Diamondbacks left-hander Jordan Montgomery says he will be having Tommy John surgery next week, per Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. He will therefore miss the 2025 season and likely a notable chunk of 2026 as well.
The out-of-nowhere news is a brutal development for the lefty. The past year-plus have already been a challenging time for him and now he’s slated for another year-plus of rehab before he can improve his trajectory.
The southpaw already had Tommy John surgery once, in June of 2018. He missed the latter half of that season and most of 2019. He then had a subpar showing in 2020. He stabilized things for a three-year stretch after that. From 2021 to 2023, he made 94 starts and logged 524 1/3 innings. He had a 3.48 earned run average, 22.5% strikeout rate, 6.2% walk rate and 44.5% ground ball rate. FanGraphs considered him to be worth 10.3 wins above replacement for that span. He was a key part of the 2023 Rangers team that won the World Series, tossing 31 innings that postseason with a 2.90 ERA.
He hit free agency after getting that ring and seemed poised for a strong nine-figure contract, but that didn’t come to pass. The 2023-24 offseason was rough for most free agent, with the so-called “Boras Four” becoming the poster children for the chilly winter. Scott Boras clients Montgomery, Blake Snell, Matt Chapman and Cody Bellinger all lingered unsigned into the spring. Each eventually signed a short-term deal that fell well below initial expectations.
In Montgomery’s case, he agreed with the Diamondbacks late in March. It was a one-year, $25MM guarantee, though with an easy path to extra earning power. He could vest a $20MM player option with just ten starts and bump the value to $22.5MM with 18 starts and $25MM with 23 starts.
After missing the start of the season due to his late signing, he never got on track and eventually got bumped to the bullpen. He made 21 starts and four relief appearances, finishing the year with a 6.23 ERA in 117 innings.The club finished 89-73, tied with the Mets and Braves, but those two clubs took the final Wild Card spots via tiebreakers.
In early October, fresh off the sting of just barely missing the playoffs, club owner Ken Kendrick publicly expressed frustration with the Montgomery signing. “Looking back, in hindsight, a horrible decision to have invested that money in a guy that performed as poorly as he did,” Kendrick said. “It’s our biggest mistake this season from a talent standpoint. And I’m the perpetrator of that.” While he pointed the finger at himself for suggesting the front office pursue him, it was nonetheless surprising to see an owner publicly roast one of his own players in such a manner.
Despite that apparent tension, Montgomery wasn’t going to walk away from $22.5MM after the season he had. He exercised his player option for the 2025 campaign. That led to a full winter of trade speculation. The Diamondbacks didn’t need him in the rotation, especially after Arizona native Corbin Burnes agreed to sign there. That gave them a projected starting group of Burnes, Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodríguez, Brandon Pfaadt and Ryne Nelson.
But Montgomery stayed with Arizona throughout the offseason. Just in the past week, there were some reports of ongoing trade talks. The lefty just pitched a spring game on March 19, less than a week ago. Given the injuries to other pitchers around the league, there seemed to be at least some chance to a club swinging a deal for Montgomery just before Opening Day. That’s obviously off the table now.
For Montgomery, he was surely hoping to engineer a bounceback season in 2025 before returning to the open market. His last foray into free agency didn’t go as planned, enough that he changed his representation and later accused Boras of having “butchered” his case. But he’ll instead go into the 2025-26 offseason still recovering from this surgery. At that point, he’ll likely be looking for a one-year “prove it” deal or perhaps a backloaded two-year pact covering the 2026-27 seasons. He’ll turn 33 years old this December.
For the Diamondbacks, they were also hoping for Montgomery to get things back on track, if only for the cost savings. Per recent reporting, they asked at least one club to take on $13MM of the $22.5MM still owed to the lefty. That was a tall ask but perhaps a strong early-season performance from the lefty could have increased his appeal around the league. Now the club will have no chance of moving any of that money.
The one silver lining is that this clarifies some roster things. Montgomery will be put on the 60-day injured list, giving them an extra 40-man spot to work with. It also crystallizes their rotation plans a bit, since they can just wipe Montgomery off the board. Even without him, they still have six guys for five rotation spots, which perhaps leaves Nelson to work a long relief role until a spot opens up for him.
Photo courtesy of Rob Schumacher, Imagn Images.
Uhh…
Huh?…
YBC – Seems like it was more than just missing ST last year that resulted in his poor performance. This makes total sense, he was way too good for way too long to suddenly lose it.
He pulled a Giolito on the D-Backs last year.
“he was way too good for way too long” are we talkin about the same guy here, Fever? Ahahahahaha!
