Full Count: Lefty Mason Montgomery flashes electric fastball in push to be Pirates’ closer
Before Mason Montgomery started running out to the mound in save situations for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Brandon Lowe vividly remembers a rehabilitation assignment at Triple-A Durham in 2024 when the left-hander caught his eye with good stuff featuring a mid-90s fastball.
When Montgomery made his major-league debut for the Tampa Bay Rays that September, he had transformed from an erratic starter into a reliever who was topping triple digits.
“He’s throwing 100 out of bullpen, and I was like, ‘I’m pretty sure this kid was a starter when I saw him last,’ ” Lowe said. “All you had to see was the metrics to understand everything. The fastball is legit, no matter what way you put it. You’re carrying at 18 inches (vertical break) with 101. That’s impressive, to say the least.
“But then he’s committed to developing his craft a little bit. He started figuring out the curveball and the slider and how to locate and understand how hitters are approaching him and how they attack him. He’s done a very good job of being smart about being a pitcher. He’s not just up there throwing. He’s pitching off of his pitches. That’s leading to the success that he’s had. And having 101 in the tank doesn’t hurt.”
There was one problem. When the Pirates acquired Lowe, Montgomery and Jake Mangum in a three-team trade this past offseason, the converted reliever came with a reputation for inconsistent control.
“They moved him to the ’pen, and he was lights out. You always knew he had the potential to be elite,” said Mangum, Montgomery’s teammate in Durham, Tampa Bay and with the Pirates. “He didn’t have command. He couldn’t throw it where he wanted to.”
That was no longer an issue when Pirates manager Don Kelly put Montgomery into the game against the Boston Red Sox to protect a four-run lead with two outs, the bases loaded and former No. 1 overall draft pick Adley Rutschman at the plate in the ninth inning Aug. 14.
Montgomery threw five consecutive sinkers, all ranging from 98.1 to 100.2 mph, before facing a full count. That’s when he unleashed a curveball that got Rutschman swinging for a strikeout to end the game.
“It’s been impressive with Mason, the way that he’s attacked and mixing in the sinker and the breaking ball,” Kelly said. “The pitch he threw the other day to close the game out was elite, throwing a breaking ball on a 3-2 count.”
Montgomery has become one of the biggest success stories for the Pirates this season, not only as a survivor of a bullpen that endured a complete makeover at the trade deadline but one who has emerged as its potential closer. That’s despite the additions of former All-Star closers in Camilo Doval and Kirby Yates and one of the game’s top high-leverage relievers in Luke Weaver.
Since earning his first save for the Pirates in the second game of a doubleheader against Milwaukee on July 11, Montgomery is 3-0 with a 1.26 ERA, five saves and 29 strikeouts against five walks (two intentional) in 141⁄3 innings over 15 appearances. He’s started one game and finished nine others, including both wins in series against the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers over the past week.
“He’s every bit of what a dominant reliever looks like in our game, especially with the velo and the stuff,” Weaver said. “Watching him pitch is quite impressive. I know he’s been on a nice little run. …
“He’s real loose. It’s not like he’s crazy on the mound. But the stuff comes out. If you’ve never met and talked to him then blinked your eyes and watched him in a game, you’d be like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ It’s not every day people are doing that, just blowing cheese from the left-hand side.”
Montgomery appears to be taking his ascension in stride, unfazed that he now occupies Andrew McCutchen’s old locker stall in the home clubhouse or that the Pirates made a video entrance with a new walk-out song for his ninth-inning appearances. (At the suggestion of catcher Henry Davis, Montgomery ditched Eminem’s “Cinderella Man” for Avery Anna’s cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s “No More Tears.”)
“It happens fast, right?” Montgomery said. “I think it’s a lot of excitement, with the new song and the situation. It’s definitely exciting. It’s cool to know that I’ve got to go in there, do my job and get the win. It’s cool to say, ‘Hey, whenever I’m done with this we’re going to have a win here.’ ”
The 26-year-old Texan has a personality that appears to be a perfect fit for the position with the most pressure. As the baseball adage goes, the final three outs are the hardest to record. Teammates consider Montgomery carefree but committed, a character who keeps it loose in the locker room but locks in once he enters the game.
“He’s joking around in the clubhouse, having a good time, and then the ninth inning comes around and I don’t even know if he smiles or shows any emotion when he’s on the mound,” Lowe said. “He just gets up there and starts ripping 100. Usually, when you see those kind of guys, they’re psychotic or screaming; he’s very even-keeled. The ship’s not rocking in any direction. He’s just up there and doing what he does.”
That Montgomery has an arm most often described as “electric” makes him even more remarkable. Per Baseball Savant, the 6-foot-2, 205-pound lefty ranks in the 94th percentile or higher not only in fastball velocity (98.5 mph), strikeout (39%) and whiff rates (32.9%) but also in expected ERA (2.52), expected batting average (.183) and ground-ball percentage (56.1%).
Though the four-seam fastball is his putaway pitch, Montgomery’s sinker has an .105 batting average-against and 38.2% whiff rate. He also mixes in a slider and curveball, sprinkling in a changeup on occasion. But the key for Montgomery is he’s improved his command and reduced his walks per nine innings from 5.3 last year to 3.8 this season.
“For me, I feel like I’ve done a good job of picking a spot and throwing 100% effort towards that spot,” Montgomery said. “There’s times in the past where the game sped up on me or whatever you want to call it, and I was going out there and trying to throw it as hard as I could, which I think would work a lot of times but not every time. I found consistency in picking my spot, whether it’s a heater up or heater in, and dialing into that, then trying to execute with conviction.”
What impressed Kelly was how Montgomery handled a pressure-packed situation in an 11-5 win at the Washington Nationals on July 5, relieving Bubba Chandler with the bases loaded, no outs and a one-run lead in the fifth inning. Montgomery gave up one run on a sacrifice fly to CJ Abrams, then struck out Daylen Lile and got Dylan Crews to fly out.
“He’s an elite teammate, always ready for anything,” Kelly said. “Anywhere from first, fifth, ninth, extra innings, he’s been ready, willing, able to do anything and has been a true pro about it the whole time.”
Even so, Montgomery has been at his best in the ninth inning, where he has a 1.74 ERA with 21 strikeouts against three walks in 101⁄3 innings over 11 appearances and is holding hitters to a .162 batting average and .468 OPS. That’s where his even-keeled nature plays a part.
“I’d say I just try to treat it the same,” Montgomery said. “You could say it’s more pressure, for sure. You’re winning by a run or two and you do well, the game’s over. Maybe you struggle, and the game goes on. I enjoy it. The key for me is keeping it the same. I think if I were to make it a bigger deal than it is, maybe I’d change something subconsciously so I try to mimic each outing as the same.”
Montgomery showed as much in the ninth inning of the 4-3 walk-off win over the Tigers on Wednesday, when he allowed two singles before striking out Hao-Yu Lee on a 100.2 mph sinker and touching triple digits three times before getting Eduardo Valencia to ground out with runners on second and third base to escape the jam.
“It’s unbelievable,” Pirates catcher Rafael Flores Jr. said. “A lefty throwing absolute noise — a 100 four-seam, a 100 sinker. Good luck. That’s what I’m going to say to the hitters: good luck.”