Ominous development
Bad news from the Oakland A’s game on Sunday.
Starting pitcher Frankie Montas exited the game early, after throwing just one inning.
The month of July just began, which means we’ve entered trade season, and Montas is considered a strong candidate to be dealt before the deadline. However, the star right-hander was not pulled from this game due to such a transaction, reports Matt Kawahara of the S.F. Chronicle. The team will provide further updates, but “he has NOT been traded,” adds insider Martin Gallegos.
During his inning of work against the Seattle Mariners today, Montas threw 13 pitches and topped out at 94.5 mph with his fastball. His four-seamer averaged 93.8 in four tries, significantly lower than his 96.2 season average on the pitch, and his sinker also registered nearly 3 ticks lower than usual on the radar.
A large sudden drop in velocity is almost always an injury, though for now that is just speculation and nothing is official yet. Hopefully there is some other explanation.
This year sucks. Hope Frankie is OK.