The Cubs Acquire Martin Maldonado for Mike Montgomery



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The Cubs have acquired the receiver Martin Maldonado Royals, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets. left-handed Mike MontgomeryGo to Kansas City in the swap, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports. The teams confirmed the trade.

With Willson Contreras and Victor Caratini After being combined to deliver excellent bottom shelf production in 2019, the Cubs do not really look like Maldonado on paper. However, Conteras goes to the list of wounded with a sprain of the muscle of the arch of the right foot, Sahadev Sharma of athletic was among those to report. The Cubs do not expect Contreras to need more time than Amnesty International's minimum 10-day period, adds Sharma.

The Chicago playoff men win at Maldonado, where he showed interest in the off-season. Maldonado chose not to sign with the Cubs during the winter because he wanted to be part of a team that would give him more playing time than he would have in Chicago. Maldonado's decision proved wise. With Salvador Perez Maldonado, 32, eventually became Kansas City's main receiver after signing for a $ 2.5 million guarantee a few weeks before the season.

Long known as a formidable defender with a dubious bat, Maldonado lived up to his reputation with the Royals. In 261 appearances at the KC plate, Maldonado beat .224 / .288 / .359 (71 wRC +) with six homers. On the other hand, he rejected 33% of potential above-average potential stealers and got quality reviews of the Fielding Runs metric above the average Baseball Prospectus.

In exchange for Maldonado, a free agent who will soon be a free agent, the Royals out of the conflict now have more than two years of control over Montgomery. Montgomery, 30, will play the lead role in the Royals' rotation. Jeffrey Flanagan from MLB.com tweets. He will also join the organization that chose him for the first round in 2008. Four years later, the Royals traded Montgomery against the Rays in a blockbuster also including James Shields, Wade Davis, Wil Myers and Jake Odorizzi.

Montgomery never pitched for the Rays, but instead joined the Mariners at an exchange in 2015 – the year he debuted in the major leagues. He worked with the Mariners for about a season and a half before going to the Cubs in July 2016 as part of another contract. A few months later, Montgomery was saved during the Cubs' historic victory in the Game 7 World Series against the Indians.

Montgomery was effective even before the pivotal moment of his career in 2016 and has done a good job since then, but his numbers have become much worse this year. He recorded a very poor 5.67 ERA / 6.21 FIP with 6.0 K / 9, 4.33 BB / 9 and a ground ball rate of 43.3% on 27 innings in his last season with the Cubs.

In all, Montgomery had a best score of 3.72 ERA / 4.21 FIP with 6.87 K / 9, 3.47 BB / 9 and a success rate of 53.9% on 167 appearances and 56 starts. major. The Royals hope his numbers will be more in line with his career as a member of their rotation, which has lost the veteran Homer Bailey in an exchange with athletics Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Cubs were already looking for a southpaw reliever before trading Montgomery. As a result, this deal could put more pressure on the baseball president, Theo Epstein, to acquire a southpaw by July 31 at the latest. With Montgomery on a $ 2.44 million salary this year, the Cubs added a small amount of pay in this exchange.

Photos provided by USA Today Sports Images.

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