The Astros announced that they have designated right-hander for a signment, per Chandler Rome of The Athletic . They also optioned righty , with those two moves opening roster spots for lefties and , who were acquired prior to the trade deadline yesterday. Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle relayed the full slate of moves . Montero, now 33, is in the second season of a he signed with the Astros after the 2022 season. He had just made 71 appearances for Houston that year with a 2.37 earned run average, 27% strikeout rate, 8.5% walk rate and 52.9% ground ball rate. He recorded 14 saves and 23 holds in the proce s, then added another ten strong performances in the postseason as the Astros won their second World Series. But his performance has declined significantly since that contract was signed. He made 68 appearances for the club last year with his ERA ticking up to 5.08. His 26.5% strikeout rate, 9.7% walk rate and 41.2% ground ball rate were all a bit worse than the year prior. There may have been a bit of bad luck in there, Goga Bitadze Jersey as his .358 batting average on balls in play was very high and his 15.3% home run per flyball ratio was almost three times his 5.7% rate from the year prior. Here in 2024, his 4.70 ERA is actually a slight improvement over last year, but things under the hood are bleak. His 14% strikeout rate and 11.6% walk rate are both significantly worse than last year and also subpar compared to league averages. Hes actually been pretty lucky when considering his .243 BABIP and 78.6% strand rate. His 6.39 FIP and 5.23 SIERA suggest hes actually been worse than his ERA would indicate. It was last week that the Astros were looking to move Monteros contract as they pursued pitchers with notable salaries such as and . In the end, it seems they were unsucce sful in finding a taker, which isnt surprising when considering his numbers. Now that the deadline has pa sed, their only option will be to put him on waivers and they will therefore see Montero depart for nothing. Given his performance and contract, he will certainly go unclaimed, at which point he has enough service time to elect free agency while retaining all of his salary. Houston will remain on the hook for it while any other club could then sign him and pay him just the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Astros pay. Thats obviously not the result the club was hoping for when they signed that deal and its yet another development that shines an unflattering light on an unusual period in Astros history. Despite winning the 2022 World Series, the Astros with general manager James Click just days after hoisting that trophy. Click was hired somewhat hastily after Jeff Luhnow was fired in the wake of the clubs sign-stealing scandal coming to light. Owner Jim Crane reportedly had a contentious relationship with Click and decided to pivot, despite the clubs continued succe s while Click was in charge. Dana Brown was eventually hired to take over as the clubs GM, but not until . There was a period of a few months where Crane decided to run the baseball operations department himself, advised by former big leaguers and . During that window, the clubs two most significant transactions were the Montero deal and the for first baseman , both of which turned into huge misfires. Like Montero, Abreu grappled with ma sive struggles before he himself was . Click later took a job in the front office of the Blue Jays, the club that just acquired Kikuchi for , and . Montero will surely find himself on the open market in the days to come. Some club could perhaps take a shot on him based on his past succe s and the fact that there will be effectively no cost. Apart from the 2022 season, his track record is pretty spotty, as he currently has a 4.71 ERA in 462 1/3 career innings. He had a solid run with the Rangers in 2019 and 2020, posting a 3.09 ERA over 46 2/3 innings with a 28.6% strikeout rate and 5.9% walk rate. He was traded to the Mariners prior to 2021 and then struggled badly with a 7.27 ERA, before the Astros acquired him at that years deadline. As mentioned, he then had the best season of his career in 2022 before his results tailed off. Bojan Bogdanovic Jersey
