Rays’ Mason Montgomery Touching 100 MPH, Unlocking Potential After Move To Bullpen
Image credit: Mason Montgomery (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
For much of the past decade, Mason Montgomery has had a great fastball. He’s also had concerns about whether his secondary offering would ever catch up to his hard-to-square-up fastball.
Baseball America’s draft report on Montgomery when he was coming out of high school in 2018 was pretty straightforward: He had an excellent fastball, but his control and breaking ball needed work. Montgomery went to Texas Tech and pitched well, but when he was draft eligible in 2021, his updated report remained the same:
“After three years at Texas Tech, Montgomery is still searching for a consistent breaking ball. But Montgomery’s 90-95 mph fastball gets swings and misses up in the zone, which may be enough to convince a pro team to take a chance on a lefty with a very good arm.”
His scouting report heading into 2025 hasn’t really changed all that much from his 2018 report:
“Montgomery’s fastball has always been an impressive pitch. He’s just struggled to develop the secondary offerings to go with it.”
But there is one big difference. Now, the Rays have given up on the 24-year-old lefthander becoming a starter. And as a reliever, his special arm stands out much more.
Montgomery extended his scoreless streak this spring to 7.1 innings over eight appearances. He’s allowed just three hits: two singles and a double. But maybe most importantly, he’s yet to walk a batter.
That’s an an impressive turnaround for a pitcher who had an 8.16 ERA and .344 opponents average in 14 Triple-A starts last year.
Everything just seems to work better for Montgomery as a reliever. He’s been exhibiting every characteristic that teams hope to see when a struggling starter moves to the pen. After making the switch last year, he went 1-0, 2.48 for Triple-A Durham with a .183 opponents average.
As a reliever, Montgomery throws more strikes—and he’s throwing them much harder. As a starter, he sat 93-94 mph. He was sitting 96-98 mph once he moved to the bullpen last year. This spring, he’s sitting 97-99 mph and has touched 100 on multiple occasions. Montgomery’s fastball also has excellent life, which helps it miss bats.
Another positive development from the move to the bullpen is that it has allowed Montgomery to largely junk his ineffective changeup and focus on his slider. When he was sitting 93-94 as a starter, his slider lacked power, as it was a 82-84 mph, below-average pitch. This spring, it’s sitting at 88-90. While it lacks much movement, at that kind of velocity, it’s an average-or-better pitch thanks to the power. Hitters worried about his near-triple digit fastball don’t get much of a chance to sit on it either.
For years, evaluators have wondered if Montgomery could unlock enough control and improve his changeup and slider enough to be a starter. In the end, it was a move to the bullpen that unlocked Montgomery’s true potential and made him a useful member of the Rays’ staff.
