Keider Montero

Montero came on after top prospect River Ryan tossed three shutout frames in his Tigers debut. He struck out five and only allowed a pair of baserunners, needing just 58 pitches (37 strikes) to complete four frames. He’s likely to factor into Detroit’s pitching plan when they face the Pirates this weekend.

Montero struck out four and walked two, and Detroit went on to lose 5-1. He was recently reinstated from the paternity list and crossed 150 innings for the season on Wednesday, far surpassing his previous career high in the majors. Montero has appeared in 31 games (25 starts) for the Tigers this year and lines up to face the Nationals at home next time out.

Montero is on track to start Wednesday’s series finale against the Blue Jays. The 26-year-old was away from the club on paternity leave over the weekend. He’s struggled a bit in recent outings, which makes it challenging to trust him as a viable fantasy option outside of extremely deep mixed leagues.

Montero will be away from the Tigers for a couple days on paternity leave. He allowed two runs over four innings during an abbreviated outing against the Twins earlier this week. There’s a decent chance he finishes the year pitching out of Detroit’s bullpen since he’s pitched beyond the fifth inning just one time in his last four starts.

He came out with a 5-2 lead. Both runs scored on solo homers, but Montero also struggled some with his control while throwing only 39 of 74 pitches for strikes. It’s understandable if his mind was elsewhere, as it sounds like he’ll soon be going on the paternity list. He could start next week against the Blue Jays, but since he seems to have worn down some, it’s also possible he’ll finish out the year in middle relief.

Montero had a 4-0 lead after the top half of the first and a 6-1 lead through three, but he gave up a grand slam as part of a five-run fourth inning and didn’t come back out for the fifth. It’s the first time this season that he’s been charged with six earned runs. He’s due to make his next start Wednesday against the Twins, but given that he’s had some issues bouncing back lately, he might need some extra time.

Montero allowed just one hit over five scoreless innings before giving up a double and a pair of singles to the four batters he faced in the sixth. That tied the game up, but at least Tyler Holton was able to strand both inherited runners after taking over with one out. Montero was pitching on 10 days’ rest after his arm didn’t bounce back per usual following his last start. He was obviously just fine today; his velocity was even up a tad, and he got 16 outs on just 73 pitches. Assuming that all is well after this one, he’ll likely make his next start in a doubleheader versus the Guardians on Friday.

It’s an extremely challenging matchup for Montero, who gets the ball on extra rest against a loaded Dodgers’ lineup at Comerica Park. The 26-year-old has hit a little bit of a rough patch in recent weeks, but has still delivered a solid 3.30 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 89/30 K/BB ratio across 133 2/3 innings this season. It’s absolutely a risky spot, but Montero is worth trusting in deeper fantasy leagues.

Montero will be pitching on extra rest after experiencing some fatigue coming out of his last start against the Pirates last week. It doesn’t sound like there is a high level of concern at the moment.

Montero had been scheduled to start against the Rays on Monday, but he didn’t recover well after his last start so the team wants to give him some extra time to rest and recover. The club will also push Framber Valdez back from Sunday to Monday, with the team going with a bullpen game in Sunday’s series finale against the Royals in Kansas City.

Montero gave up four hits, walked one and struck out three. He fell to 9-8 with the loss. Montero took the mound in the fifth inning with a 1-0 lead, but allowed three runs in the frame. Oneil Cruz hit a two-run home run and Spencer Horwitz had a two-out RBI single. Montero has a 3.30 ERA and has established himself as a long-term cog in the Tigers rotation this season. He’s lined up to face the Rays at home on Monday.

He struck out none, and in, fact, only had two whiffs all game on 37 swings. What a magician. Montero allowed seven hard-hit balls, but that’s to be expected with the lack of swing-and-miss in his game. He’s had three good starts (one or fewer runs allowed) and two bad (four and five earned runs allowed) since returning to the rotation. Montero will start against the Pirates early next week.

