The Major League Baseball offseason hot stove started heating up on Sunday night, with a couple of starting pitchers going off the free agent board. The Chicago Cubs signing left-hander Matthew Boyd won't impact the Philadelphia Phillies, but the other move by the New York Mets to begin rebuilding their rotation for the 2025 season will.
The Phillies' division rivals have signed right-hander Frankie Montas to a two-year, $34 million contract, as reported by ESPN's Jeff Passan.
Phillies won't lose any sleep over NL East rival Mets signing Frankie Montas
The Mets are likely to be a threat in the NL East in 2025, especially if they manage to land top free agent Juan Soto — they're the rumored favorites right now. However, unlike the Los Angeles Dodgers inking two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell last week, which put immense pressure on the Phillies front office, the Phillies won't lose any sleep over the Montas signing.
Montas has been around, pitching for the Chicago White Sox, the Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees before splitting his 2024 season between the Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers. He has had varying degrees of success over his parts of nine seasons in MLB. He has a career 4.09 ERA and 1.31 WHIP in 160 games (129 starts).
This past season, the 31-year-old went 7-11 with the Reds and Brewers, posting a 4.84 ERA and 1.37 WHIP over 150 2/3 innings. He finished with an 8.18 K/9 and a 3.94 BB/9, his highest walk rate since 2017.
As MLB.com's Mets beat writer Anthony DiComo points out, Montas has a lengthy injury history and his overall 2024 numbers suffered thanks to struggles with command.
The newest Mets starter has faced the Phillies three times in his career (once in 2022 while with the A's and twice in 2024) with a 4.96 ERA and 1.41 WHIP. While he does have 21 strikeouts in his 16 1/3 innings against Philadelphia, Phillies hitters have tagged Montas for four home runs.
In his first 2024 start against the Phillies as a Red, Montas held them to one run on five hits and three walks over 5 2/3 innings in the second series of the season before the offense really started clicking.
His second start against the Phillies at the end of the year as a Brewer saw him strike out 10 Phillies batters at American Family Field in Milwaukee. The Phillies still handed him his 11th loss of the year, getting to him for three runs on six hits with a pair of homers in a 5-1 win.
At $34 million, the Mets appear to have paid a premium to secure Montas' services early. He was ranked 27th on MLB Trade Rumors' free agent list this offseason, with a predicted two-year contract valuing $22 million. They still have some holes to fill in their rotation after Luis Severino, Sean Manaea, and Jose Quintana became free agents after the season.