Jordan Montgomery Pitches 4 Innings in First Start with Reno

The newly-signed left-hander made his first start with the Diamondbacks Triple-A affiliate as he tries to ramp up for the season.

Oct 28, 2023; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery (52) leaves the game in the 7th inning. / Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Left-hander Jordan Montgomery made his first start with the Reno Aces tonight. The plan was for Montgomery to stretch out to four innings and around 65 pitches. He did just that, needing 60 pitches to get his work in. His final line was two runs allowed on three hits, three walks, and three strikeouts.

Of his 60 pitches thrown, Montgomery threw 26 sinkers. The velocity was down two ticks from his 93.3 MPH average from last season, clocking in at 91.2 MPH. Montgomery isn't necessarily a pitcher who's overly reliant on velocity to be successful, as he uses his sinker/changeup combination at the bottom of the zone to get ground balls. While it's nothing to get worried over, it's something that bares monitoring considering his age and throwing over 220 innings last season between the regular season and postseason. One other thing to note was his sinker had two fewer inches of horizontal movement, but that very well could be a byproduct of pitching in the high altitude of Reno.

Even though the regular season has started, this is very much reminiscent to a typical 4-inning start in Spring Training. Comparing his velocity to his first Spring Training outing with the St. Louis Cardinals last year, Montgomery averaged 93.8 MPH on his sinker. The velocity trended down a little bit in his subsequent starts on March 10th and March 22nd, but overall his average velocity was in the 93.1-93.6 MPH range during the regular season when going month-by-month.

One big positive to take from this start was the effectiveness of his curveball and changeup. Montgomery landed six called strikes on the curveball and got six whiffs on seven swings on the changeup. He threw 27 curveballs and changeups, with 15 of them resulting in a called or swinging strike, showing his ability to work off the sinker. It very much looked like the typical Jordan Montgomery start, as he got four groundouts compared to two flyouts.

Montgomery signed with the Diamondbacks on March 29th, so he would not be eligible for a qualifying offer should he opt out his 2025 vesting option. The target date for him to make his first start for Arizona was around April 19th in San Francisco. His next start will be at Tacoma, which has an elevation of just 243 feet, where we'll get a better idea of his velocity and movement profile on his pitches. It will be his last start before joining the D-backs rotation on the next road trip.