Frankie Montas

Montas seemed likely to be traded by Oakland during spring training, but the team instead held onto him until the trade deadline. The right-hander pitched well the A's with a 3.18 ERA and 109:28 K:BB across 104.2 innings before being shipped to the Yankees, but he was unable to continue that success after the trade. His strikeout rate cratered eight percentage points to 17.8 percent with New York while opposing hitters batted .279 against him. He was relegated to the bullpen during the playoffs and made only one appearance. Montas has illustrated he has the stuff of a front-line starter but has been unable to consistently provide that production year-to-year, and he's now entering his final season of arbitration eligibility in dire need of a bounceback.

There were plenty of question marks surrounding Montas entering last season. After serving an 80-game suspension for using PEDs in 2019, the right-hander stumbled to a 5.60 ERA across 53 innings pitched during the abbreviated 2020 campaign. His struggles leaked into the first month of 2021, as he allowed 14 earned runs on 24 hits across his first 18.2 innings (four starts). Following the shaky opening to the season, Montas was beyond reliable the remainder of the way, allowing more than three earned runs in just three of his final 28 starts while logging a career-high 187 innings. Perhaps the biggest reason for Montas' bounceback year was the resurgence of his splitter. Hitters whiffed at the offering more than a quarter of the time while slashing a mere .126 against the pitch. Also mixing in a four-seamer, sinker and slider, Montas finished fourth in the AL with 207 strikeouts while posting a tidy 3.37 ERA. Heading into his age 29 season, he figures to be a middle-to-top of the rotation arm with the potential to put up ace-like numbers in 2022.

Montas missed half of 2019 while serving an 80-game suspension for testing positive for the performance-enhancing substance Ostarine. He excelled on the field that year and was named the Opening Day starter for Oakland in 2020. Montas took a sizable step backward as the split-finger pitch that was so dominant for him in 2019 was no problem for hitters. Opposing batters got the splitter up and Montas' overall groundball rate plummeted back down to 36.8%, which led to a spike in homers against the righty. In fact, Montas allowed two more homers than he did in 2019 despite pitching 43 fewer innings. The word to describe his Statcast page is "dull" since Montas ranked either a little below average or slightly above average in most notable categories. He has never reached 100 innings in a big-league season, but Montas did reach 136.2 innings between Triple-A and the majors in 2018.

Montas earned a rotation spot in spring and was in the midst of a breakout season before getting handed an 80-game suspension in June for testing positive for PEDs. The right-hander wound up returning at the end of September for one final start, finishing the year 9-2 with a 2.63 ERA and 1.11 WHIP in 16 outings. While much will be made of his suspension, there are reasons to believe his success was no fluke. He ditched his changeup for a swing-and-miss splitter (22.5% swinging strike rate), which complimented his high-90s fastball and plus slider (.201 wOBA) and in turn led to an uptick in strikeouts (9.7 K/9) and groundballs (49.4%). Montas also saw his walk rate drop for a second straight year to a career-best 5.8%, while he limited hard contact at an elite rate (3.8% barrel rate), which is especially helpful in his spacious home park. He's yet to do it over a full season, but the foundation is there.

Montas pitched a career-high 65 innings last season, starting 11 games and appearing in another pair in relief. The results were better than they have ever been at the big-league level as he finished the year with a 3.88 ERA. The peripherals tell a different story; Montas managed just a 15.2% strikeout rate after striking out over 31% of batters at each minor-league stop in 2016 and 2017. He managed to offset the loss of whiffs with a 7.4% walk rate and a 7.5% HR/FB, though the latter statistic is typically noisy and primarily driven by luck (or lack thereof). The A's are creative with pitching roles and could dump Montas in favor of an opener should he struggle. The pitcher-friendly home park should keep him in the mix as a streaming option as long as he remains in the rotation.

Montas joined his fourth organization when the Athletics acquired him in the summer of 2016. The erratic but talented hurler missed most of that season with a rib injury, but his dazzling Arizona Fall League performance convinced the A's to try Montas as a starter in 2017. After all, the 6-foot-2, 255-pounder owns an overpowering fastball, an excellent slider, a passable sinker and a developing changeup. Sadly, his shaky control plagued him at the highest level; Montas struck out 11.4 per nine and walked just 2.2 at Triple-A Nashville, but scuffled in his first major-league work, posting a 7.03 ERA with 20 walks and 10 homers in just 32 frames. The righty turns 25 in March and Oakland's rotation is hardly cemented, but Montas seems likely to end up in the bullpen. A strong spring could put him on a more promising track toward fantasy relevance.

It might be wise just to think of Montas as a relief pitching prospect at this point. He has been traded three times and will not turn 24 until March 21, so several teams have likely come to this conclusion. The A's should reach the same verdict, if they have not already. Montas has a starter's frame, an 80-grade fastball, a plus slider, and a solid changeup. However, he has not thrown enough strikes to make it as a starter to this point, and with the tools in place to be a high-leverage reliever, a transition to the bullpen should be forthcoming. He was touching 102 mph in the Arizona Fall League, so he could take his fastball and slider to the bullpen on Opening Day and lay waste. Unfortunately, it is unclear how the A's will proceed with Montas, as they only recently acquired him from the Dodgers and may want to try their hand at developing him as a starter. If the transition to the 'pen does happen, however, Montas has the stuff to be a top-10 fantasy closer.

While the hard-throwing righty cruised through Double-A, compiling a 2.97 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, and 108 strikeouts in 112 innings as a 22-year-old, he is not yet a finished product. Montas sits at 96-97 mph with his fastball and can reach back and touch 100 at times. However, he is a two-pitch pitcher right now, as he also throws a plus slider about 40 percent of the time. He did not need to use his changeup (a fringe average offering) to dominate the Southern League, but he will need it to get lefties out on a consistent basis in the big leagues. Montas could get that chance at some point in 2016, possibly right out of camp, though he will first have to make an impression on his new coaches with the Dodgers. He has the ceiling of a No. 2 starter and the floor of a high-leverage reliever.

Montas was one of the lesser-known players included in the Jake Peavy trade of 2013, but he finally harnessed his triple-digit fastball in 2014 and shot up the White Sox's organizational ranks. That fastball, along with a very good slider, helped him to a 4:1 K:BB ratio at High-A before a late-season promotion to Double-A and an appearance in the Arizona Fall League. He could compete for a bullpen spot as soon as 2015, but his ETA could be prolonged if the White Sox decide to give him a longer look as a starter.

Montas, 20, was undrafted international free agent. He has a sturdy frame, one conducive to producing good velocity on his fastball (96-to-100 mph). The heater will get him by at the lower levels, but he'll need to learn to control and command it better as he moves up. Cleaning up his delivery is also must. Montas is working on a slider that shows promise, while his changeup shows little deception at this point in his career. He's bypassing short-season Lowell to open 2013 with the full-season Low-A Greenville Drive.