Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations has championed the idea no amount of pitching depth is ever too much. No words have proven truer during his tenure at the helm of the Dodgers’ front office.
With the club eagerly awaiting the returns of Brandon McCarthy and Hyun-Jin Ryu, a viable stopgap option was lost to yet another injury. Frankie Montas, the hard-throwing right-hander acquired from the Chicago White Sox in a three-team trade last December, has a cracked rib for the second time five months.
Montas had the first rib on his right side removed in February; an operation that was done in response to a stress reaction.
His latest injury is a continuation of the previous, with his time spent rehabbing not enough for the second rib issue to heal. It was reported Montas would miss four to eight weeks, though Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said a timetable isn’t yet known.
According to Bill Plunkett of the OC Register, Friedman believes Montas will recover in time to make an impact this season:
“We had expectations for Frankie chipping in and helping out this season. I still think there’s a reasonable chance that he will be able to get back and help us before the end of the season. But this is obviously a setback.”
Triple-A Oklahoma City placed the young righty on the seven-day disabled list on June 20, though it was retroactive to June 17. Montas began the season on the 60-day disabled list and started a rehab assignment on May 22.
He appeared in a total of six games — splitting time evenly with Double-A Tulsa and Oklahoma City. In his appearances (three starts), Montas threw a combined 12 innings, posted a 1.50 ERA, 0.83 WHIP and had 18 strikeouts.
In his lone start after being activated from the DL, Montas had four strikeouts and allowed two runs on six hits over four innings in a start with Oklahoma City. He initially was thought of as a bullpen piece, but the Dodgers altered their plans as the rotation regularly proved to be more in need.