NYC – I didn’t write “with the D-Backs”! Ahahahahaha!!
I know, but still seems like a bit of a stretch, pal. Regardless it’s a shame.
He was very consistent. I’m wondering if taming up last year after signing late played a role…
NYC – To quote the great Bill Belichick, “The younger the better”.
Oh wait a minute …. sorry, wrong Belichick quote!!!
Here’s his quote I had in mind: “You are what the numbers say you are”.
Hahahahha weren’t they just shopping him for 13 mil? Now they have to pay it all and got nothing for him. Very sneaky.
Fever, lol, that’s funny!
That was kinda my point
People say spring training is too long, but guys who sign late and look rough prove them wrong, especially starting pitchers.
He had a deal on the table with the Red Sox so he could be in Boston close to his wife’s residency.
Supposedly he wanted it but Scott the Butcher Boras misplayed his hand.
He wouldn’t have been late for Spring Training. And who knows if that was a factor as some people
Posting here hypothesize. Maybe the outcome could have been the same.
Either way, at year’s end he will have banked $47M from this last contract, more than enough to pay off the Med School loan. And now he will be able to train to be a stay-at-home Father for when they have kids because she’s bringing home the bacon.
I guess we know why they couldn’t trade him. Other teams saw his medicals and said, no thanks.
But he can eat a cheeseburger while pedaling his exercise bike.
I think it’s because he’s awful. Medicalscome after trade agreement structure is in place.
Yeah it had nothing to do with his performance or money owed to him.
I guess no trade to the Yankees now. Smh.
Jahahahhaah seemed fishy from go.
If they still want him, I’m sure something can be worked out.
Yeeeesh for the DBacks.
Oof… sorry AZ.
Imagine trading for him and than this happening
Wow that’s surprising. I’m glad Yankees didn’t bring him back
Now we can see why he’s been pitching so poorly. Poorest Monty.
@benjamin. What about when people say angels could’ve traded ohtani for 5 prospects, and he went down a week later from his Tommy john blister. Teams probably knew it wasn’t a blister.
The Snakes are not the Padres… keeping multiple sets of records…
Whoa, hey now, shots fired for no reason, Dewey!
Well the Padres are in a bigger mess than the DBacks. They can’t decide whether to buy or sell.
What?!? Lmao
This immediately improves the Diamondbacks’ starting rotation.
He wasn’t projected to be in the rotation
So he was set to get $22.5M as a reliever? Woof.
Actually, it immediately improves their bullpen; I’d rather have Jarvis there for typical relief than starters 6 and 7. It also improves their rotation depth by allowing Nelson to stay somewhat stretched out as the only long man in the pen. Also bumps up young guns like Diaz and Mena on the rotation depth chart, so it helps them long-term too.
Woof
He was overworked in 2023 and Arizona did not heed this.
This situation is worse than Madison Bumgarner saga.
It’s definitely not worse than the MadBum saga. Unfortunate yes, but not on the same level of dead money.
Reynaldo’s: That might be true but the number of injuries, especially to pitchers, is ridiculous. I don’t know if this is unique to this era but in previous eras it didn’t seem like there were as many UCL and oblique injuries. There might have been, they just weren’t reported as much as they are now.
@2/5ths as bad figuring SP inflation.
47m JMo for 2024-25, 85m MadBum for 2020-2024.
Who’s the next player to join this fine LH SP lineage?
Don’t forget how they traded dansby Swanson to get Shelby miller and then does absolutely nothing for the snakes
His workload as a full time SP from 2021 through 2023 was essentially the same. The only difference was a bump in postseason appearances in 2023 from 2022 because the Rangers played 3 extra series on their way to a World Series title which happened to their entire healthy staff. Did you expect Texas or the losing Astros to scale back any of their pitchers with a WS hanging in the balance?
Combine that with him signing late in Spring Training and not having a “normal” spring training.
No way. MadBum’s contract was twice as long and twice as large. Monty is a FA next year.
E-Rod might be the worst one of all though. Love that they’re spending money in FA but aside from Burnes.. yikes.
Snakes need a special scouting position. Pro player LH SP scout.
The Erod saga is going to be endless.
Bumgarner was never the same after the dirt bike accident he had in 2017 when he was with SF. Not sure how much effort the Giants made to keep him, but his effectiveness fell WAY off in AZ. Dbacks no strangers to eating a big SP contract. Hopefully Burnes won’t be another tough pill to swallow in the long term.
He pitched 188 innings in 32 games 2023. Hardly an abusive use of the guy.
