Amid a flurry of moves last week, the Nationals signed right handed reliever Bryce Montes de Oca to a minor league contract with an invite to spring training. Even though Montes de Oca’s professional career has been marred by injuries, he is an intriguing option for the Nationals going into spring training.
Montes de Oca was drafted by the Mets in 2018, and a few years ago, he had the potential to be an elite Major League reliever. In AAA with the Mets in 2022, Montes de Oca posted a 3.44 ERA and struck out a whopping 56 batters in just 34 innings. The big right showcased that he had elite stuff that could get swings and misses from batters. However, Montes de Oca has had Tommy John surgery two times in the past three years. His workload is limited. Moreover, what is left of his stuff is unknown.
In 2022, Montes de Oca featured three pitches: a cutter, a sinker and a sweeper.The primary appeal from Montes de Oca came from his elite velocity and movement profile. His sinker averaged 99.9 miles per hour and had negative sixteen inches of horizontal breaker. This means that this pitch had movement towards right handed batters that was far above average. Montes de Oca paired this with a sweeper that had 12 inches of horizontal break, meaning it moved rapidly away from right handed batters. This extreme movement profile provided Montes de Oca with unique weapons against batters and allowed him to have high strikeout totals.
However, with elite velocity and movement, Montes de Oca also struggled with control. Across all levels of baseball throughout his career, he averaged 6.7 walks per nine innings. This total is untenable in the Majors and will not lead to success. Moreover, the Mets moved on from Montes de Oca, and no one is exactly sure if his stuff has diminished after two arm surgeries. The Nationals front office is taking a risk by signing him.
Still, this is a very low risk. Montes de Oca, for the most part, can only help the Nationals bullpen which has lots of question marks. New pitching coach Simon Matthews has a potential opportunity in Montes de Oca to help the Nationals find a cheap and effective bullpen arm. The right hander has shown flashes in the past, but the Nationals will need to work with him in spring training to make sure he can make the most out of his natural talents.