runs through 2023.
We're going to size up how those teams rank as fits for Montas based on the strength of their need for him, their respective contention windows and their tradeable assets. But first, we simply had to speculate on five other teams that could possibly make a run at him.
Speculative Speed Round: Mariners, Blue Jays, Rays, Giants and Brewers
10. Seattle Mariners
What started as a promising season for the Mariners has since gone sideways, as they've lost 22 of their last 31 games. This perhaps makes the M's an unlikely buyer on the summer market, but president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto loves to trade, and Montas would be an upgrade for the club's struggling rotation for both this year and the next.
9. Toronto Blue Jays
Shockingly, it has been the Blue Jays' offense that has let the team down the most so far in 2022. But while they can and should be patient there, they should have Montas in mind as a contingency plan for Hyun-Jin Ryu. The veteran southpaw has already been on the injured list once with forearm inflammation, and he exited his last outing with tightness in his elbow.
8. Tampa Bay Rays
As Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported in March, the Rays were in on Montas while Oakland offloaded its talent. Their rotation has put up a 3.39 ERA but the second-fewest innings in the league. Maybe this doesn't mean they need Montas, but he'd be a good stabilizer for the stretch run and, in all likelihood, October as well.
7. San Francisco Giants
When he was the general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi traded for Montas in 2015 and then traded him away in 2016. If he's feeling squeamish about a starting rotation that's been hit-or-miss outside of aces Logan Webb and Carlos Rodon, maybe he'll go back to the Montas well for the third time.
6. Milwaukee Brewers
With their offense cranking out home runs and their pitchers excelling to the tune of a 3.28 ERA, the Brewers look even more dangerous than they were in 2021. However, the staff is down a man thanks to Freddy Peralta's shoulder strain, so president of baseball operations David Stearns should be considering Montas as a bulwark against regression.
5. New York Yankees
When Heyman identified the Yankees as a possible landing spot for Montas in his most recent report, it wasn't for the first time. He also tweeted this in March:
What's changed since this initial report is that the Yankees starting rotation has not only met expectations but blown them away. It's been a huge part of the club's 33-15 start, posting an AL-best 2.82 ERA and an MLB-best 6.6 rWAR.
Still, you don't have to strain your eyes to see why Montas could still make sense for the Bronx Bombers.
They can feel confident in Gerrit Cole's ability to eat innings, but Luis Severino and Jameson Taillon both come with crowded injury histories. Ascendant left-hander Nestor Cortes is already almost halfway to his professional peak of 115 innings, while fellow southpaw Jordan Montgomery has never pitched more than 160 innings in his own right.
Even if none of them breaks down before the Aug. 2 trade deadline, the Yankees could make a move for Montas as a sort of safety measure. Such a move would make even more sense in the event that somebody does break down before the deadline.
However, it's fair to ask whether the Yankees should be focused on luxuries like extra starting pitching while they have actual needs to address.
Their bullpen is perilously thin on depth in the wake of the bad injury news they've gotten on Chad Green (Tommy John surgery), Jonathan Loaisiga (shoulder inflammation) and Aroldis Chapman (Achilles tendinitis). To make matters worse, Michael King has hit the skids with a 7.15 ERA over his last seven appearances.
4. St. Louis Cardinals
The Cardinals have also gotten a lift from their starting pitching amid their 27-21 start to the season, receiving a 3.87 ERA that ranks fifth in the National League.
That has a lot to do with the combined 2.97 ERA of Adam Wainwright, Miles Mikolas and Dakota Hudson. Meanwhile, the club's other starters have been all over the map, and the injury bug has also been a factor.
The good news is that Jack Flaherty and Steven Matz should be back soon from shoulder maladies, and ditto for Jordan Hicks if he can avoid complications with his strained forearm flexor.
What could push the Cardinals to pursue Montas is the general cloud of uncertainty that hangs over those three hurlers.
The hard-throwing Hicks has had Tommy John surgery in the past and is arguably miscast as a starter, as he's generally only been good for around 80 pitches and five innings even on his good days. Flaherty also had issues with his shoulder in 2021, and Matz took a 6.03 ERA with him when he landed on the IL.
Montas thus makes sense for the Cardinals as an insurance policy. And because their starters are only averaging 7.3 strikeouts per nine innings, his ability to miss bats would be an added bonus.
A bigger complication here could be Montas' price tag. As Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported in April, the A's were angling for Andrew Vaughn in talks with the Chicago White Sox. If they were to set their sights similarly high in discussions with the Cardinals, it figures that slugger Nolan Gorman or left-hander Matthew Liberatore would be on their radar.
