Fresh Chicago Cubs rumors reveal that catcher Miguel Montero is getting designated for assignment. Cubs manager Joe Maddon has apparently had enough of Montero on the roster and the team is ready to move in a new direction after what took place in the game on Tuesday night. Following a game where he allowed seven stolen bases by the Washington Nationals, Montero spoke negatively to the press about the pitching staff.
Montero spoke about how the pitching staff has been unable to keep runners close to first base. If the pitchers (like Jon Lester) aren't willing to throw over to first base very often, it gives base stealers a huge advantage against the Chicago Cubs. This does put Miguel Montero in a difficult position when it comes to throwing out runners, but maybe he shouldn't have spoken to the press with such disrespect and anger toward his teammates.
What happens next with Miguel Montero?
Since the Chicago Cubs have designated Miguel Montero for assignment, the team now has 10 days to trade, release, or re-assign the veteran catcher.
He is officially off the 40-man roster now, though, giving the team more flexibility moving forward. It's possible that other teams may want to pick him up, but most likely it would be an American League team where he doesn't have to go behind the plate very often.
In 44 games and 112 plate appearances for the Chicago Cubs this season, Miguel Montero posted a .286 batting average and a .805 OPS. Those would be pretty good numbers for a full-time designated hitter in the American League, showing that he might still have some value in the league. Over his career, Montero has a .260 batting average and 124 home runs. That could lead to some interesting Chicago Cubs rumors if other teams show interest.
Why is Miguel Montero so bad at throwing out base stealers?
Miguel Montero has given up 31 stolen bases on 32 attempts this season with the Chicago Cubs. That's a terrible percentage of throwing out runners and even worse than the 11 percent he posted during the 2016 MLB season. For his career, Montero has thrown out 27 percent of the runners attempting to steal a base on him. For comparison, the league average has been 28 percent in that same span of time.
There is some truth to what Montero is saying about the Chicago Cubs' pitching staff. Starting pitchers like Jon Lester are horrible at keeping runners on and Jake Arrieta isn't much better. Having to go behind the plate for both of them has hurt Montero's numbers, but Joe Maddon was more displeased with the public comments than anything else.
Now Miguel Montero will be looking for a new job. While previous Chicago Cubs talk about the team being terrible at preventing stolen bases ring true, Maddon would have preferred Montero come to him directly.