While
playing a rehab game with the Seattle Mariners Single A team (Everett Aquasox)
in Boise the once highly regarded prospect Jesus Montero went in to the stands
with a bat in hand to confront a heckler. He was eventually restrained by the
pitching coach but the damage was already done.
Things
have not been going well for Montero since his trade to the Mariners. In 2013
he was suspended for 50 games in connection to the Biogenesis probe and then he
showed up to spring training in February 40 pounds overweight. The Mariners
sent him down to minors in May after only 17 At-bats with the team. He was
supposed to return to the Mariners this week but after his actions in Boise the
team has suspended him for the remainder of the season. He will not be playing
at any level.
What
made this whole situation worse is that the heckler is a Mariners scout. It
began with the scout, Butch Baccala, yelling for Montero to hustle off the
field in between innings (which seems like a fair suggestion from a scout to a
player hoping to make it back to the big leagues) but eventually digressed to
Baccala having an ice cream sandwich sent to Montero in the dugout making fun of his weight. This was
what set off Montero who then grabbed a bat and headed in to the stands where
he began to scream at the scout and throw things at him. The team is going to
use this time to “re-evaluate” Jesus Montero to see what they can do to address
his issues on and off the field. Which probably should be read as “We are
considering if it is better to keep him or dump him”.
By
the time spring training rolls around in 2015 he will be 2 seasons removed from
his amazing 2012 season. He has been replaced at catcher by an even better
young prospect in Mike Zunino so he would most likely move to DH full time. It does not help that he also has the A-Rod/Biogenesis stigmata working against his image.
He
is still young (only 24 years old) but is it time to move Jesus Montero cards?
His autographs can be found for under $5 and his base rookies under $1, it may be
too late for anyone who jumped on the Yankees Montero prospect bandwagon and
paid big for his rookie cards only 6 years ago. I am guessing that the people
that dropped hundreds of dollars for his 2008 Bowman Chrome autographs are
feeling some pain right about now.
To make the whole thing more confusing Montero wasn't even activated to play in the game. He was acting as the first base coach when the scout started it all.
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