Well, this would definitely help the Jays in the postseason.
According to Jon Morosi, the Blue Jays are one of three teams left in the race to acquire Oakland’s Frankie Montas. Take this with a grain of salt, of course.
Montas has posted a 3.18 ERA and a 3.36 FIP in 104.2 innings pitched. The 29-year-old has a 25.8 K% and a 6.6 BB%. For his career, Montas has a 3.73 ERA and a 3.71 FIP in 552.2 innings pitched. The righty’s K% sits at 24.8 while his career BB% sits at 7.8.
The 29-year-old has three variations of the fastball. His four-seamer averages 96.2 mph and he throws 27.1% of the time. He has a 95.6 mph sinker which he throws 22% of the time. His last variation of the fastball is a cutter, which he throws at an average of 89.4 mph, which he throws only 9.2% of the time.
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Montas also has a splitter which he throws 26% of the time at 86.4 mph and a slider at 87 mph, which he throws 15.6% of the time.
This season, the righty is making $5,025,000, which would hardly put a dent in the Blue Jays’ payroll. He is available for arbitration next season and would make less than $10,000,000 one would presume.
Now, there is certainly cause for concern with Montas. Earlier in July, the 29-year-old hit the injured list with shoulder inflammation. Shoulder injuries for pitchers are bad, as you may have guessed. Hopefully, it’s nothing serious for Montas.
The second cause for concern is the cost to acquire him. The Cincinnati Reds got an absolute haul for Luis Castillo. Career-wise, they have pretty similar numbers (albeit, Castillo has pitched 200 more innings). Castillo has been the better pitcher this season, but they have shockingly similar numbers.
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That begs the question, would the Jays give up a haul as Seattle did? Something tells me that they don’t believe starting pitching is that much of a need, especially when Berrios decides to pitch well (like he is as I write this).
In fact, Blue Jays beat writer, Shi Davidi noted that the Jays are in the rental market for an arm. No idea if this includes relief pitching, but this contradicts Jon Morosi’s report that came about an hour and a half later.
I think the Jays need a lefty bat and relief pitching before they get a starting pitcher. Even then, I truly don’t believe they need a front-end of the rotation starter, because they already have three starters pitching quite well. If Berrios can continue to pitch well as he has in his past five games, that’s a solid rotation.
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As always, you can follow me on Twitter @Brennan_L_D. As we continue to get closer to the Tuesday deadline, Blue Jays Nation will be covering everything, so keep tuning in!

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