When the Yankees acquired Frankie Montas on August 1, the day before the close, the franchise and its fans celebrated.
The Reds had already traded Luis Castillo to the Mariners – he has since signed a five-year extension with Seattle – so Montas, who is considered by many to be the second best starter on the market due to his work with the Oakland Athletics, is a welcome consolation prize.
“I know he’s going to be a great addition to the team,” manager Aaron Boone said after the Yankees sent minor league infielder Cooper Bowman and young pitchers Ken Waldichuk, Luis Medina and JP Sears to Oakland.
But Montas’ Yankees career immediately went sideways. He struggled in his first eight starts for the team before landing on the 15-day injury list with a shoulder injury that had plagued him in Oakland. And now that the Yankees are one win away from winning the American League East, there’s no guarantee Montas, 29, will return to the team’s rotation, let alone the postseason frontline starter, that some had imagined.
“It probably gets to a point where it gets tough, like a buildable starting option,” Boone said of Montas Sunday. “That could be a challenge, but I think there’s a chance he could play a role and influence us.”
Boone alluded to finding alternative ways to field Montas, who posted a 6.35 ERA in his first 39⅔ innings for New York. That could mean coming out of the bullpen or being part of a piggyback setup where two pitchers split the innings normally given to one starter.
Montas last served on Sept. 16, giving the Milwaukee Brewers four earned runs over three and a half innings. An MRI was done and Montas was listed as injured on September 20 (backdated to September 17) with inflammation in his right shoulder. He was given a cortisone shot and the Yankees had planned to keep him from pitching for at least 10 days.
On Sunday, Montas said he was feeling “better” and hoping to be able to “play tag very soon”. Boone said Monday that he expects Montas to start throwing this week. After being drafted into the IL, Montas had expressed optimism about contributing to the Yankees’ postseason effort.
“I still want to go back and try to help the team in the playoffs,” he told reporters. “You know, whenever I can.”
But with less than two weeks left in the regular season, Montas won’t be able to take on the full workload of a starter. Even if he could, it’s not necessarily clear that the Yankees would have a spot for him.
New York certainly wasn’t imagining it when the team swapped for the right-hander. Montas had a 3.18 ERA across 19 starts for athletics this season and had a 3.37 mark with Oakland in 2021. But a shoulder injury in July that Boone described as a “hiccup” may have been a bigger problem than anyone thought. Montas was still building arm strength at the time of the trade, and his recent stint in IL prompted him to admit he “probably rushed” his return over the summer.
However, Montas blamed his belongings — not his shoulder — for his pinstripe issues.
“I’ve had games where I haven’t really mastered my fastball or secondary courts,” Montas said said after its last start. “But I feel like I have a bit of luck, it’s not really on my side but I keep going out there and trying to do my best.”
Luckily for the Yankees, Gerrit Cole, Nestor Cortes, Luis Severino and Jameson Taillon provide the team with four solid starters for the postseason, although Severino is still building from his own long stint in IL. He served in Toronto on Monday, allowing two earned runs over four innings in a 3-2 10-inning loss.
Even with that loss, the Yankees are one win away from securing a division title and a first-round bye in the playoffs, with several players recently returning from the IL to add needed depth. It’s an enviable position, but Montas isn’t the team’s only question mark.
With nine games remaining in the regular season, Aaron Hicks’ status is uncertain at best. The fielder has been relatively successful, going 7 for 18 with two homers in his last six games. But that can’t make up for a struggling season that prompted the Yankees to trade for center fielder Harrison Bader.
While Andrew Benintendi is still working his way back from a broken hamate bone in his hand, the Yankees’ preferred left fielder appears to be rookie Oswaldo Cabrera. And if Matt Carpenter and DJ LeMahieu can return from injury, it would limit Hicks’ options even further.
And then there’s the Yankees’ bullpen, which has many talented guns but no clear-cut approach. The prospect of Aroldis Chapman, the team’s longtime finisher, getting a postseason roster spot was a topic of conversation after the New York Post reported that the organization was considering designating the left-hander for the assignment.
Chapman, a forthcoming free agent, was unreliable, posting a 4.36 ERA over 33 innings. He lost his senior job to Clay Holmes earlier this season, though Holmes, an All-Star, has had his own tough stretches since. Fluidity has resulted in the Yankees using 11 different relievers to record saves this season.
On Sunday, Boone was asked directly if he could trust Chapman in high-leverage situations.
“Well, we’ll see,” Boone said. “Right now I tend to use it in low and medium leverage situations.
“Physically, I feel like it’s still there. The stuff is there. He has shown flashes of it throughout the season and even into the second half of the season. So we must continue to seize every opportunity and then we will make that decision.”