Fear of losing Miguel Montero leads Arizona Diamondbacks to big deal
Saturday, May 26th, 2012Sitting at the podium Saturday to announce his new five-year, $60 million contract, Miguel Montero said he never could have imagined making that kind of money when he was trying to make the majors. All he was thinking about when he was in the minor leagues was trying to be a good teammate and clubhouse presence.
“That way,” he said, “if I don’t make the big leagues, I could at least be a coach or something like that.”
Montero instead has become the highest-paid player in Diamondbacks history, at least in terms in total contract value. His contract, which runs through 2017, eclipses the $52.4 million deal Randy Johnson received after the 1998 season.
But the Diamondbacks felt he was a player they couldn’t afford to lose.
“If we were to label somebody the captain of our ballclub,” General Manager Kevin Towers said, “this guy would be the captain.”
The Diamondbacks had been talking about a long-term deal with Montero since the off-season, and after Montero declined a four-year, $32 million offer during spring training, the sides cut off talks.
Towers put out feelers with other teams to see what another catcher might cost in trade. He didn’t like what he heard.
“If we were gong to acquire them, we would have had to probably move most of our pitching depth,” he said. “To me, this made much more sense. Even if we had to maybe go to an area that was more than we thought, it was the right deal to make for a guy we thought was critical and key to keep.”
He said the sides reengaged in negotiations over the past two weeks. While the club was in Kansas City, Montero underwent a full physical and had an MRI done on his right knee, which required surgery to repair a torn meniscus in 2010. Towers said they were comfortable with what the tests showed.
The Diamondbacks also knew what might have awaited Montero on the open market.
“There’s probably 10-12 clubs looking for starting catching this off-season,” Towers said. “It’s not a very strong market. I imagine Miguel would have been right up there at the top. …
“It became very clear to us that if we waited too long and got too close to free agency, it would have been difficult, especially when you start adding some large-market clubs into the fray.”
Montero said it worked out the way he always hoped.
“The most important thing is my family loved it here,” he said as Angel, his 20-month-old son, sat on his lap during the news conference.
“I like to play happy. Everybody likes me here, I guess. I think here everybody knows the way I am. That was something that we really thought about, my wife and I. I was pretty sure I was going to stay here.”
Meanwhile, Montero missed his fourth consecutive game with a minor groin injury, and manager Kirk Gibson said he probably won’t start Sunday, either.
Gibson said the plan is for Montero to return to the lineup on Monday in San Francisco.
Stepping up
Gibson continues to hold out hope that his primary everyday lineup will establish itself the way the club envisioned entering the year.
“At some point, the guys who we’re counting on and the guys who got us there last year, and the way we laid this out, I’m going to start putting them out there,” he said. “We’ll see how far we go with that.”
He didn’t name names, but he probably was referring to wanting to get Ryan Roberts, Paul Goldschmidt and Aaron Hill, among others, on a roll offensively.
He’s hoping Daniel Hudson’s return from the disabled list Sunday will be the start of his rotation becoming settled.
“We’re trying to get the guys we went into the year counting on healthy, back together and back on somewhat of a normal schedule,” Gibson said. “We’ve been mixing and matching here for a while. It’s been tough. They haven’t given us as many innings as they did last year and that has an effect on the bullpen.”
Short hop
Shortstop Stephen Drew played nine innings in an extended-spring-training game Saturday. “He’s getting better,” Gibson said. “He’s still not ready to go out yet (on a rehab assignment).”
