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Former Well-Regarded St. Louis Cardinals Prospect Elehuris Montero Lands in Japan

The infielder never reached the big leagues with the Cardinals, as he was traded away in the deal that brought back Nolan Arenado.

Brady Farkas

Colorado Rockies first baseman Elehuris Montero (44) catches a fly ball against the Minnesota Twins in the second inning at Target Field on June 11.
Colorado Rockies first baseman Elehuris Montero (44) catches a fly ball against the Minnesota Twins in the second inning at Target Field on June 11. / Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images
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Former St. Louis Cardinals prospect and Colorado Rockies infielder Elehuris Montero has signed onto play in Japan for the 2025 season.

MLBTradeRumors had the news, with links to Japanese-language reporting included:

The Hiroshima Carp of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball announced this week that they’vesigned infielder Elehuris Montero and re-signed lefty Taylor Hearn, who excelled for the Carp in a relief role in 2024 (Japanese-language links via Yahoo Japan). Both players are CAA clients, and both are receiving one-year deals for the 2025 campaign.

According to MLB.com, Montero was the No. 7 prospect in the organization in 2020. The Cardinals traded him to the Colorado Rockies before the 2021 season and he debuted with Colorado in 2022. He's played 205 career games in the big leagues, hitting just .228 with 21 home runs and 87 RBI.

Still just 26 years old, there's ample time for Montero to play well in Japan and then come back to the United States, should he want to return. While they are both pitchers, we have seen Chris Flexen and Erik Fedde both come back to the States after successful runs in Korea. Nick Martinez had success in Japan and has also come back to lucrative opportunity.

The Cardinals trade for Arenado has generally worked out as well. Over four seasons in St. Louis, he's a three-time All-Star and a two-time time Gold Glove Award winner. The team is talking about trading him this offseason as part of a mini-rebuilding effort. He's under contract through the 2027 season.

Arenado is now 33 years old.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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