That is like 280 innings in the 90’s!
Well that came out of nowhere…
Monty pitched in a S.T. game six days ago. Must’ve been hiding his injury.
To what end?
Why would Xi Jinping want to flood my basement and rust my Bowflex?
YBC – Five earned runs in 3 innings this ST, not a good way to hide an injury.
Makes you wonder if last season was compromised from a degree of injury sustained from starring in the long ’23 postseason.
Meh – No, 31 postseason innings wouldn’t be much of a contributing factor.
You know what would?
Career high 93.3 MPH sinker and career high 93.4 MPH 4-seamer …. both happening in 2023.
He’s likely yet another victim of too much max velo.
And last year he averaged only 91.6 MPH, lowest since 2019 …. which points even further to evidence of an injury prior to this year.
^^^
Didn’t they just confirm he was on the roster as a reliever? How did they not know his elbow was fried as of, like, yesterday?
It’s obvious; he didn’t speak up, until now.
I was hoping Atlanta would trade for him as a reclamation project. Glad that didn’t happen.
May be available for a cheap minors contract next year as he finishes rehab.
Could be an interesting second half depth option.
Lots of pitchers with worse results and injury history have gotten MLB deals in this situation. He will get a 2/$15-20ish rehab deal.
Yeah, Tigers gave Urquidy a 2 yr deal a few weeks ago.
Miami is adding him to their 2026 free agent target list.
Maybe this explains (or at least partly) explains why he was so BAD last season considering how well he pitched in previous years.
Texas rided Monty into the ground I just remember it felt like every game I watched in the playoffs Monty was always pitching
I bet this is why he sucked so bad last year. He was pitching in pain (or at least some discomfort) but was trying to pitch through it cuz of the weight of his contract hanging over him.
Players often to need to do a physical when reporting to camp. If his elbow was bummed, they would’ve put him on ice to rehab. Something is amiss here for this to be so abrupt when he pitched last week.
What a great signing he was
Well atleast the insurance kicks in so not too bad of a situation for Arizona. Wait isn’t his wife becoming a doctor? Wonder if she told him it’s time to come clean.
He doesn’t even have an arm issue he just wants to spite Ken Kendrick even more.
Lol imagine getting Tommy John just to spite your boss.
I don’t think there’s a doctor out there that would perform a TJ surgery on a healthy arm.
I *do* feel he was maybe holding off on maybe a partial tear hoping to trick a new team into a longer term new deal.
He still needs to go through a physical for the acquiring team.
True YBC, but, for the right deal there’s teams with greater appetite for risk. Probably wouldn’t be the first player with a questionable connective tissue that locked in a deal.
Of course it’s all speculative. We don’t know how minor it is, and, if he’s just saying I’ll get it now so I don’t need to be a BP guy, get my rehab in, and, try to sign fresh with a new team on the back end.
GaSox – Pretty sure JD was just joking.
But yeah, he likely knew when he signed that he was on the verge of needing surgery … just like Giolito.
Teams really should have the Lackey Clause included when signing free agent pitchers.
Unfortunately the SP market is too strong for any player to give up that league min option these days… unless it’s a guy so bad his retail value is league min anyways!
The lack of Lackey clause contracts baffles me
GaSox – Then how about the Pivetta clause? ;O)
oh – Agreed! Especially on just a 2-year contract.
Boras claimed he was healthy, so why would he refuse to include a clause protecting the D-Backs from TJS surgery?
It’s like when I married my wife. I demanded a pre-nup, she said “Why, are you planning for the marriage to fail?”
I said “No I’m not, which is why you shouldn’t care about signing a pre-nup”.
She had nothing further to say, she signed ;O)
Idk GA, I’ve heard stories of amateurs getting TJ out of the way (before the injury). Literally saying go head and strengthen it before the inevitable tear, apparently. Of course, they could’ve had the ole “forearm stiffness” and just had it done because they know it’s coming soon once that starts happening. But still before the actual tear even if that’s the case.
Scott Boras probably cost this guy $150M+ dollars.
Nah, I don’t think there are any front offices left that dumb to have given him that much when all the red flags were there. Dave Stewart era? He’d probably have received $300M with Stewart bidding against himself.
“Left that dumb”…Montgomery’s initial free agency ask was 7/$175M. Are you suggesting that Boras was crazy or unreasonable in this ask?
Why do you think Monty PUBLICLY excoriated Scott Boras? Because he was a satisfied customer?
Boras got 2/$47.5 Million for a player who produced -1.4 bWAR. Jordan should have taken care of his body, not referring to the UCL.
