Stay or Go: Should Yankees bring back Frankie Montas for 2024?

It feels like forever ago when the Yankees made a trade deadline splash by acquiring Frankie Montas in 2022.

After missing out on Luis Castillo, general manager Brian Cashman pivoted to grab arguably the second-best starter available. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for the Yanks or Montas.

The right-hander started in eight games with the Yankees in 2022, going 1-3 while pitching to a 6.35 ERA. In 19 starts with the Oakland A’s prior to being traded, Montas was 4-9 with a 3.18 ERA.

Were the bright lights of New York too big for Montas? No. Montas was actually injured and wound up on the IL with right shoulder inflammation in late September. Although he appeared in the postseason, 2022 was a bust for Montas, and that shoulder injury put him on the shelf for the majority of 2023 after the 30-year-old underwent surgery.

Montas, to his credit, worked his way back and even pitched in the final week of the season. So now that he’s presumably healthy, should the Yankees try and bring him back for 2024?

Why it could make sense to let Montas Go

There's suddenly no shortage of starters in the Yankees' rotation. Gerrit Cole will remain the ace he’s been the last couple of years, while Carlos Rodon will begin his second season in pinstripes.

But Clarke Schmidt and Michael King, the reliever turned starter at the end of the season, have emerged as potential hurlers for the Yankees rotation moving forward. You then have Nestor Cortes returning from injury and the possibility the team brings Domingo German -- who is arbitration-eligible -- back. Where does Montas fit?

Now, Montas’ ceiling is higher than Schmidt's and perhaps even Cortes’ but the Yankees will have to weigh his durability when determining if they want to bring him back.

While Montas was reliable in Oakland, his recent shoulder surgery nixed an entire season and they’ll have to figure out whether he’s fully back.

They do have the benefit of having him have the surgery while in their organization so they should know how it went and the extent of his injury/recovery. But what version of Montas are they getting? Was his stint with the Yankees a product of pitching while injured or a sign of things to come?

It'll be easy to let Montas walk as he didn't have a good track record while pitching in pinstripes and they already have enough starters to begin 2024. They can also look for a more reliable arm in free agency to fill out the middle/back end of the rotation.

Why it could make sense to keep Montas

Montas making an appearance at the end of the year shows that not only does the righty want to get back on the mound -- to potentially show teams what he can do while he enters free agency -- but the Yankees also got to see what they had.

With that in mind, the Yankees' willingness to have Montas pitch shows that they are definitely interested in bringing him back, and why not? In his career with Oakland, Montas had a 35-30 record with a 3.70 ERA. He also struck out 558 batters in 537.2 innings. You also have to remember he was doing this on some of the worst-hitting teams in baseball.

For the right price, there could be an avenue for the two to reunite this offseason. Montas did say prior to his 2023 debut that he wanted to return to the Bronx next year so perhaps a one-year deal to prove himself would do the trick.

Montas can easily slip into the No. 4 or 5 spot of the rotation if the team isn’t sold on Schmidt or feels King isn’t ready to step into a starter role.

Verdict

When Montas went under the knife prior to the start of the 2023 season, I was convinced the Yankees would let him walk. But after seeing him pitch on Sept. 30 against the Royals -- he pitched 1.1 shutout innings while giving up two hits, walking one and striking out a batter -- I'm convinced there is something still there.

Montas was never a dominant starter with Oakland, but he excelled in a small pond and was arguably their best pitcher for many years. With his shoulder seemingly healthy and if the Yanks can bring him back on a team-friendly deal, the Montas experiment is worth trying again in 2024.