6-29-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
With the potential for a rare sweep against the Mets today, the Pirates will look to continue riding this torrid offense against veteran Frankie Montas.
Montas is in his 11th season with his 6th MLB team and, outside of a 5.5 year stretch with the Athletics, has been frequently on the move.
Signed as an amateur free agent by the Boston Red Sox in 2009, Montas was dealt to the Chicago White Sox in 2013 as part of a 3-team trade, making his major league debut with the club in 2015.
He was then shipped to the Dodgers in another 3-team trade that offseason before another move sent him to the A’s in August of 2016.
Montas found success with Oakland, posting a 3.70 ERA over parts of six seasons with the club and finishing 6th in Cy Young voting following the 2021 campaign.
He was traded two more times though, getting sent to the New York Yankees in 2022 and then, after signing a one-year deal with the Cincinnati Reds ahead of the 2024 season, was traded to the Brewers ahead of the July deadline before signing a 2-year, $34M deal with the Mets this past offseason.
Coming off a delayed start to his season as a result of high-grade lat strain suffered during spring training, he is looking to get comfortable with his new club.
The 32-year old right-hander has a fastball-heavy arsenal with both his 4-seam and sinker posting above average velocity as they both sit in the mid-90s.
He adds in a low-90s cutter, a mid-80s slider/sweeper and splitter.
In his first action with the Mets, he blanked the Braves over 5 innings of 3-hit ball, generating a surprising 50% whiff rate on his 4-seamer.
Despite pitching for two divisional opponents in 2024, Montas has not faced the Pirates since a May 5, 2019 so not a ton of experience against today’s starter, though Adam Frazier went 1-3 with a double against him in that outing.
Walks have been a recurring issue for Montas with 66 free passes over 150.2 innings last year and 3 in his game against the Braves last week.
Hitters should expect a heavy dose of 4-seamers up in the zone and 2-seamers down running glove-side. They will need to be ready to time up the velocity while staying on the breaking balls which he works low in the zone.
He struggled in his rehab starts with a 12.05 ERA through 18.2 innings so maybe the strong first game with the Mets was a blip, or maybe these numbers were a result of him going through his late spring training regimen to get into regular season form.
Either way, the Pirates need to stay calm, cool, collected and ready to break out the brooms this afternoon.
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