I’d be surprised if any current MLB front offices would have committed to a 7/$175M ask, so I think that would have been unreasonable.
Montgomery can be mad all he wants but he was never going to get the mega contract he was seeking.
Boras got 2/$47.5 million for a player coming off a 3.9 WAR season and who had averaged 3.0 WAR the previous 3 seasons.
While Montgomery’s ERA had dropped slightly, his SO% had dropped >3% to below MLB average and his HH% had gone up from 2021 to 2023, so teams were unwilling to give him a long term deal. That was a smart decision on the part of teams and Boras still managed to get him a good deal.
The only thing I can find that says 7 years is this article by Heyman. nypost.com/2024/03/08/sports/red-sox-dont-seem-to-… Nothing that says $175 million. Where did you see that information?
What red flags though? Sure now we can say he was overpaid based on his performance in AZ but the guy was coming off a good year with STL and an even better 2nd half with TX. ~Plus a sub 3 playoff era and part of a World Series winner.
“What red flags”…Any decent, rational agent could’ve gotten Monty at LEAST as much as Carlos Rodon. He was coming off a couple of good yrs and a World Series domination.
But, of course Boras shot for that number plus 25% and left yet another guy holding the bag for his mismanagement and greed. There’s a reason Monty called out Boras publicly.
A 3% drop in SO% and a marked 4% increase in HH% are definite red flags. MLB Network was all over both of those stats that offseason.
He was scheduled to start today’s final ST game against Cleveland. Just saw the switch an hour ago to a different pitcher and thought something was up, but didn’t suspect this. So much for excessive starting pitching riches this year. Now it’s just the starting 5 and Ryan Nelson, which is still pretty darn good.
Plus Diaz. And Mena. Henry. Giesting will be close in the second half. Lin as well. There’s depth, it’s just younger.
Too bad for the D-Backs. Just a horrible contract for them. This is the last year on that deal so he’ll be a FA while rehabbing from his TJ this off season.
That’s gonna leave a bruise.
For Boston…. Some of the best deals are the ones you don’t make ( sign)!!!!
Giolito nods!
Fair enough….
olm – Monty Hall and Howie Mandel both agree with you!!
Next to Wink Martindale…. Best game show name…. Carol Marol… LMD old school!!!
olm – You know who made the best deal of all those shows?
Clay Buchholz ….. he didn’t win just what was in the briefcase ….. he won the girl holding the briefcase!!!
What a debacle
Yankees fans enjoying the ship out of the Schadenfreude.
No second opinion?
That’s a brutal blow for Monty. He’s going to be a sneaky pickup on a short term, incentive laden deal next year
I don’t believe Jordan will ever have a good season again.
He’ll never come close to his 2023 form again but Monty can still return to being a serviceable SP. He’ll also be available for little more than league minimum
Footage of Ken Kendrick finding out, please.
Probably celebrating. “Closure!”
Do you think he was smart enough to get a premium insurance policy on his investment? Hmm…
I don’t know squat about insurance on mlb contracts.
Most of us don’t. I looked into it a few weeks ago when another user here asked. Appears like one company and two smaller ones handles player insurance.
Doesn’t even move the needle for the Snakes. Got zero out of him last season. A competent FO would plan on getting zero out of him this season. Certainly the move to exile him to the bullpen fits the performance/trend and limited value reality. It was a sunk cost and the only thing this changes is the amount of money Kendrick has to eat b/c he can’t trade him for salary relief. Maybe injury was responsible for falling off the cliff, maybe not. Either way this allows Monty to use the injury to secure one final bag after “throwing some great bullpens” after his surgery rehab.
Dude stole money from the DBacks. I take almost everything I said about Boras back dudes a genius at getting big money for players that don’t deserve it.
Zzzz
I’m glad that Texas did not re-sign him, but I wonder if Monty would’ve been a top 100 player had he stayed with Texas…
Holy Chit
Arizona fans complaining about the dodgers spending is funny after Rodriguez, bumbgardner, Montgomery
That’s no where near the same. A few free agents is not the same as deferring billions and signing everyone.
Nobody does it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest
Nobody does it half as good as you
Baby, you’re the best
Bro. You guys are the evil empire. Don’t cry, just embrace it.
Embrace it? I revel in it. Never had so much fun.
Wahh. I’m a victim. Mute!
Makes me wonder why LA sucked for so long. They must’ve had one of those greedy owners who don’t care how their team does, they just wanna see the profit margin. Their owner(s) now are doing what every owner should be doing. Granted, most can’t go to their extreme, but the Marlins having a payroll of either $54 or $74 (one or the other but don’t remember now) million is ridiculous. And that’s just one example.
