Former Rangers Ace Hasn't Skipped a Beat With His New Team
The former Texas Rangers ace has been off to a great start with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Texas Rangers are sitting just one game above .500 and despite not looking as dominant as some of the other teams in baseball, they are currently winning their division. It's not a true World Series champion slump, but Texas certainly isn't hoping to maintain this level of play for the long run.
One former Rangers pitcher has not experienced any World Series slump, though, dominiating in the first performance with his new team.
Jordan Montgomery signed a one-year, $25 million deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks after firing Scott Boras and switching agents late in the free agency period.
While monitoring free agents that signed with their new teams late and are struggling, USA Today's Bob Nightengale pointed out the 31-year-old as an outlier.
In his first game with Arizona, the left-handed ace gave up one run on a home run in six innings against the San Francisco Giants.
One stark contrast to this is San Francisco ace Blake Snell, who has an ERA of 11.57 through his first three outings with the Giants.
Another factor to point out between the two late signees is that Montgomery spent some time tuning up in the minors before heading back up to the show.
Snell spoke out to the media about the idea that he needed to go to the minors for a stint, "It was definitely an option, but I don't think I needed it."
The former World Series winner didn't dominate immediately in the minors, which shows he did have some rust to knock off. In Triple-A Reno, the South Carolina native had an ERA north of 10.00. He was just able to jump straight into the majors, though, because he had gotten back into form.
“Everybody, including me," Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said, according to Nightengale, “talked about some of the struggles that people that don't have a full spring training could potentially walk through. [Montgomery} answered a lot of questions about his readiness and preparedness."
The former fourth round selection is scheduled to make his second start with Arizona on Wednesday, April 24 against the St. Louis Cardinals.
