Heir Jordan
Prospect Montgomery inherits fifth starter role
THE SCOUT from another club, summoning a comparable on the condition of anonymity, offered this about the Yankees’ Wednesday starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery:
“He’s kind of l i ke a poor man’s Steve Matz.”
That felt quite apt on a day the Yankees’ top pitching prospect, James Kaprielian, visited with noted sports orthopedist Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles for a second opinion on his ailing right elbow. You won’t find anyone who thinks Montgo mery can be better than Kaprielian, or than Matz, the Mets’ highly regarded southpaw.
But Matz, l i ke Kaprielian, resides on the disabled list with what he has called a flexor tendon injury in his left elbow.
Pedigree rocks. Production, inextricably linked with good health, rules. So it is that the 24-year-old lefty Montgomery, a barely known entity when spring t ra i ni ng opened two months ago, will make his major league debut before Kaprielian, the Yankees’ first draft pick of 2015 (16th overall), and his 2017 debut before Matz, the Mets’ first choice of 2009 (72nd overall). By getting the nod against the Rays at Yankee Stadium, Montgomery officially became the Yankees’ fifth starter.
“That health thing sure is hard to predict, especially in pitching. Who doesn’t get hurt a ny more ? ” Da mon Op pe n - he i me r, the Ya nk e e s ’ vice president of domestic amateur scouting, said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “When you get someone who stays healthy like this, knock on wood, you never know what can happen.”
Oppenheimer selected Montgomery with his fourth-round pick of the 2014 draft, out of the University of South Carolina.
“He’s an i nterest i ng g uy,” Oppenheimer said. “He’s always had success. He’s not this power-arm guy, but he’s a guy who mixes his stuff. He’s big and left-handed, and he still can run it up there at 94 [mph] when he wants to. There’s a deceptive plane to his fastball.”
The s cout s i mil a rly com- mended Montgomery for his “sneaky ve lo c i t y.” He said Montgomery — who at 6-foot6 and 225 pounds is 4 inches taller than the 6-2, 200-pound Matz — nevertheless wore a similar body type (lean, in other words).
“I like this kid,” the scout said. “If he fills the blocks in, he could be at least a mid-rotation starter, even for the Yankees. I look for this guy to really compete and have a favorable outing.”
Montgo mer y al r e a dy has displayed what kind of a competitor he can be. Manager Joe Girardi announced upon the opening of camp that Luis Cessa, Chad Green, Bryan Mitchell, Luis Severino and Adam Warren would audition for the final two slots in the Yankees’ s tart i ng rotation. Montgomery, a non-roster invitee to big league camp, failed to make that cut. Then he threw in six Grapefruit League games, tallying a 3.20 ERA and compiling a Michael Pineda-esque 17-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Now Cessa and Green pitch in the minor leagues and Mitchell and Warren in the Yankees’ bullpen, with fourth starter Severino set to follow Montgomery with a start Thursday.
Any sports rebuild, let alone the Yankees’ ambitious developwhile-contending model, requires volume to work. We’ve witnessed previous attempts to construct a young pinstriped starting rotation — think Joba Chamberlain-Phil Hughes-Ian Kennedy, or Manny Banuel os- Delli n Betances-Andrew Brackman, and those fell short because enough alternatives didn’t exist.
This time, the Yankees think, they possess the volume to withstand the standard s etbacks. Consider Montgomery Exhibit A.
“He’s been pretty successful, not giving up a ton of hits,” Oppenheimer said of Montgomery, who never has allowed more than a hit per inning in any of his minor league stops. “His strikeouts have gone up from the time we saw him as an amateur. … While our playerdevelopment people were helping him, he was able to have success.”
Success starts with health. Montgomery recorded 1 34 ¹/₃ innings in 201 5 and 1 39 ¹/₃ innings last ye a r, which amounts to a massive workload for a modern-day minor league pitcher.
Now comes the payoff — for him and, the Yankees hope, for them, too.