BREAKING: Mets DFA Frankie Montas
Montas, who signed a polarizing two-year deal last offseason, is officially designated for assignment.
The Mets will make a rather unsurprising roster move ahead of Tuesday’s deadline to add players to the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 draft.
The club announced they designated RHP Frankie Montas for assignment and added OF Nick Morabito to the 40-man roster today.
Montas, 32, has had a checkered history from an injury perspective as he has dealt with a variety of arm issues over his ten-year big league career. None the less, the Mets made the curious move to quickly signed Montas to a one-year, $17 million contract last November with a $17 million player option attached.
Montas never made it out of Spring Training healthy, as he went down with a lat strain that sidelined him for much of the first half of the season. Montas proved to be a fraction of the pitcher the Mets hoped he would be as he quickly lost his rotation spot and was relegated to the back of the team’s bullpen before going down with an elbow injury which required Tommy John surgery.
He was not expected to pitch for the Mets upon picking up his player option after the World Series, so it made rostering sense to designate him for assignment which gives the club some much-needed flexibility to add Morabito, an emerging outfield prospect in the organization who might’ve found himself on the outside looking in if not for this move to cut Montas today.
In nine appearances (seven starts) for the Mets this past season Montas had a 6.28 ERA, 5.33 FIP and -0.6 bWAR. The right-hander allowed 1.86 home runs and 3.26 walks per nine innings over 38.2 innings pitched.
Morabito, 22, hit .273/.348/.385 for the Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies in 2025 with 27 doubles, six home runs and 59 RBI in 118 games this season. He just finished a strong campaign in the Arizona Fall League, hitting .362/.450/.464 in 17 games.
In the end, the Mets will have paid Montas a total of $34 million for 38.2 largely ineffective frames – averaging just under a million dollars per inning.