Yankees Jordan Montgomery: Where is the love?

Left-hander Jordan Montgomery had an outstanding rookie campaign in 2017, but will he be in the Yankees starting rotation in 2018?

There has been speculation that Jordan Montgomery may be the odd man out of the rotation this season with the Yankees expressing interest in outside starting pitchers, such as Gerrit Cole and, more recently, Yu Darvish.

Several outlets have asked the question, are the Yankees backing away from Montgomery by pursuing a starting pitcher from outside the organization?

There is also something of a consensus among Yankee fans that if the club is in the market for a starting pitcher, then they must have reservations about Montgomery heading into the season.

My question is: where’s the love for this 25-year-old left-hander, who came out of nowhere to help propel the Yanks into the playoffs in 2017?

While Montgomery was the fifth starter, he might easily have been a middle of the rotation or higher starter on a club less stacked with talented, veteran arms.

Jason Cohen of PinstripeAlley.com has written that Montgomery’s most significant failings are a fastball that is slow and ineffective, a bit of a home run problem, and issues shutting down with lefties.

Monty did give up 21 home runs on the season — and averaged an ERA of 3.43 against right-handed batters and 6.38 against left-handers.

In 16 games before the All-Star break, Montgomery went 6-4 with a 3.65 ERA, giving up 13 home runs, while striking out 87 batters, and posting a 1.23 WHIP.

After the Mid-Season Classic, in 13 games, Montgomery went 3-3 with a 4.22 ERA, giving up eight homers, striking out 57 men and posting a 1.23 WHIP.

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In August, Monty was sent down to the minors for a brief period, before being recalled when CC Sabathia went down with a knee injury. Critics point to a fatigue factor in Montgomery’s slide during the second half of the season.

Something, however, must have gone very right for Montgomery to have put up the kind of numbers he did, particularly in the first half of ’17. After all, he finished sixth in the AL Rookie of the Year balloting. He also was the only rookie pitcher to achieve a fWAR of above 2.0, with his fWAR of 2.7.

One of the things that went right for Monty in ’17 was his five-pitch repertoire, which helped him to navigate lineups. He throws a curve (81 mph), sinker (92 mph), changeup (85 mph), four-seam fastball (92 mph) and a slider (86 mph).

According to Kento Mizuno of PinstripeAlley.com, Montgomery gets his strikeouts from his quality secondary pitches — slider, changeup and curveball — all generated positive pitch values in ’17.

His curveball is the best of the bunch ranking fifth among all starting pitchers with 10.3 runs above average.

Mizuno says, that Montgomery ran a swinging strike rate of 12.2 percent, which ranked him 15th among all starting pitchers and put him in company with Zack Greinke, Yu Darvish and Sonny Gray.

His O-Swing percent of 3.32 ranked him even higher among starting pitchers at ninth with the likes of Jacob deGrom and Clayton Kershaw.

Montgomery gets hitters to chase, and he gets them to whiff.

Statistically, Brett Borzelli of PinstripeAlley.com says:

Montgomery actually outperformed many front-line starters. His ERA ranked 13th in the league among pitchers who completed a minimum of 150 innings.

Next: Yanks make another minor league signing

As with any rookie campaign, Montgomery’s was filled with highs and lows, but with another year under his belt, Monty should be able to give the Yankees a little bit more out of his arm.