The Yankees aren't shy about trading prospects. When they want a good major leaguer, they'll offer good minor leaguers in exchange. Then they consume those good major leaguers while producing more good minor leaguers, and the cycle continues. Consume, spend, acquire, consume, win, win, win. The American version of the cycle will indirectly cause the glaciers to melt, which will kill us all, including the Yankees, so there's nothing wrong with living it up in the present!
Jesus Montero Is Up With The Yankees, And He’ll Be Here For A While
But the Yankees have held on to Jesus Montero. Every trade rumor started with Montero. Every trade rumor ended with Montero. He was almost a Mariner. He was possibly close to being a Royal. A Yankee he stayed. And now the catcher, who might not really be a catcher, is up with the Yankees for the first time and starting at DH Thursday night.
Even by Yankees standards, there has been a lot of hype about Montero. It was justified. Here’s why:
- He's a catcher
- who hit .289/.353/.517 last season
- as a 20-year-old
- who was a catcher
- at 20.
That’s the kind of profile that will make baseball nerds cancel the dates they don’t have just so they can just sit and marvel at it for hours. Even with the whispers that Montero might have to be moved from behind the plate eventually, he has always been a superlative hitting prospect. The scouts have been agog ever since he was a teenager, with Baseball America even suggesting that his raw power is close to an 80 on the 20-to-80 scouting scale.
Montero started off a little slowly this year, hitting .289/.346/.418 in the first half. He was repeating a level, and his power was way down -- there was a touch of prospect fatigue going around the internet. He was supposed to ascend the Yankee Stadium walls on a unicorn by May, at the latest. He certainly wasn’t supposed to regress.
In the 39 games of the second half, though, Montero hit 11 home runs with a .286/.352/.558 line, bringing his 2011 numbers more in line with his 2010. The most important thing to remember is the dude is 21 years old. That’s exceptionally young for a player in AAA -- he started as the third-youngest player in the International League this year. He might not be dominating yet, but he’s still raking. He’s still young.
It's not all great news. There's still a question of Montero's ability to catch, and with Mark Teixeira holding down first base for the next few years, that's a bit of a concern. It would be a shame to make a DH out of a hitter so young. And he has struggled against right-handed pitching this season, putting up some extreme platoon splits.
But hitting righties wasn’t a problem for him in the past, so we’re probably looking at sample-size issues more than anything. And if he hits like he’s supposed to, no one’s going to worry too much about where he plays. Montero’s here, and he’ll probably be here for a long time, hitting the absolute snot out of the ball.
I know what you’re thinking now: “Finally. Finally the Yankees catch a few breaks.” Yep. It’s about time.
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