SATURDAY, 3:36pm: Montero will earn $10MM in 2013, $10MM in '14, $12MM in '15, $14MM in '16, and $14MM in '17, according to Keith Law of ESPN.com (via Twitter).
12:30pm: The team has officially announced the five-year extension with a press release.
FRIDAY: The Diamondbacks and catcher Miguel Montero have agreed to a five-year, $60MM contract extension, reports Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (Twitter link). The deal is the richest in Arizona club history and is expected to be announced at a press conference tomorrow. ESPN's Buster Olney reports (via Twitter) that the contract doesn't afford Montero any no-trade protection.
The two sides had been discussing an extension over the winter and had seemingly tabled negotiations, though GM Kevin Towers said earlier this month that the D'Backs were open to in-season talks. Montero was scheduled to hit free agency this winter and would have been one of the more sought-after players on the market. Montero, an Octagon client, turns 29 in July.
Montero can probably thank Yadier Molina for his five-year, $75MM extension with the Cardinals in March that raised the bar for catcher contracts. As Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic points out on Twitter, the D'Backs originally offered Montero a four-year, $32MM deal in late February before talks broke off. Montero's wish for a contract similar to Victor Martinez's four-year, $50MM deal with the Tigers was more than granted in terms of length and dollars, if not in average annual value. Still, Montero's contract will award him the fifth-highest AAV for any catcher — Martinez is not included in that group since he has mostly been a DH since going to Detroit.
Montero broke out in 2011, hitting .282/.351/.469 in 2011, making his first All-Star Game and leading the league by throwing out 40% of baserunners attempting to steal. While his hitting has taken a step back (.255/.350/.343) thus far in 2012, his already-strong defense has improved even further, with a caught-stealing percentage of 59% (16 of 27).
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas/US Presswire
Wow. Though I am stoked, I didn’t think they would go there for that length and money both. Say goodbye to Stephen Drew. Be interesting to see what they do with Kennedy and Hudson now too.
Exactly, Drew is gone. But that’s no biggie because we have Willie and Johnny Mac for next year until Chris Owings is ready.
Not sad at all to see Drew leaving myself. He’s been highly overrated for a player that plays a game that often seems uninspired.And I agree that Catchers generally need to be overpaid in order to wrap them up. I’m still leary about a 5 year deal though, especially for Miggy. He should have been here 2 years ago, but he’s had significant injuries.
I was hoping for something more in the 4/40 range. But Yadi made sure that wasn’t going to get the job done.
Hoping Owings makes it up by the end of 2013.
probably shouldn’t count on owings to be your SS of the future, to be honest.
he has a ridiculous k-rate and bb/k rate just in in high-A and is repeating the level (although age is still on his side), and the california league causes sort of a mirage for hitters.
not saying he won’t pan out, not saying he will, just probably should wait on him a little longer before anointing him your next SS
This is all true, however he’s taking huge strides in regard to walks this year. I’m not sure if he’ll be ready next year, but I think he will make the major leagues.
he’s going to have to take GIGANTIC strides when it comes to walking
he had a 2.7% walk rate last year, even if he doubles it this year, that’s still not good enough.
he’s also been fueled by a high babip, which shouldn’t drop a lot because he’s speedy, but will still drop
He’s at 6% right now, which isn’t good, but is better. It is still important to remember that he cant even legally buy alcohol until August.
I’ve long suspected that Owings would be traded well before reaching the bigs (if he ever does). If the Dbacks can retain Miggy, Upton, Young, and Kubel, and have Goldschmidt remember how to hit, I have a feeling they will be happy to go out and purchase a league-average vet to fill in at SS if and when Bloomquist and McDonald ever become unserviceable there.
Drew was gone anyway. I think that was happening regardless of this deal. No way they pick up the $12 million dollar option for him next year. I appreciate his services, but he’s not in the long term plans for the team.
Plus with Owings in the minors and Davidson/Borchering, we may have quite a few prospects here soon.
No way they were going to pick up the option. But now I’d be rather surprised if they even bother to negotiate with him beyond offering a token contract. He was struggling before he got hurt, and now he’s coming up on passing a year out of the game. He’s going to be hard-pressed to get a big multi-year deal.
Great job KT, might’ve overpaid a little bit but you HAVE to with catchers or he’d end up in LA or SF. Who would replace him… Henry Blanco and Konrad Schmidt? Yeah.
At the end of the day we have him, Upton, Young and the rest of our core locked up for a while.
He wouldn’t have ended up in SF. They have a very nice and young catching duo with Posey and Sanchez. But I do think Sabean will target Stephen Drew this winter.
Thanks, but we’re pretty happy with A.J. Ellis for pennies.
Note to Cubs, Soto is not worth this amount. Wait, Jim Henery is not the GM anymore. Whew!
Worth it, no one in the farm system, and I believe he would have definitely gotten more on the free market.