Montero punched out five batters on the night while issuing three free passes. He served up a two-run homer to Rafael Devers in the opening inning and allowed a two-out, two-run single to Jung Ho Lee in the second before settling in. The other run came on a solo blast from Willy Adames in the fifth. Montero got nine whiffs on 82 pitches on the night, posting a CSW of 34 percent. He’ll look to bounce back as he carries a 3.38 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and an 86/28 K/BB ratio (122 1/3 innings) into Thursday’s showdown against the Guardians.

This was nice to see after Montero had arguably his worst start of the season last time out against the Orioles. That’s especially the case considering he was pitching in Sacramento. Montero was far from dominant — he had just two strikeouts and didn’t register his first one until the sixth inning — but he threw strikes and did a good job getting ahead in the count. The 26-year-old has been a surprising success story this season with a 3.17 ERA through 18 starts and six relief appearances. He’s a recommended play in his next start against the Giants in San Francisco.

Montero has been one of the real bright spots for Detroit this season, but he didn’t have it in this one, giving up nine hits, including a solo homer to Leody Taveras. He notched only one strikeout and issued one walk. The 26-year-old was coming off a stellar performance where he struck out eight and allowed one run over 5 1/3 innings against the Cubs last week. He’ll attempt to rebound when he closes out a two-start week with a challenging road tilt against the Athletics on Sunday.

Montero showed what he was capable of in his return to the Tigers’ rotation by dicing up the Cubs here. Seiya Suzuki took him deep as the second batter of the game before Montero ripped off a stretch of retiring 14 of 15 hitters from the first through the fifth inning. He might’ve had a chance to get through the sixth too, but misplayed a dribbler from Pete Crow-Armstrong to start the frame and was taken out one batter later with just 81 pitches. Nevertheless, he forced 14 total swings-and-misses including multiple with four different pitches. He had plenty of answers against hitters from both sides of the plate, showcased great command, and looks like he will stick in the rotation moving forward with Jack Flaherty heading to the injured list and an expected sell-off in Detroit. For next week, he’s scheduled for two starts. First against the Orioles at home followed by a difficult matchup with the Athletics on the road.

Montero came on to relieve Troy Melton with two outs in the sixth inning and the Tigers trailing 1-0. He didn’t allow a baserunner until the ninth, where he started the inning by hitting Jorge Soler before allowing a single to Jose Siri. He battled back though, getting Jo Adell on a pop out to second and Oswald Peraza on a ground out to third before retiring Denzer Guzman on a ground ball to shortstop to end it. Montero punched out five batters in the brilliant outing and didn’t walk a batter. He’s expected to rejoin the rotation next week against the Cubs in Chicago.

It was still a 3-0 game entering the ninth, but A.J. Hinch trusted Montero over Kenley Jansen today, apparently. Montero didn’t give him any reason not to, retiring nine of the 10 batters he faced. He got zero strikeouts and not even a single missed swing, but none of the nine balls in play against him turned into hits. The one batter to reach against him did so by walking. Montero could be a candidate for more three-inning saves as a reliever, though it’s also quite possible he’ll return to the rotation at some point.

This was always the logical move with Jack Flaherty back in the mix. It’ll be Framber Valdez taking the ball on Thursday against the Rangers on regular rest. Montero probably deserves a spot in Detroit’s rotation based on his recent performance but it doesn’t sound like they have any plans to move to a six-man mix for now.

Montero punched out three batters on the evening while allowing only one base on balls. The only real threat against him came as the Astros put two runners in scoring position with two outs in the seventh, but Montero got Cam Smith to ground out to end the inning. The 25-year-old righty got 13 whiffs on 96 pitches on the evening, posting a strong CSW of 31 percent. He’ll look to replicate this fine effort as he carries a 3.39 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and a 56/18 K/BB ratio (87 2/3 innings) into a tough matchup against the Yankees in New York on Wednesday.