Frankie Montas Gets Added Bonus With Recent Trade

Jason Burke | Jul 30, 2024

Jul 3, 2022; Seattle, Washington, USA; Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Frankie Montas (47) throws against the Seattle Mariners during the first inning at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports / Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

Yesterday the Milwaukee Brewers acquired right-handed starting pitcher Frankie Montas from the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for outfielder Joey Wiemer and righty Jakob Junis. One added bonus of this deal, aside from jumping from fourth in the NL Central to first, is that Montas will get one last visit to the Oakland Coliseum in the coming weeks.

The Milwaukee Brewers are set to play in Oakland from August 23-25, a trip that the Reds made last year, meaning that they were not scheduled to make an appearance in the East Bay during the A's final season at the Coliseum.

Montas holds a 5.01 ERA on the year across 93 1/3 innings, but a trip to the Coliseum, if he is on turn to pitch that series, is almost a guaranteed solid start for Montas. Across six seasons with Oakland which spanned 293 2/3 innings, Montas holds a 3.28 ERA at the Coliseum. All of those innings came as a member of the A's.

If he pitches, it will be just his second time facing the A's in his career, and the first time at the Coliseum. His first outing came during his rookie campaign with the Chicago White Sox in 2015. He went two innings and allowed zero hits, walking one and striking out two.

When the A's traded away their core group of players ahead of the 2022 season, Montas was not included in that initial off-load. With Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Chris Bassitt, and Sean Manaea all moved to spearate teams, Montas was the lone member of that core group that stuck around for the first half of the '22 season before ultimately getting traded at the deadline to the New York Yankees.

Two of the three pitchers the A's received in that trade are out for the season in Ken Waldichuk and Luis Medina, but JP Sears is still making his starts every fifth day and has been one of the A's most reliable starters the past two seasons.

There was also a joke going around during the off-season that it was impressive how commited to following Sonny Gray's career path Montas has been, given that he began with the A's, was traded to the Yankees, then ended up with the Reds. Now Montas will stay in the same division as Gray, but he will be attempting to help maintain Milwaukee's lead in the division, which stands at seven games entering play on Tuesday.