After beating Arizona in last year’s World Series, Jordan Montgomery has joined the Diamondbacks via … [+] free agency. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
Jordan Montgomery is no longer the last man left in the free-agent market.
The coveted left-handed pitcher is in agreement with the Arizona Diamondbacks, last year’s National League champions, on a one-year deal that guarantees him $25MM.
The pact, first reported by Jeff Passan of ESPN, comes two days before the start of the 2024 season. Jon Heyman of The New York Post and Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY reported details of the surprise Tuesday night deal, which ends months of speculation involving the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, and Texas Rangers.
The contract includes a $20MM vesting player option for the 2025 season, with the pitcher earning the ability to opt out if he starts at least 10 times this season. The option would vest at $20MM if he makes ten starts, with an additional $2.5MM added to the option upon reaching 18 starts and 23 starts in 2024.
Montgomery, 31, pitched for the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals before joining the Texas Rangers at the 2023 mid-season trading deadline. Three months later, he helped the Rangers win their first world championship by defeating the Diamondbacks. Both teams were wild-card winners.
With the powerful Los Angeles Dodgers also in the their division, the D’backs may have a tough time defending the NL pennant – especially since Eduardo Rodriguez, another lefty signed as a free agent, is already on the club’s injured list with a lat strain and no timetable for his return. Rodriguez got four years for $80 million in December.
Once he’s ready, Montgomery will help pick up the slack. Arizona hopes he maintains the high performance level he showed last year, when he posted a 2.79 earned run average during the last two months of the regular season and a 2.90 ERA in 31 post-season innings.
The Diamondbacks will be his fourth team in three seasons.
He’ll join a rotation that includes Zac Gallen, who started the 2023 All-Star Game for the National League, and returnees Merrill Kelly and Brandon Pfaadt.
A survivor of Tommy John elbow surgery, Montgomery may need a month in the minors to make up for missing all of 2024 spring training. That stint will make him ineligible to receive a qualifying offer from the D’backs in case he becomes a free agent again this fall.
Montgomery was the last of the “Boras Five,” a quintet of veteran stars represented by super-agent Scott Boras who held out into March while hoping their demands for more dollars and years would prove more attractive to prospective suitors.
During the 30-game exhibition schedule, however, most clubs filled their holes with other players, leaving Blake Snell, Cody Bellinger, and J.D. Martinez, Matt Chapman, and Montgomery to accept shorter and smaller deals than they had expected.
As for Montgomery, the 6-6 southpaw posted a 38-34 lifetime record and 3.68 earned run average over his seven-year career, which began with the Yankees in 2017. His record last year was 10-11 despite a good 3.20 ERA. He has never won more than 10 games in a season, however.
Montgomery owns a 3-1 record and 2.63 ERA in post-season action (six starts).
Arizona finished second to the Dodgers last year with an 84-78 record that left them 16 games out of first place. Seeking to close the gap, the D’backs re-signed Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. and added Joc Pederson, Randal Grichuk, Eugenio Suarez, Rodriguez, and Montgomery.
Even winning a wild-card spot again may prove difficult for the D’backs. The San Francisco Giants, also hoping to challenge the Dodgers for supremacy in the NL West, signed both Snell and Chapman as well as Jorge Soler, Jung Hoo Lee, and Jordan Hicks during an active off-season.
According to Spotrac, Arizona’s projected payroll of $131,511,716 ranks 16th among the 30 clubs.