This a good thing for AZ. Dude is trash and now they don’t have to worry about playing him
Clears a 26 man and 40 man spot, yup!
Playing him? No. Paying him? Oh yes
Okay so he was pitching through the injury, but to what extent? Did he force himself to pitch through it without alerting staff that he was in pain, or did the staff have him pitch through it hoping it wouldn’t get worse?? Either way this situation is very odd to me.
Couldn’t find a trade partner so they are shelving him?
Lets be honest here, him getting Tommy John right before the season started was all premeditated out of spite agaisnt the owner. While I’m not saying he faked an injury to get TJ, he probably needed TJ by seasons end last year. The owner made those comments about him last year. In retaliation, Montgomery opted into the contract and waited till the last second to get the TJ just so he’d never have to suit up as a Diamondback ever again and he can be fresh for a brand new contract. Don’t be naive. Its like how Stanton waits till the middle of Spring Training every year to get surgery instead of in the offseason. Once a dog always a dog
Never ceases to amaze me how many posters offer proof of how stupid they are, day after day.
You’d think after the “9th time” he may have learned something and also look into the mirror.
Wow join dr cleo
@LFGMets,
Your comment doesn’t fly.
If Montgomery opted in knowing he was injured, then it meant he was entitled to opt in whether injured or not. And that’s because if an opt-in required an MRI to prove health, it means his elbow was fine for that MRI, that he passed it.
Now the Diamondbacks should get a nice chunk of his salary covered by insurance. Maybe they make another move now.
Does this mean Jarvis is in?
Probably. And with Ginkel down too, maybe Jameson. But I could see one of the veterans arms since Ginkel isn’t supposed to out long. …Course neither was ERod last year
So how much did the Boras effect impact this guy’s finances? No chance he gets a multi year deal now, ever.
Fishy
We need the meme of Lando saying “This deal keeps getting worse”.
TJ carousel keeps spinning! Hope ya’ll enjoying 90% of the leagues pitchers being out til 2027
I don’t think they expected much from him anyway.
stinks
one of his selling points was he always took the ball, but that was also giolito’s selling point so maybe the mileage required to get a “guy takes the ball” reputation means you are pitching on borrowed time
Yikes, cherry on top on that whole disaster of a deal.
Much luck to Jordan who admittedly I went off on Cashman for trading him a few years back on here.
I’ve always liked Monty but this now changes my opinion of him. He pitched last week in a game while likely aware that he was nursing a bummed elbow with it being a ticking time bomb to continue. It’s selfish to his teammates and manager and coaches. So now he gets bumped out of a rotation spot and then elects to have TJS. I get that pro athletes are uber competitive and want to play but dude should’ve rehabbed.
i hated the trade as well and my primary argument was you never ever trade away durable starting pitching 😉
Right after Gardy retired, they needed Bader in that trade then. Monty wasn’t going to pitch in the playoffs. Nestor has been relatively durable but they need Williams to close with Holmes gone.
Just the other day asking for 13 million for Montgomery in a trade. Now a big fat nothing in return! Well played Snakes.
It was reported his velocity was down 3 to 4 mph this spring. That raised an eyebrow. He reportedly turned down a 4 year $72 million dollar contract from the Red Sox.
22.5m at the dr table for the season….AZ got taken to the cleaners.
He was good to take that player option immediately.
I really thought they learned from Bumgarner deal
On the bright side, don’t hafta waste a roster spot anymore….
Welp, that deal didn’t work out for Arizona.
Where’s the guy who would say “he shudda learned the football slider”. Maybe he died. Ah, wuddya gunna do.
poor Jordan Montgomery . However will a 32 year old man with $67.9 million US in career earnings feed his family now? I will not sleep tonight in worry
Wow
Boras must be so glad he found a sucker to give such an absurd contract
Tens of millions of dollars and they got nothing for it
Hard to feel sad for these players
117 innings of 6.23 ERA ball, then miss the next season. thats what they Dbacks got for nearly 50 mil, wow!
He sucked so much he decided to undergo Tommy John,on his healthy arm!
Worst 2-year contract ever?
Total disaster of a contract. But at least ownership had his back. Oh, wait. Blame Boras.
He took the dbacks to the bank. I figured something was wrong with him last year. He just isn’t that kind of pitcher
I just want to go on record right now that the next time any contract in MLB turns bad because of unexpected injury, I knew it because I am omniscient. Look at me! Aren’t I wonderful?