Catcher Montero last of familiar faces on retooled team
A lot will be different about the Diamondbacks this season, but when pitchers and catchers take the field for their first spring-training workout Tuesday morning, there will be at least one familiar sight.
That would be the talkative catcher known for aggressive swings and boundless energy, the same guy who’s been reporting to Diamondbacks camp in Arizona for the past 11 years.
Miguel Montero is the Diamondbacks’ longesttenured and highest-paid player, but even he doesn’t quite know what to say about the idea that he’s suddenly the organization’s most recognizable face.
“Well, it feels different, to be honest,” Montero said. “I feel like I’m the new guy now. Or I feel like I’m the only one left. Even for my family. My wife was like, ‘Wow, I don’t know anybody now.’
“It’s just different. It’s the way it is in this game. The good thing is, we have good guys, so it’s easy to adapt to the new faces. But I’m the only guy left from the 2007 team.”
That was the year a new crop of Diamondbacks position players graduated to the majors and helped the
team win 90 games and the National League West title. The other remaining links to that club — Chris Young, Justin Upton and Stephen Drew — have been traded in the past seven months.
That leaves Montero, who signed as a free agent out of Venezuela in 2001and has been the club’s everyday catcher since 2009, as perhaps the closest thing to the face of the franchise, at least among players. Manager Kirk Gibson, as well as some members of his coaching staff, have more name recognition than most players on the active roster, not to mention General Manager Kevin Towers and CEO Derrick Hall, the team’s highest-ranking executives.
“If there’s one guy that is like the heart of this team, it would definitely be Miggy,” closer J.J. Putz said. “If you want to build a team around somebody, Miggy is that kind of guy.
“Maybe it’s almost better that we don’t have a face of the organization. That we’re just a team. I think that’s the way KT would like it, that’s the way Gibby would like it. We’re not just one person. We’re the Diamondbacks from top to bottom.”
Putz said that would be more representative of the way he would like to see the team play.
“We want to be together,” Putz said. “We’re going to win together and lose together. That goes from our fans down to the clubhouse staff and through the front office. That’s something Gibby and KT have preached since I got here. If we don’t have a face of the franchise, maybe we can use Derrick Hall as the face of the franchise.”
During FanFest at Chase Field Saturday, Hall made the case during a Q&A session with fans that, “We do have faces on this team,” running through a list of more than a half-dozen players who have been with the team for years and then naming other newcomers he believes will soon be popular.
“These are winning players,” Hall said. “We’re trying to bring players together that want to be here for the name on the front and not on the back. It sounds cliche, but it’s really not.”