That’s the key. No one close to coming up really and he would have gotten at LEAST that same offer on the FA market. Maybe now he stops swinging for the fences every AB now that he has his contract. He’s striking out at an abysmal rate this season.
He was making progress before the groin injury, I’m not really worried about him. He has great opposite field power, and he was getting back towards that.
I was actually envisioning a trade with Blue Jays for Arencibia (assuming Jays go with d’Arnaud). Nice to have Miggy under contract. Hope he starts getting back to his 2011 self though. He’s been pressing this year.
I thought that was feasible as well, but I’ll always be wary of A.A. and the way he seems to fleece people.
The problem is Arencibia isn’t that good of a catcher. I don’t know how he is defensively but offensively he’s basically Carlos Pena in catcher form. I think D’Arnaud for Skaggs and a lower level prospect could have been a good deal.
I’m personally not willing to part with Skaggs. We traded JP, now I’d like to see the other big pieces stay in Sedona Red.
More like the other way around. It would take D’Arnaud + to get Skaggs. Skaggs is widely viewed as the better prospect.
I don’t know about “widely”. BP had D’Arnaud at #16 and Skaggs at #21. BA had D’Arnaud at #17, Skaggs at #13. Pretty even.
I don’t worry about the 1st 3 years of the deal, but I do worry about the last 2… 5 years is a long time to book a catcher for. Plus now you’re paying him more than Upton I believe.
Excited to have him locked up. NY, BOS, LA, SF all would’ve overpaid for him even MORE than we did if he hit Free Agency.
SF? I really doubt that.
Ever heard of this guy named Buster Posey?
He plays 1B quite often and I don’t think SF wants to risk him at C for long term.
A.J. Ellis?
As someone who has seen a lot of A.J. Ellis, I hope you aren’t expecting him to keep hitting like this. He’s a 31 year old career minor leaguer who is hitting very well right now. But he was maybe the fifth best hitter down in Albuquerque when he was in his “prime”. His BABIP is what out of whack. He’s a 270 guy (which is good enough for a catcher), with little to no power. And that’s a best case scenario.
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen more of A.J. Ellis than anyone here and no, he’s not going to keep “hitting like this”.
That said, he’s always walked more than he’s struck out, so it’s not out of the question that he could hit .270/.350/.400 for the next handful of years. I’d take that for the major league minimum as opposed to Montero at $12 million a year. Ellis has also thrown out 34.5% of baserunner attempting to steal in his career, and an incredible 45.7% this year. Montero has thrown out 31.6% for his career.
Now I’d obviously rather have Montero all things being equal, but the money is far from equal here, so I’ll take my chances with Ellis.
Maybe you’ve seen him more times than I have, but in the 15-25 games a year I saw him play in Albuquerque, I was never impressed. Also, how are you going to assume that he’s going to slug 400 in the bigs when he slugged above 400 once in three years for the Isotopes? Guys who don’t hit for power in the PCL don’t magically grow it once they join the ML roster. Oh yeah, and Montero threw out 40% of baserunners last year. And if Ellis 45.7% is amazing, then what adjective will you use to describe Montero’s 59%?
i wonder how much you would pay Carlos Ruiz?
Overpaid. That’s all I have to say.
Overpay at this level was the only way the Dbacks retain him. If he reached FA, he would have been overpaid even more thanks to the Yadoi contract and the fact that a number of big market teams would have wanted him.
Says who? Molina is the best catcher all around in baseball. I’m just not a big Montero fan. Upton is the best player on that team. He’s going to want to double what Montero got. Do you think they are going to be able to give him $100 plus. I doubt it.
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Subject: [mlbtraderumors] Re: D’Backs Agree To Extension With Miguel Montero
Upton’s locked up for 3 more years. Starting next year he makes $14.25 Mil each year for the next 2 years, which is more than Montero.
And if you ever watched A Dbacks game over the past few years you would be a Miggy fan, he may not be as good as Molina, but then thats why he got $15 mil less, and the difference isn’t as great as you think. Defensively I’d rather take Miggy.
…. I actually like Molina as a catcher, but the best all around catcher in baseball? That’s a big stretch, I could name five guys I’d take over him.
A lot of these over the top posts with regards to Montero have to be from DBacks fans and those same people have never even seen Matty Weiters hit, catch or throw.
Had they? Talk of Montero being in this superb class unto himself would be proclaimed as the bilge water it truly is by more than just me…
Montero has had a couple of decent years, but isn’t any Matt Weiters and especially true with the glove and arm.
Montero has come a long long way defensively in the past two years, with that being said, I’d take Wieters over him. I laugh every time he smirks at a base runner while he shows an umpire the ball after a collision at home plate.
The only guys I’d rather have than Molina:
Buster Posey
Matt Wieters
Again, I think Molina is a great catcher, but I’d take Avila, McCann, Mauer ahead of him.