Yankees: Jordan Montgomery could have a career year in his return to the starting rotation

After missing the majority of the 2018 and 2019 seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery, Jordan Montgomery is set the rejoin the Yankees starting rotation. Now that’s he’s finally healthy the expectations for him this season should be pretty high.

It has been a rough couple of years for the Yankees left-hander, to say the least. On May 1, 2018, he left a start against the Astros after experiencing elbow tightness. A month later, on Jun. 5, he tore his UCL and underwent Tommy John Surgery.

This was a major blow to the Yanks, as Montgomery was on his way to having a very successful sophomore season in the big leagues. He finished the 2018 season with a 2-0 record and a 3.65 ERA, but only pitched a total of 27 1/3 innings.

Montgomery finally made his return to the Yankees on Sep. 15 last season after missing nearly 17 months due to his injury. Although he only pitched four innings over two games, it was vital for the southpaw to get some reps before the end of the season to give him something to build off of entering the long offseason.

So far this spring in two appearances Montgomery has only allowed one hit and struck out seven over four innings of work. He looks very comfortable on the mound throwing all of his pitches, especially his fastball which has increased in velocity up to 94 mph.

Montgomery will likely slide into the fourth slot in the starting rotation after the injuries to James Paxton and Luis Severino. With Sevy done for the year, he’ll have a good shot at pitching in the rotation for the entire season if he performs well.

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The earlier returns for Montgomery this spring are great and have me believing he could be set for a career year. In 2017 he was arguably the best rookie starter in the American League and now that the surgery is far behind him he’s only going to get better which should be huge for the Yankees.

After all the time spent off the mound due to his injury and the extended rest he got this past offseason, Montgomery is ready to go and shouldn’t have many limitations once the regular season begins. Based on how the current Yankee rotation is constructed he has the potential to become at least the Yankees third best starter this season.. and that includes Paxton.

That’s how much potential the 27-year old has, and will be looked upon to make a big impact in March and April. The writing is on the wall that this may be the year Montgomery breaks out. After everything he’s been through over the past two seasons he deserves this opportunity and I expect him to make the most of it.