Frankie

Montas

Montas gave up four hits, walked three and struck out five. He’s won only one of his last 11 starts and has only three quality starts in 13 starts this year. Three years removed from a season with 207 strikeouts and a 3.37 ERA, Montas is just about off the fantasy radar at this point. The 31-year-old right-hander is set to face the Red Sox at home next week.

Montas followed up his best start of the year (7 IP, 0 R, 1 H in Coors Field) five days ago with his worst showing in this one. He walked three batters during a three-run first, and he was pulled after giving up hits to three of the first four batters he faced in the second. Fortunately for Montas’s ERA, Carson Spiers stranded both runners after taking over. Montas is 3-5 with a 4.55 ERA.

The seven innings and nine strikeouts were both season highs for Montas, who lowered his ERA from 4.60 to 4.00 in earning his first win since Apr. 3. A victory against the Rockies isn’t enough to warrant a mixed-league pickup, but it was encouraging to see Montas’s velocity up a bit tonight. He generated 20 missed swings on his 96 pitches.

It’s the third quality start of the year for Montas, but it wasn’t enough to get him back into the win column for the first time since early April. He’s 2-4 with a 4.60 ERA and an unimpressive 33/18 K/BB ratio in 47 innings.

This could have gone a lot worse. Montas gave up all four runs in the first two innings, but he was effective enough to give Cincinnati — and fantasy managers — six innings despite allowing nine hits in the contest. The right-hander has been shaky at best for Cincinnati over the first third of the season with a 4.64 ERA over nine starts as evidence. He’ll try and lower that mark next week against the Cardinals.

Montas allowed just four hits, but two of those were homers by the superstar duo that is Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani. The former Dodger allowed three walks and also had just one strikeout, so it’s fair to say that he wasn’t exactly fooling the Los Angeles lineup even when they weren’t seeing hits drop. Montas has been shaky in his first year with the Reds, and his 4.37 ERA and 25/15 K/BB over 35 innings are pretty accurate descriptors of his 2024 campaign.

Montas has shown better velocity in two starts since coming back from a forearm issue, but after a strong outing last week against the Diamondbacks, he didn’t do much to impress today, even while opening up with four scoreless frames. Just six of the 38 swings against him produced misses, and he allowed nine hard-hit balls. He’s a weak mixed-league option right now.

Montas was sharp in his return from the IL, striking out seven and walking just one. He allowed just one extra-base hit on the day and his two runs were driven in on a fielder’s choice and single to score a runner who was only on because of an Elly De La Cruz error. Montas was throwing two mph harder on every pitch in his arsenal; however, he was only able to get strikeouts on his splitter and registered a 25 percent CSW. It feels a little bit like Montas will still go as far as his splitter will take him, which makes him a risky proposition in fantasy leagues but one you can likely start against the Giants this weekend.

After two weeks on the injured list, Montas will return to the active roster and is scheduled to start Tuesday against the Diamondbacks. The 31-year-old holds a 4.19 ERA, 1.45 WHIP with a 14/10 K/BB ratio across 19 1/3 innings this season.

Montas was hit in the forearm by a comebacker during Sunday’s start, but fortunately there’s no structural damage. With some rest before ramping back up, he could be ready to return around when he’s first eligible next month.