Royals counting on Mike Montgomery to help anchor starting rotation
Last summer, the Kansas City Royals took advantage of Salvador Perez’s season-ending surgery and turned that bad break into an experienced addition to the pitching staff with an eye towards this year’s starting rotation.
The Royals traded Perez’s temporary replacement, catcher Martin Maldonado, to the Chicago Cubs in early July for Mike Montgomery. A left-hander originally drafted by the Royals in 2008, Montgomery had been relegated to pitching purgatory, caught somewhere between part-time starter and full-time reliever with the Cubs.
Unshackled from his previously dubious role and what at times felt like over-analysis, Montgomery entered this spring training with the trust of the Royals organization as well as the self-confidence to experiment and remake himself as a starting pitcher.
“I was so worried about how my Rapsodo numbers were that I forgot the most important thing is pitching,” Montgomery said, referring to the popular pitch-tracking device that uses a high-speed camera. “When I got here, I felt like I got to that. I still felt like I was playing catch-up. By the end of the year, I felt about what a normal starter should feel.”
After spending parts of the past four seasons with the Cubs and making 81 of his 119 appearances in relief, Montgomery believes he’s working towards the ideal middle ground between spin rates and the tried and true principles of getting batters out.
“I’ve had front office people tell me I shouldn’t throw certain pitches because the analytics, when no one is in there and I’m in a bullpen, it doesn’t grade out well,” Montgomery said. “I kind of laugh at that because those people who are truly doing that have never really understood what it takes to get people out.
“They’re looking at it from behind a computer. I think it’s a tool. It’s useful, but it’s not an end all be all.”
Entering his sixth season in the majors and back in a role where he knows he’ll start every fifth day, Montgomery’s mindset has shifted to being a reliable innings eater on a pitching staff without an abundance of experienced starting options.
In his 13 starts for the Royals last season, he posted a 4.64 ERA, 1.55 WHIP and a 2.43 strikeout-to-walk ratio while compiling a 2-7 record. He needed the first four outings simply to build up his pitch count.
In the last nine starts he posted a 3.94 ERA, 42 strikeouts, 16 walks and 55 hits in 48 innings with a .299 opponent’s batting average. That served as a starting point for him to build toward this season.
Montgomery, 30, came into spring training working on a new curveball grip and trying to refine the shape of his cutter/slider. He feels it will be vital for him to have both of those pitches as well as his change-up to complement his fastball.
Throughout his career, he’s gotten batters to hit a high percentage of ground balls — better than 50% each season except 2019 — and he believes the expansive confines of Kauffman Stadium will give him even more wiggle room to experiment.
“It’s funny because you never lose that young, hungry guy in camp where you’re always trying to make the team,” Montgomery said. “It feels like just yesterday I didn’t have any big-league time and you just want to get there. Even when you’re there, that’s the fun part. You’re always competing.”
Montgomery had a track record with the Royals organization from 2008 through 2012, and the familiarity helped facilitate the trade. But he also brings the added element of having made 69 career major-league starts and pitching in 16 postseason games, helping the Cubs win the 2016 World Series. He recorded the final out in the clinching game.
“The thing with Mike Montgomery is he has pitched effectively in an important and vital role with a championship major-league team,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore said. “So he has that platform and that experience where he can move on and take the next step, and we need starting pitchers. We have a lot of talented young starters, but we don’t want to be in a position where we have to rush them.”
Similarly to the approach last spring training with veteran pitcher Homer Bailey, the Royals want Montgomery to use exhibition games to work on specific things and not focus on results.
His rotation spot is secure, and his next month will be entirely geared toward preparing for the regular season.
“We know that it will also be a process,” Moore said. “He’s just now getting in a groove where he can utilize all of his pitches. He knows he’s going to be in the rotation. Even in spring training, we won’t get caught up, necessarily, on his results of each outing but more is he getting a chance to utilize all his pitches, work on things and perfect his delivery.”
Manager Mike Matheny has already spoken to Montgomery about the possibility of pitching Cactus League games and then finishing his day pitching in a simulated setting on the back fields, where they can create situations to assure he sees every scenario they want before the regular season.
“I see him as a guy that we’ve just got to get him ready, get him built up,” Matheny said. “There’s no other games going on there in my mind. He’s one of our guys. Let’s get him ready, built up and feeling really confident.”
