Mariners’ Montgomery Finally to Make Big League Debut

ByWayne Cavadi|

It’s been a long road for fallen top prospect Mike Montgomery. It appears that the road will finally take the right turn to the Major Leagues on Tuesday.

Montgomery is the now well traveled former first round pick of the Kansas City Royals back in 2008. He went to the Tampa Bay Rays in the James Shields/Wil Myers mega-deal and then this past offseason, he was sent to the Mariners for Erasmo Ramirez. When the trade went down, we here at GotC thought the move was a steal.

The Rays pitching staff is very deep and even deeper in the Minor Leagues. Ramirez was a throw away player to get their hands on a 25-year old lefty who had bullpen and starting experience. Does that mean that Montgomery was now going to become the No. 2 to Felix Hernandez in Seattle’s rotation? Not at all, but the Mariners bullpen wasn’t very deep, and Montgomery had a much better chance at helping the Mariners than Ramirez did helping the Rays.

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Now, Montgomery is getting his chance. With James Paxton on the shelf with a strained tendon in his middle finger on his pitching hand, Montgomery was scratched from his Sunday start and seen in the Mariners bullpen on Sunday. Tonight should be his big league debut against the Yankees.

How will it go? Obviously there is no projecting that, but Montgomery’s Minor League numbers look more like they did several years ago than they had in recent years. Montgomery looked every bit the part of the first round pick his first three years in the minors for the Royals, but then it all fell apart. Four years in a row his ERA was above 4.00 and he posted high WHIPs everyone of those seasons as well.

This season, back in the hitter happy Pacific Coast League nonetheless, Montgomery seems to have re-found his groove. He was 4-3 with Tacoma, posting a 3.74 ERA over 9 starts. His WHIP was back down to 1.17 and he had struck out 47 over 53 innings. He looked much more the part of a Major League contributor than he did a Minor League bust.

“He’s done well down there,” Ms skipper Lloyd McClendon told MLB.com. “His stuff plays at this level. It’s just a matter of whether he can execute. We’ll find out tomorrow.”

Although still unofficial, it appears that over the next two days, Montgomery will have a new beginning to his career. It is the start he has waited 8 years to make. Should he prevail, he could prove his worth as a Major Leaguer, and stick in the Mariners bullpen when Paxton returns.

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