Frankie Montas was trying to put to bed any doubt that he wouldn’t be able to pitch this season for the Yankees on Wednesday.
The Bombers’ starter told reporters that he “for sure” would pitch this season and that he would begin playing catch in about nine to 10 weeks, according to MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch. Montas has been in the middle of rehabbing and a 12-week span where he couldn’t throw, according to ESPN’s Marly Rivera.
No target date has been set for a possible return for Montas yet.
Montas underwent shoulder surgery and was expected to miss a large portion of the Yankees season this year, with the possibility of missing the entirety of it. The Yankees acquired Montas around the trade deadline last year, but he only pitched eight games before injuries issues.
He went 1-3 in that stretch with a 6.35 ERA. Montas said on Wednesday that he hadn’t been 100 percent last season when he first arrived in the Bronx, which contributed to his struggles.
“I was trying to push through,” Montas told reporters, according to Hoch. “I got traded to a new team and wanted to show what I could do. Things didn’t go the way I was expecting.”
Montas was expected to be a part of a Yankees rotation that featured Carlos Rodon, Gerrit Cole, Nestor Cortes and Luis Severino. The injury to Montas threw a wrench in New York’s plans and put them in a position where they’ve had to fill the hole left now in the rotation.
Domingo German and Clarke Schmidt have been pinpointed as the two competing for Montes’ spot in the rotation, with German being the early favorite to win the role.
The Yankees have also been dealing with an injury to Cortes and Boone had hinted that he could use Cortes as the fifth man in the rotation in order to give him more time to recover from a strained hamstring. Boone told reporters that Cortes had been a week behind the other pitchers.