With both currently starring at the major league level, that could be a non-starter for the Cardinals.
3. Chicago White Sox
Speaking of the White Sox, they're presumably no more willing to give up Vaughn than they were before the start of the season. The former No. 3 pick is making good on his breakout potential with a 122 OPS+ through 30 games.
Trouble is, the White Sox also have an even stronger need for Montas now than they did before.
They were justified in hoping that 2015 AL Cy Young Award winner Dallas Keuchel would rebound from a difficult 2021 season, but that just didn't happen. The veteran southpaw pitched to an ugly 7.88 ERA before the White Sox, who are just 23-23 out of the gate after winning the AL Central last year, finally designated him for assignment on Saturday.
Though this puts Chicago's rotation down a man, for now, Lance Lynn is on the comeback trail from knee surgery and is expected to return in the middle of June.
Even once Lynn is back, though, there would still be a role for Montas to play on the White Sox. At the least, he would be a superior option over Johnny Cueto and Vince Velasquez at the back end of the rotation. At the most, he would be insurance for the event that breakout ace Michael Kopech breaks down as he approaches his professional high of 134.1 innings.
The catch here is twofold.
For one, the White Sox may not have enough to satisfy the A's in trade talks if they rightfully remain unwilling to budge on Vaughn. We have Chicago's farm system ranked at No. 26 in MLB, with one of its issues being a lack of impact talent in the upper levels.
For two, it's bats that the White Sox really need right now, and not just because they're 28th in the majors in runs scored. Shortstop Tim Anderson (strained groin) and slugger Eloy Jimenez (torn hamstring) are both on the IL, while third baseman Yoan Moncada and centerfielder Luis Robert are banged up.
2. Minnesota Twins
Elsewhere in the AL Central, the Twins are another team whose connections to Montas run deep.
As Jon Morosi of MLB.com reported at the time, the righty was on Minnesota's radar pretty much as soon as the lockout ended on March 10:
This was after the Twins had already traded for Sonny Gray, and they ultimately pivoted away from Montas and filled the remaining slots in their starting rotation through a trade for Chris Paddack and a free-agent deal with Chris Archer.
Cut to now, and Archer has had a relatively minor impact in pitching to a 4.19 ERA over nine starts, not one of which lasted even five innings. At least he's healthy, whereas Paddack is done for the year with Tommy John surgery, and Gray will likely land on the IL for a couple of weeks with pectoral tightness.
Considering how fellow newcomer Dylan Bundy has been hit-or-miss in pitching to a 4.76 ERA in his eight starts, the Twins could clearly use another reliable arm alongside Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober. This, naturally, is where Montas would come in.
The Twins are a better fit for Montas than the White Sox just in this regard, yet they're also in a better position to go for it. They lead the AL Central at 29-20, and Carlos Correa's potential opt-out gives them still further incentive to put all their chips on making a deep playoff run this year.
As far as what the Twins could offer for Montas, their best hope of enticing the A's might involve dangling some of the top players from their loaded Double-A roster. Namely: infielder/outfielder Austin Martin or right-handers Simeon Woods Richardson or Matt Canterino.
1. New York Mets
It sure doesn't seem like a coincidence that the day that Heyman linked the Mets to Montas was the same day that they put three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer on the IL.
It would be one thing if it were just Scherzer, but the Mets had also recently placed breakout righty Tylor Megill on the injured list with inflammation in his biceps. The IL has also housed two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom since the start of the season, and there's still no clear timeline for when he'll return from a stress reaction in his scapula.
As a result of these absences, a Mets rotation that wasn't especially deep to begin with now looks dangerously shallow. It's Chris Bassitt, Carlos Carrasco, Taijuan Walker, David Peterson, and then who knows?
Despite this, we'll hear any argument that the Mets can afford to be patient. They're essentially running unopposed in the NL East so far, as their 33-17 record puts them 9.5 games up on Atlanta for the division lead. Barring a total collapse, that lead should last until Scherzer, deGrom and Megill are able to rejoin the rotation.
Even if that does prove to be the case, though, these Mets aren't just trying to win the division for the first time since 2015. Their real mission is to win the World Series for the first time since 1986. And for this, whatever they leave to chance will arguably be too much.
It seems fair to assume that the Mets wouldn't part with 20-year-old catcher Francisco Alvarez, who we ranked as MLB's No. 9 prospect coming into the year, in a trade for Montas. But even if that's the case, third baseman Brett Baty and shortstop Ronny Mauricio would still give them two blue-chip talents with which to barter.
Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.
.png?w=480)
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
