Will Frankie Montas Be Ready for the 2023 Season? Fantasy Baseball Injury Update

After Frankie Montas swapped locations midway through the season, which sent him packing to the Yankees, he had hoped to mirror the success that he had in Oakland. Unfortunately, things went entirely south for Montas in the Bronx after he unpacked a 6.35 ERA through eight starts.

Montas re-agitated his pitching shoulder in late September which accumulated severe inflammation. Tentatively, he is expected to miss the first month of the season. The Yankees had filled Montas in their five-man rotation for the 2023 season, and they will need to spice things up with the absence of Montas.

Let's hope the 29-year-old can ramp things up quickly and return to his old self. For the Yankees of course, and for all of the fantasy geeks out there, what type of impact does this make?

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Bouncing Back

From what we know, Montas is 8-10 weeks behind schedule. According to Pete Caldera of USA Today, however, Montas has been cleared medically and is hoping to begin throwing soon.

Assuming that his absence is limited to a month, the Yankees should expect to employ a healthy five-man rotation by late April. The biggest concern once Montas returns is his reliability. We've only seen a small sample size of Montas in the Bronx, but it wasn't anything special. Across eight starts, the Dominican accumulated a 62 ERA+ with a 1.538 WHIP. Those numbers are quite disturbing for a player of such caliber.

The underlying metrics clearly indicate the cause of his struggles in the Bronx. His strikeout rate dropped to 19% in the second half, and his WHIP escalated to 1.57. We get the point, he couldn't tap into his prowess in the second half. Will that carry into 2023?

Bottom line is, Montas needs to bounce back if he wants to keep his job.

Upside

Yes, despite all of the banter that I just said, Montas does have an upside. He might not have the qualities of a so-called "ace," but he pitched well enough in Oakland to have an upside. Here's the upside Montas brings:

• Rotation Depth
• Low BB% Rates
• High Chase Rate

Montas typically has good command and can work his way out of traffic. His BB% descended slightly from last season (7.1%), although his strikeout rate dropped to 23.4%. He's been in the league long enough to master the strike zone and Steamer already grants Montas a 6.9% walk rate for the upcoming season. The 29-year-old was in the 86th percentile for chase rate which somewhat proves that he isn't declining just yet.

NFBC gives Montas a 252.21 ADP and it isn't worth the while to target him unless you are building a deep rotation. Steamer is projecting the right-hander to mold a 3.79 ERA, 3.82 FIP, with a 1.22 WHIP through 127 innings.

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