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Spring training has officially gotten underway across Major League Baseball. Unfortunately, there are still plenty of unsigned players on the free-agent market. Could starting pitcher and 2023 World Series champion Jordan Montgomery find a home with the San Francisco Giants?
That’s what Eric Smithling of Yardbarker thinks will eventually happen. He provided potential landing spots on the top remaining free agents on February 16. His prediction for Montgomery is that he’d head to the Bay.
“The Giants’ starting pitchers ranked 16th in WAR (wins above replacement) (14.5) in 2023 while allowing the seventh-highest home run rate on fly balls (13.2%),” he said in his explanation. “Meanwhile, Montgomery allowed home runs on fly balls at the lowest rate of his career (9.3%) as he reached the highest velocity on his four-seamer (93.4 mph) in his career.”
San Francisco has been linked to various pitchers throughout the winter. The majority of those rumors focused on free-agent hurler Blake Snell after missing out on Yoshinobu Yamamoto. However, ESPN’s Dave Schoenfield named the Giants as a potential option for Montgomery in a February 13 article.
Montgomery Would Bring Certainty to Giants’ Rotation
The Giants have made multiple moves to boost their 2024 rotation, but some questions come along with them. Signing Montgomery would stabilize a staff that’s led by ace Logan Webb.
According to FanGraphs’ Roster Resource, San Francisco’s Opening Day starting five includes Webb, Kyle Harrison, Jordan Hicks, Keaton Winn and Tristan Beck. Veteran Alex Cobb and the newly-acquired Robbie Ray will begin 2024 on the injured list.
So, just like that, two-fifths of San Francisco’s ideal starting rotation won’t immediately be part of the mix. Cobb is rehabbing from hip surgery and will miss at least the first month. Ray is still coming back from Tommy John surgery and won’t be ready until at least the summer. And then there’s Hicks, who just signed a four-year, $44 million deal. He’s transitioning from the bullpen to the rotation. The hard-throwing right-hander has started just eight big-league games in his career, all of which came in 2022 for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Pairing Montgomery with Webb would give San Francisco a dependable one-two punch. The southpaw has started at least 30 games in each of the past three seasons. His work in 2023 with the Cardinals and Texas Rangers was among his best. The 188.2 innings he accumulated were a single-season career high while the 3.20 ERA he twirled was also a career-best mark.
The Rangers Are No Longer Viewed as the Favorites
For the majority of the winter, the Rangers were viewed as favorites to sign Montgomery. Texas was also seen as the southpaw’s top choice. But concern about long-term revenue streams with their television deal has led to a quiet offseason in Arlington.
General manager Chris Young plainly stated Texas’ status regarding Montgomery, or any other top free agent, on February 14. “I don’t think there are any additions coming at this point,” he told reporters, including Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.
The Athletic’s Jim Bowden named the Giants, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees as other potential options. San Francisco already took advantage of a slow-moving market on February 13. They signed slugger Jorge Soler to a three-year, $42 million contract. The club should at least be inspecting the possibility of making one more big offseason splash.
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