Former Yankees Update: Jesus Montero

The New York Yankees once had a barren farm system with one exception, Jesus Montero. Brian Cashman set the Yankees world on fire back in 2012 when he traded Mr. Montero to the Seattle Mariners along with RHP Hector Noesi for RHP Michael Pineda and RHP Jose Campos. While Montero has basically been in the minor leagues or suspended ever since Pineda missed two seasons with the Yankees before becoming on the verge of being the team’s ace. While Pineda was winning games in the Bronx Mr. Montero was getting suspended for not being able to take an ice cream sandwich joke down in Class-A Ball but Montero has matured since and has made his way all the way back to the Major Leagues.

Montero was called back up to the majors on Thursday after a ton of hard work and a whole lot of growing up over the past calendar year. The Mariners were set to face a trio of left handed starting pitchers before the All-Star Break and the Mariners wanted to give the right handed hitting Montero at least a few games back with the big club after hitting .332 with 15 home runs and 68 RBI in 84 Triple-A games this season. Montero was leading the Pacific Coast League in hits, runs and RBI at the time of the call up and has a true shot to reclaim some of the hype he lost after “failing” as a top prospect in the Yankees system.

Yankees uniform or not Montero, to me anyway, is a Yankee. For that reason I will continue to root for him, even if Cashman did win that trade for Pineda.