PITTSBURGH -- Mason Montgomery’s rise has been about more than just the radar gun, though that part is plenty loud. The left-hander has become one of the Pirates’ most trusted relief arms, striking out 37.1 percent of the hitters he has faced while holding opponents to a .198 BAA. Since coming over from Tampa Bay in December, Pittsburgh has used him all over the map - opening games at times and dropping him into some of the club’s toughest spots when the leverage spikes.
What has pushed him even further is a new wrinkle: a two-seam fastball.
Montgomery said pitching coach Billy Murphy first brought up the idea when the two were in Colorado. He already had a four-seamer that can touch 100 mph, along with a slider, curveball and changeup, but Murphy believed another fastball shape could make him tougher to handle.
“Mentally, I feel good about throwing it,” Montgomery said.
That pitch has given Montgomery another way to attack the zone, especially against right-handed hitters, where the ball can ride up and away. Murphy said adding something new in-season is common enough, but trusting it in real games is usually the hard part. In Montgomery’s case, it clicked almost immediately.
“When you have someone who throws that hard, the big goal is to get in the strike zone,” Murphy said. “We thought that the pitch would just be something that he could throw naturally, and that's exactly what it has done. I think it's just freed him up.”
That freedom is part of what makes Montgomery such a tricky watch for opposing teams. Henry Davis called him a rare type of left-handed power arm, one that doesn’t come with many easy comparisons.
“It's a lefty throwing 101. When you scout, you can't find comps, maybe other than [Red Sox closer] Aroldis Chapman, when you're trying to watch at-bats,” catcher Henry Davis said.
Montgomery has shown the kind of velocity that turns heads, reaching 101.6 mph as recently as Aug. 3.
That wasn’t always the case. He said the hardest he had ever thrown outside a game was 96 mph, and he didn’t crack 100 until 2024.
The path to that kind of power took time. At Texas Tech, former Red Raiders pitching coach Ray Hayward said Montgomery had the arm strength but had to live at 90-92 mph just to stay in the strike zone.
The Rays picked him in the sixth round of the 2021 MLB Draft, and by 2024 he was in Triple-A Durham with Brandon Lowe on a rehab assignment. Lowe saw a starter then who was topping out at 94 mph.
Not long after, when Lowe was back in the majors and Montgomery got the call, he watched a reliever pumping 100 mph.
The three eventually landed in Pittsburgh together in a three-team deal, and the trade is looking better for the Pirates by the day. Tampa Bay’s influence still shows in Montgomery’s game.
He said the Rays simplified things for him, nudging him toward the edges of the zone and a more direct attack plan. He also added a gyro slider during that stretch.
“[The Rays] definitely know what they're doing,” Montgomery said. “For me, they just made it really simple.
They simplified it for me. It's like, 'get ahead and then expand.
Nothing crazy. Throw everything you have.
Throw it with conviction.'”
Montgomery’s ascent didn’t start in pro ball. He was the No. 2-ranked left-handed pitcher in Texas for the 2018 Draft class, and Hayward still remembers how surprising it was when Montgomery ended up on campus after being taken in the 39th round.
“I went, 'What's he doing here?’” Hayward joked.
“As a scout, I scouted for a long time, and I thought, man, he's really gotten better. With the arm action and the speed and all that stuff.
Delivery, being left-handed, I felt somebody messed up, pro-wise.”
In college, Montgomery bounced between starting and relief while working with a cut fastball, straight slider and a changeup that was still coming along. Now, with the Pirates, he has settled into a more defined role and a bigger stage, one that fits his calm personality.
Lowe likes to joke that Montgomery brings almost no emotion to the mound. Don Kelly sees that same even-keeled approach as a strength. Murphy goes further, calling it the trait that separates Montgomery from most pitchers in the biggest moments.
“Most people cannot slow the game down in the big moments to get saves and to get big strikeouts, and he can,” Murphy said. “That's what makes him special.
That's what the big pitchers in the game do. I grew up watching [Hall of Fame pitcher] Mariano Rivera.
He had the stuff, but he also was never rattled on the mound. That's special from a reliever perspective.”
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