Jordan Montgomery didn’t return to the Texas Rangers with much fanfare in 2026, but the numbers say he still looked a lot like the pitcher Texas remembered from 2023.
That matters because Montgomery will be back on the market again this offseason, and the Rangers’ one-year gamble may be worth revisiting. They signed him in spring training for far less than he would have commanded if he were healthy, a bargain made possible by the Tommy John surgery that wiped out his entire 2025 season. The catch was obvious from the start: Texas had to wait for him, and by the time he was ready, the bullpen was the best place to plug him in.
The 33-year-old lefty appeared in 13 games, went 1-0 and posted a 4.15 ERA over 26 innings. On the surface, that’s not the kind of line that screams long-term commitment. But the underlying data points to a pitcher whose strengths never really went anywhere.
Montgomery still works with a sinker, a change-up and a curveball as his main weapons, an approach built to keep the fastball in support role, coax weak contact and get hitters to expand the zone. When he was with Texas in 2023, some of the Statcast numbers sat around league average, but the things he does well stood out: a 6.2% walk rate that ranked in the 82nd percentile and a 30.1% chase rate that landed in the 67th percentile.
The trend carried over in Arizona in 2024, even through a rough season in the traditional numbers. He finished 8-7 with a 6.23 ERA, but hitters still had a hard time with his stuff. His 33.3% chase rate ranked in the 91st percentile, and his 6.0% barrel rate was in the 81st percentile.
This year’s sample was smaller, with only 27 innings, so Montgomery didn’t qualify for league leaders. Even so, the signs were strong.
His average exit velocity was 85.9 mph, which would have placed him in the top 10 percent in baseball if he had qualified. His 58.4% ground-ball rate was even better, a level that would have put him in the top 5 percent among pitchers.
He also posted a 32.5% hard-hit rate and a 5.8% walk rate, both numbers that would have landed in the top 20 percent.
That’s the profile Montgomery keeps showing: a four-seam fastball that averaged only 90.4 mph in 2026, about three mph below the average left-hander, but enough other quality pitches to make contact miserable. He doesn’t beat hitters with velocity. He beats them with command, movement and the kind of contact management that travels in any park.
For Texas, that makes him more than just a familiar name. It makes him a sensible target if the Rangers want to bring him back for 2027.
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