On Friday, the reigning Nationwide League champion Arizona Diamondbacks formally signed workhorse left-hander Jordan Montgomery to a one-year contract. The deal is reportedly value $25 million, and Montgomery will decide up a $20 million participant possibility for 2025 if he makes 10 begins. The 2025 wage can rise to $25 million if he makes 23 begins in 2024.
The D-Backs optioned Montgomery to Triple-A after the signing was made official. He’ll go to the minors to basically undergo a spring coaching program and get constructed up. Montgomery is aiming to affix the D-Backs on April 19, per the Arizona Republic.
Montgomery’s free company lasted longer than I am certain he would have preferred, and the D-Backs actually got here out of nowhere to signal him. Earlier than signing with Arizona, he was most related to Boston Purple Sox, a lot in order that he held a Zoom name with Purple Sox supervisor Alex Cora early in spring coaching. For what it is value, Montgomery’s spouse, McKenzie, is doing her medical residency in Boston.
Because it seems, the Purple Sox by no means actually had a lot of an opportunity to signal Montgomery. He most popular to not signal with the Boston as a result of he needs to win, experiences the New York Submit, and the Purple Sox have completed in final place thrice within the final 4 years. They’re projected to complete in final place once more this 12 months. The D-Backs, in the meantime, are coming off a visit to the World Sequence.
Cash talks, and I am certain there was some extent the place Montgomery would have gone to the Purple Sox, however Boston has considerably decreased payroll lately. Its $170 million Opening Day payroll this 12 months is down from $181 million final 12 months and $236 million in 2019, in keeping with Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Reducing payroll and signing free brokers do not combine.
Montgomery, 31, threw 188 2/3 innings with a 3.20 ERA for the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers final 12 months. He then chipped in 31 innings with a 2.90 within the postseason, and helped Texas win the franchise’s first World Sequence. Even when Montgomery reverts again to his 2021-22 type (3.65 ERA and 167.8 innings per 12 months), the D-Backs bought an absolute steal.
It must be famous that, as a result of he signed his contract Friday, Montgomery is not going to be eligible to obtain the qualifying supply after the season. He was not on the lively roster on Opening Day and is thus ineligible. Meaning he is not going to be hooked up to draft decide compensation if he hits the open market once more this winter.