Scouting Report
Size/Stature/Delivery
Montas is listed at 6’2 and 255 pounds, and he’s every bit of that for sure. He could likely drop 20-30 pounds off the midsection without issue, but he does carry a lot of his weight in his massive lower legs, where he generates a lot of his power in his delivery, so he’ll likely never be a guy you see weighing in at 190 pounds or anything like that just due to the sizable legs required to generate the velocity that he gets.
Montas comes from a high 3/4 arm slot after staying high through the wind up of his delivery. In his stretch, he stays tall as well. From the peak of his motion, he drops his back leg and stays low in his legs as he drives to the plate, using a ton of leg power in his delivery. This delivery is a classic delivery known as the “drop and drive” delivery, and while it is considered to be much less stress on the arm, it does generate a lot of torque from the knee to the mid-back/midsection of the pitcher, and interestingly, that’s where Montas has suffered injury issues, with a rib issue being his major culprit this season.
Pitches
Montas attacks hitters with a high-end fastball that can touch 102 in short bursts and sits in the 94-97 range in the games I saw. The fastball has some late arm side fade, though when he really reaches back for intentional velocity, the pitch tends to flatten out on him. He’s at his best in getting movement when he lets the velocity come naturally – and it comes in spades!
Montas’ primary secondary pitch is a slider that sits 83-88, but he can reach back and touch 90 with the pitch in short bursts. The slider is a pitch that has come a long way, and he really gets great use out of his legs in creating late depth in the break on the pitch. From my viewing, he actually got movement toward both sides of the plate on the pitch, which is incredibly impressive.
The third pitch is a change up, and while he masks arm movement well on the pitch, Montas’ change is considered by most to be a “work in progress” due to the fact that he gets nearly no movement on the change up. A great change up has plenty of movement, while an elite change mirrors the movement of the fastball. Montas doesn’t get either. I did note in his first two AAA starts that he used nearly entirely fastballs and sliders.
The biggest knock on Montas on the mound is that with his size, if he’s off just a touch in his delivery, that massive size in motion toward the plate throws off his entire pitch, and when he’s on his game, he pounds the zone with the ball, which means that he could leave a lot of balls in the zone in a position he didn’t intend. That has led to some pretty rough minor league performances, but one would hope that he has learned to trust his legs rather than “aim” when he gets just a little out of sync.
Video
Next: Future Outlook