The Rangers made a pair of roster moves Friday, activating left-hander Jordan Montgomery from the 60-day injured list and designating right-hander Nolan Kingham for assignment to clear a 40-man roster spot.
Montgomery’s return comes after a long road back from Tommy John surgery. Texas signed him to a modest $1.25MM deal after he missed the entire season, and he has spent the past six-plus weeks on a rehab assignment. For pitchers returning from UCL surgery, rehab time can stretch beyond the usual 30-day limit because teams can request ten-day extensions, up to three times, allowing those assignments to reach 60 days.
The veteran lefty, 33, has had a strange run over the last few years. He entered the 2023-24 offseason coming off a strong stretch from 2021 through 2023, when he logged a 3.48 earned run average across 94 regular season starts. He also made six postseason appearances for the Rangers at the end of that span, posting a 2.90 ERA as Texas won the World Series.
Even with that track record, the market never really materialized the way many expected. Montgomery stayed on the open market deep into spring training before eventually landing a one-year, $25MM deal with the Diamondbacks at the end of March.
That contract included a $20MM vesting player option for 2025 if he reached ten starts in 2024. Because he signed late, he had a delayed start to the season, but he eventually triggered the option.
His year went sideways from there, though, as he turned in a 6.23 ERA over 25 appearances, including 21 starts. He then opted into that player option for 2025 before undergoing Tommy John surgery in March.
Montgomery’s rehab results have been encouraging enough on paper. Over 24 innings, he has a 3.75 ERA, with a 20.6% strikeout rate and a 2.9% walk rate.
Still, his return won’t send him back into the rotation. According to Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News, manager Skip Schumaker said Montgomery and Cal Quantrill are both moving to the bullpen. Texas will go forward with Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, MacKenzie Gore, Kumar Rocker and Cody Bradford in the rotation.
Quantrill has effectively been starting since Jack Leiter landed on the injured list in June with a right ankle issue, but Bradford’s recent return pushes him back to relief work, along with Montgomery. Leiter may not be far behind.
Per Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports, he is set to throw a live batting practice session on Saturday. If he gets to 45 pitches tomorrow, he could need only two rehab starts and be back within a couple of weeks.
For now, though, the path to a rotation opening looks crowded. Injuries can always shuffle things quickly, but Montgomery and Quantrill don’t appear to have a clean route back into starting roles at the moment.
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