Jesus Montero Dies at Age 35, Former MLB Catcher Played for Yankees and Mariners

The New York Yankees announced Sunday that former catcher Jesús Montero died at the age of 35.

Montero started his MLB career in New York, which originally signed him in 2006. The Yanks traded him to the Seattle Mariners in 2012, and he spent four seasons in the Pacific Northwest.

Across 226 appearances, the Venezuelan batted .253 with 28 home runs and 104 RBI. He slugged .398 with a 94 OPS+.

Montero garnered a ton of hype early into his pro career. Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus both had him as a top-10 prospect in all of MLB in 2010, 2011 and 2012. In his fourth game after getting called up by the Bronx Bombers in September 2011, he had two home runs in a win over the Baltimore Orioles.

The potential never materialized, though. The power Montero displayed in Triple-A in 2010 (21 home runs and a .517 slugging percentage) didn't translate in the bigs.

Montero's Mariners tenure was perhaps most notable for an incident in 2014 when he attempted to confront a team scout during a minor league rehab assignment game.

After Seattle waived him in March 2016, Montero had stints with the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles but failed to progress past their farm systems.