Oakland Athletics Scouting Report On RHP Frankie Montas
Sep 23, 2015; Detroit, MI, USA; Chicago White Sox pitcher Frankie Moontas (60) pitches against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
The Oakland Athletics acquired RHP Frankie Montas from the Los Angeles Dodgers in a deadline deal. What kind of pitcher did they get?
Who Is He?
Montas was originally signed by the Boston Red Sox out of the Dominican Republic in 2009. He made his debut in the Dominican Summer League in 2010, and it wasn’t pleasant. He had a 9.55 ERA and a 2.12 WHIP over 21 2/3 innings.
He was sent back to the DSL the next summer and made just 5 appearances, throwing 12 2/3 innings, allowing a 4.26 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP but also with a 12/12 BB/K ratio. The Red Sox brought him state side in 2012, where he started with the Gulf Coast team, making 12 appearances, 9 of them starts, before being promoted for one start with the short-season New York-Penn League. Overall, he threw 44 1/3 innings, posting a 3.65 ERA and 1.17 WHIP with a 13/45 BB/K ratio.
Montas started the summer in the Boston organization before being a piece of the three-team Jose Iglesias trade that sent Iglesias from Boston to Detroit. He pitched the entire summer in the South Atlantic League, moving from Boston’s Greenville affiliate to the White Sox’s Kannapolis affiliate. All total, he made 24 appearances, 23 of them starts, spanning 111 innings, but they weren’t exactly pretty, with a 5.43 ERA, 1.48 WHIP, and 50/127 BB/K ratio.
2014 changed a lot of things for Montas. He worked with the White Sox in extended spring training after an injury, and he ended up spending time with the Arizona Rookie League, high-A Winston-Salem in the Carolina League, and AA Birmingham in the Southern League. He made only 15 starts, throwing 81 innings, but those innings were tremendous, as he totaled a 1.44 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 22/80 BB/K. The White Sox sent the hard-thrower to the Arizona Fall League to get some more innings in, and he made a big impression there, throwing 23 innings over 6 starts with a 3.52 ERA and 19 strikeouts. MLB.com ranked Montas as their #91 prospect coming into the 2015 season.
Montas was sent to AA Birmingham to start 2015 and finished in the big leagues with the White Sox. For Birmingham, Montas made 23 starts, throwing 112 innings, with a 2.97 ERA and 1.22 WHIP along with a 48/108 BB/K ratio. In the big leagues, he made seven appearances, two of them starts. He threw 15 innings, sporting a 4.80 ERA and 1.53 WHIP with a 9/20 BB/K ratio. MLB.com was still the only service ranking Montas, placing him 95th on their list.
The Dodgers acquired him in the three-team trade that sent Todd Frazier from the Cincinnati Reds to the Chicago White Sox this offseason then they traded him to Oakland as part of the deal that brought Rich Hill and Josh Reddick to Los Angeles. Montas has not pitched with Oakland due to injury, but his 2016 numbers before the trade were quite good, posting a combined 7 games, 4 of them starts, 16 innings, 2.25 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, and a 3/22 BB/K. Baseball America moved Montas to their #82 prospect in their midseason rankings, but he dropped off MLB.com’s rankings due to his injuries.
Oct. 10, 2014; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; Chicago White Sox pitcher Francellis Montaas plays for the Glendale Desert Dogs against the Scottsdale Scorpions during an Arizona Fall League game at Cubs Park. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Scouting Report
Size/Stature/Delivery
Montas is listed at 6’2 and 255 pounds, and he’s every bit of that for sure. He could likely drop 20-30 pounds off the midsection without issue, but he does carry a lot of his weight in his massive lower legs, where he generates a lot of his power in his delivery, so he’ll likely never be a guy you see weighing in at 190 pounds or anything like that just due to the sizable legs required to generate the velocity that he gets.
Montas comes from a high 3/4 arm slot after staying high through the wind up of his delivery. In his stretch, he stays tall as well. From the peak of his motion, he drops his back leg and stays low in his legs as he drives to the plate, using a ton of leg power in his delivery. This delivery is a classic delivery known as the “drop and drive” delivery, and while it is considered to be much less stress on the arm, it does generate a lot of torque from the knee to the mid-back/midsection of the pitcher, and interestingly, that’s where Montas has suffered injury issues, with a rib issue being his major culprit this season.
Pitches
Montas attacks hitters with a high-end fastball that can touch 102 in short bursts and sits in the 94-97 range in the games I saw. The fastball has some late arm side fade, though when he really reaches back for intentional velocity, the pitch tends to flatten out on him. He’s at his best in getting movement when he lets the velocity come naturally – and it comes in spades!
Montas’ primary secondary pitch is a slider that sits 83-88, but he can reach back and touch 90 with the pitch in short bursts. The slider is a pitch that has come a long way, and he really gets great use out of his legs in creating late depth in the break on the pitch. From my viewing, he actually got movement toward both sides of the plate on the pitch, which is incredibly impressive.
The third pitch is a change up, and while he masks arm movement well on the pitch, Montas’ change is considered by most to be a “work in progress” due to the fact that he gets nearly no movement on the change up. A great change up has plenty of movement, while an elite change mirrors the movement of the fastball. Montas doesn’t get either. I did note in his first two AAA starts that he used nearly entirely fastballs and sliders.
Sep 13, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago White Sox relief pitcher Frankie Monntas (60) enters the game against the Minnesota Twins at U.S Cellular Field. Mandatory Credit: Caylor Arnold-USA TODAY Sports
Future Outlook
His sizable stature on the mound and his electric stuff remind me a lot of Astros phenom Michael Feliz, who was a huge asset to the Houston bullpen this season. Feliz was able to give the Astros 57 1/3 innings out of the bullpen to this point with a monstrous 84 strikeouts. Montas has a similar monster fastball/slider combo with an unrefined change up. The Astros decided to use Feliz in that role to get his big arm to the big league club.
One of the downfalls of that transition to the bullpen is that it really has most likely shut the door for Feliz to ever have another shot at the rotation, and while his lack of mastery of the change would likely have doomed him to the bullpen eventually anyway, right now he was still not yet restricted to that role only, and for maximizing a player’s value, you’d want to keep a pitcher starting as long as possible before moving him to the bullpen if at all possible.
Montas likely has a similar path to the majors in 2017 as Feliz took to the Astros bullpen in 2016. While many will want to see Montas given every chance as a starter due to the elite possibility that his stuff could have in the rotation, he has a great amount of talent right now that could be a huge asset for the Athletics in 2017, and that could simply be too tempting to resist bringing straight up to the major leagues.
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