Mets address starting pitching by signing Frankie Montas

The Mets made their first major free agent pickup of the offseason, as they signed Frankie Montas to a two-year deal with a player option for a third season late Sunday night. Montas fits the same general profile of last year’s signings of Sean Manaea and Luis Severino, as he is a pitcher who’s had MLB success in the past but has not been all that great recently.

Montas split time last year between the Reds and Brewers, making 30 starts with a 4.84 ERA. This came after missing all but one game in the 2023 season with shoulder problems. Montas’ best season came with the A’s in 2021, where in 187 IP he went 13-9 with a 3.37 ERA and notched a 4.0 fWAR.

After being traded to the Brewers, Montas responded with his best pitching down the stretch. In eight starts from 8/8-9/17, Montas had a 3.35 ERA in 48.2 IP. He struck out 55 batters in this span and allowed just five homers. But he was hit hard in his last two starts of the season. In those games, Montas allowed 9 ER in 6.2 IP, including 2 ER in 4 IP against the Mets in his final start of the regular season.

The newest Met comes with a full arsenal, as Montas throws a 4-seamer, 2-seamer, a splitter, a cutter and a slider. He had his best results last year with his sinker, which he threw 19.1% of the time. His worst pitch was the slider, so it will be interesting to see if the Mets work to change the shape of that pitch or have Montas ditch it all together.

Before the shoulder trouble, Montas’ fastball was regularly in the 96 mph range. With the Reds this past season, Montas’ average velocity with his four-seamer was 95.2 mph but with the Brewers he was back up to 96.3, with him throwing the fastball roughly one-third of the time.

In his 11 starts with the Brewers, Montas had a 10.99 K/9. That’s very impressive. Unfortunately, he had a 3.92 BB/9. Earlier in his career, Montas had very good walk rates, posting a sub-3.00 BB/9 in every full season from 2018-2022. Hopefully being further removed from his shoulder woes, Montas can improve with his walks allowed in 2025.

It seems likely that Montas will replace Severino in the rotation for the Mets. Hopefully he will be able to stay healthy next season, maintain his strikeout rate and improve his walks allowed. If Montas can do all that, he’ll have an excellent shot to out-produce Severino in 2025.