Jordan Montgomery's Shaky Start Brings Attention Back to Yankees' Rotation

With trade deadline looming, New York's starting staff continues to endure a poor stretch.

NEW YORK — The Yankees are interested in Juan Soto. It's the most enticing rumor you'll see leading up to next week's trade deadline.

Tuesday night's loss to the Mets should bring everyone's attention back to an even more pressing need, though.

Yankees starter Jordan Montgomery lasted just 2.1 innings on Tuesday at Citi Field, tying his season-high with five runs allowed.

After the Yankees jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first, courtesy of back-to-back home runs from Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo, the left-hander proceeded to allow four runs to score in the bottom half of the frame, a hole too deep for the visiting team to climb out of.

Montgomery finished with just 71 pitches on the night, inducing only eight whiffs out of 41 total swings. 

EscoBLAST 💥 pic.twitter.com/nmmgKsVH8C

— New York Mets (@Mets) July 26, 2022

"Felt like I had good stuff," Montgomery said after the game, mentioning how the Mets spoiled quite a few pitches with foul balls. "I guess I was due for a bad one."

Don't let one shaky start distract you from the fact that Montgomery has been sneaky good this season. He entered play with a 3.24 ERA in 19 outings, consistently giving his team a chance to win each time he's been handed the ball. 

Nonetheless, a clunker from Montgomery—with Domingo Germán lined up to pitch against the Mets and their ace Max Scherzer on Wednesday—is a reminder that New York needs pitching, specifically another starter that they can trust.

Other than ace Gerrit Cole, New York's starting staff is littered with question marks.

Nestor Cortes has been brilliant in 2022, pitching well enough to earn a trip to the All-Star Game. Then again, he recently eclipsed his career-high in innings, scuffling just a bit over the last month. What can the Yankees expect from him the rest of the way and in the playoffs?

Speaking of recent struggles, Jameson Taillon has been abysmal lately, posting a 6.09 ERA in his last nine starts. Sure, the right-hander was tremendous early on this season, but it's very possible that the bulk of his best production came in the first half. 

Then there's Luis Severino, a resident on the 15-day injured list with a lat strain. Who knows how long Severino will be sidelined. For a player with his injury history, nothing is guaranteed the rest of the way. 

"We're not going to be perfect all year," Montgomery said, asked about New York's staff as a whole. "If you have 30 starts, you're going to have five stinkers. So hopefully this is my one."

The cause for concern is that New York's rotation was a driving force throughout the first half, a key component to this team's historic start to the season. Almost every day, Yankees starters were dialed in, dealing while the offense simultaneously took care of business. Over the last several weeks, in line with a regression in the Yankees' winning ways, New York hasn't had that same type of production from their starting pitchers. 

Asked Tuesday if the Yankees ran out of gas in the first half, manager Aaron Boone explained that this is part of the ebb and flow of any season. He singled out Cole's consistency, pointing out the positives for Severino, Cortes and Montgomery. 

"It wasn't going to be perfect all year and we've had a couple bumpy ones here, but I still think they're all in a pretty good spot to go out and perform," he said.

Still, an opportunity to add an ace-caliber starter to that group and extinguish concerns with one phone call will vanish when the trade deadline passes next Tuesday. New York has reportedly shown interest in a few top-tier arms—like Cincinnati's Luis Castillo and Oakland's Frankie Montas—but will general manager Brian Cashman follow through with it, sacrificing prospects to strike a deal? 

With two full months of regular season games left to play, and possibly a month of even more high-intensity contests to come in the playoffs, it's becoming more and more imperative that the Yankees bolster their starting staff.

Even if Boone and those in the rotation feel this group can figure it out and recapture their dominance down the stretch, it seems like a deal should be made within the next seven days if the price is right. 

After all, the most important question mark hanging over the Yankees rotation right now is this: who can this team trust to deliver starting in October?

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• Yankees Finally Get Some Good News on Michael King's Elbow Injury
• If Yankees Want Juan Soto, New York Must Outbid These Teams

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