Kevin Goldstein, the minor league expert for Baseball Prospectus, has been a big fan of Jesus Montero for a while, claiming that he has a special bat. However, even Goldstein has believed that Montero has no future as a catcher in the big leagues due to his defensive issues, but his bat will still make him a great player. In a recent posting on Baseball Prospectus (subscriber content), Goldstein has an update on Montero’s defense:
The other good news is that reports on his defense are better, which unfortunately upgrades him from completely unacceptable to well below average.
Goldstein has been critical of Montero’s defense for a while, but it is encouraging to see that Montero has improved, and no doubt has put in a lot of hard work on his defense. While Goldstein still sees a position change in Montero’s future, the fact that Montero is tearing up the Florida State League (a pitcher’s league) in a pitcher’s park (Tampa) is very encouraging for his future, as his bat will likely play at any position. If Montero keeps this up, it could be hard to keep him down in A-ball, and a promotion to AA might happen. Also, he could break into the top 10, or even higher on some prospect lists (for what that’s worth).
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10 Responses to Kevin Goldstein on Montero
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TIQ IQ
Looks like Montero will be a top hitter.Frankly though, I think Romine should be developed as the Catcher of the future and Montero needs to play elsewhere or be a 2 day a week catcher and DH the rest of the time.He’s 19 and what 225?
He could weight 240 eventually.How can he catch in the long run.
I think you need develop him as a catcher until he proves he cant play there. He just has so much more value there.
There are quite a few big catchers in the league now (Mauer, Wieters (well – soon to be in the league), etc.), but they are typically special athletes and I haven’t heard that buzz about Jesus. It’s tough because there’s no reliable metric for it and I’ve never heard a scout put his name on a report that spells out exactly what Montero’s defensive ceiling is at catcher. A lot of what you hear is innuendo. I’d love to see what Goldstein’s source is. I can’t wait til he gets to Trenton so I can see him in person a few times.
Eric… 2 questions.
1. Is he really only 19 years old or might there some question?
2. If he has to, can he be a viable defensive corner outfilder?
He’s from Venezuela, not the DR. There’s no reason to doubt his age. You don’t hear many prospects from the DR getting away with that stuff nowadays, either.
I’m not sure corner outfield is likely, because Montero’s pretty slow. Maybe right field is possible because of his arm, but he’d likely be below average range-wise.
I think that we need to see him another year at catcher. If by this time next year he still is well below average then it may be time to make a decision.
Old Ranger Reply:
April 28th, 2009 at 22:49
Romine is the key (as you have stated), I still would like Montero staying as a catcher but, the more I see of him…not a chance.
Someone had mentioned El Howard/Yogi; the difference is, both were very good catchers. Maybe DH/LF and back-up catcher is his place on the team. The next few years he may improve enough to be a good back-up catcher?
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I still think he will end up as DH/LF and Back-up catcher. Romine is just that much better with his “D” and not bad with a bat.
Elston Howard was actually moved to catcher by Casey Stengel.He got better and better at it.
Actually he came up as a catcher but, Yogi was the catcher at that time so he played in LF/C. He was an athlete, as was Yogi, therefore he could play the OF/1st and catcher.
There are stats somewhere (?) to show him playing OF/C but, as a catcher he was damn good. Most of his games were as a catcher. Having him push Yogi out of his job would be like Pena taking Jeters job…it did happen later in Yogi’s years.