Keith was live on the air when Jordan Montgomery signed his one-year deal with the Diamondbacks (with a vesting option for year two), and he couldn’t believe the Yankees weren’t all over a chance to bolster their rotation, and alleviate the loss of Gerrit Cole, for just a one-year commitment.
“One year, $25 million, that’s not that bad against the luxury tax, if you’re all in,” Keith said. “But maybe you’re not actually all in. If you’re desperate, you go make that deal.
“They’re not desperate. And I don’t think Monty was taking that deal to come back to the Yankees. He doesn’t want to be a Yankee. He’s closed that chapter of his life.”
For the Yankees, Montgomery is another reminder of a former pitcher in pinstripes that went elsewhere and found a new level of production. And now, there won’t be a reunion.
“I’m sorry, man. I was just talking about how they traded this guy away for the Mets current center fielder, who came over here in a walking boot…and he became grown man Monty,” Keith said. “Shoved against the Yankees back-to-back years…wins a ring, which he wasn’t gonna do here.”