The topic of Jordan Montgomery has been a thorny one for the Arizona Diamondbacks throughout 2024. He was signed to a one year deal for $25 million with a vesting player option for a second year at $22.5 million with 18 starts or more. It seemed like a great deal for the team at the time.
Perhaps with the reality setting in that they won't be able to move all or even the majority of his contract in a trade,said that he spoke to Montgomery, who is working hard and motivated to come into camp in better shape and have a good season. Using this figure, we can say that Montgomery would need to produce approximately 2.7 WAR to fully earn a $22.5 million contract .Obviously there is a great deal of variance in the table above from top to bottom. But it's notable that the mean is also $8.3 million per WAR.
The average of the pitchers in the table below is 2.5 WAR produced in 170 innings pitched with a 3.75 ERA, or 108 ERA+.Can Montgomery achieve that level in 2025 for the Diamondbacks? It's easy to forget that for the three years prior to coming to Arizona he averaged 175 innings pitched and posted a 3.48 ERA, or 120 ERA+. That added up to 3.1 WAR, and is worth about $26 million at today's market rates, well above his $22.5 million contract for next season .